Donald Trump Defends His National Security Positions as Hillary Clinton Attacks

Clinton is working to stoke fears that Trump fails the "commander-in-chief test"

Laura Meckler

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

Biography Laura Meckler
@laurameckler
LauraMecklerWSJ
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May 23, 2016 7:00 am ET

131 COMMENTS

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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, and Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump Photo: jim urquhart/Reuters

Hillary Clinton is leveling a withering attack on Donald Trump’s temperament and judgment when it comes to national security, calling him unqualified to be commander in chief and stoking fears that he is too impulsive to control the nuclear launch codes. Mr. Trump made clear in an interview Sunday that he won’t take the incoming fire lightly.

With national security looming as a potential vulnerability, Mr. Trump was unsparing in his criticism of the former secretary of state, saying she “knows nothing about national security” and dismissing her experience as irrelevant because “she’s incompetent.”

“She is grossly incompetent when it comes to national security. And ISIS sits back and laughs at her,” he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

The sharp fire suggests that neither candidate will pull punches on the subject as what is already a nasty campaign between them intensifies over the summer and fall.

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Polling suggests Mr. Trump has more ground to make up. A New York Times/CBS News survey released last week found just 27% of registered voters think Mr. Trump has the right kind of temperament and personality to be a good president, versus 48% who said that of Mrs. Clinton.

The Clinton campaign, seeing an advantage, is now delivering attacks on a near daily basis. The candidate and her advisers cite his support for a ban on Muslims coming to the U.S.; his claims that he opposed the Libya invasion and the Iraq war, when evidence suggests he backed them both; his willingness to pull back from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; and his comfort with additional nations acquiring nuclear weapons.

In an interview with CNN last week, Mrs. Clinton labeled his outlook “irresponsible, reckless, dangerous.” In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, she said his positions pose “immediate dangers.” Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, said Friday that he doesn’t have the “qualifications or the temperament” to be commander in chief.

Campaigning last week in Kentucky, Mrs. Clinton offered an extended riff on her own experience as President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, recounting the decision to attack what intelligence officials thought—but could not be sure—was al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound, and her own recommendation to go forward.

She also talked about flying to Israel from Cambodia in 2012 to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, citing her work with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and asking the audience to imagine how hard that would have been with a president who bars Muslims’s admission to the U.S.

“What you hear from Donald Trump is not just offensive. It is dangerous,” she said last week in Fort Mitchell, Ky. “This will be a big part of the general election.”

Presidential elections rarely turn on national security, but the Clinton campaign aims to persuade enough voters that Mr. Trump fails the “commander-in-chief test,” a threshold competency that one can handle the job, and that he would represent an unacceptable risk to American security.

Geoff Garin, a pollster for the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA, said he has conducted focus groups and polling that affirm voter anxiety about how Mr. Trump would manage a crisis. “Concerns about his temperament, or lack of temperament, kick in most meaningfully for voters when they think about safety and security,” he said.

In the interview with the WSJ on Sunday, Mr. Trump defended himself on particular points of policy. For instance, he repeated that his willingness to pull back from NATO is justified as leverage to get other nations to foot the bill for their security.

“When they don’t pay up, they’ve backed out of their obligations, then we no longer have an obligation to defend them,” he said. “You always have to be prepared to walk from something. I don’t want to get out of NATO. I want the countries of NATO to pay us.”

Asked whether it was in the U.S.’s national security interest to keep those nations protected, Mr. Trump said that was outdated thinking. “We can’t afford that anymore, I hate to say it,” he said.

He also made clear that he will try to use Mrs. Clinton’s 2002 vote in the Senate to authorize the Iraq war against her—a tact Mr. Obama successfully used in their 2008 Democratic primary and that Sen. Bernie Sanders has pressed less successfully in their contest this year.

Asked about the Clinton charge that he is impulsive, Mr. Trump said, “I’m not impulsive, she was impulsive. She voted for the war and I was against the Iraq war. She’s impulsive.”

Mr. Trump cited news reports from 2004, after the war began. There is no evidence he opposed the war before the invasion, and in a September 2002 interview unearthed by BuzzFeed, he was asked by radio host Howard Stern if he was for invading Iraq. “Yeah, I guess so,” he replied. “I wish the first time it was done correctly.”

A spokeswoman reiterated that he opposed the war ahead of time.

Asked about Mrs. Clinton’s assessment of his temperament, Mr. Trump said that she is confused. “She likes to equate toughness with temperament and she thinks she’s gonna scare people,” he said. “Well, we need to have a tough tone.”

Mr. Trump also dismissed the value of making an overseas trip. His campaign already canceled one planned for Israel late last year. He said Sunday that it would not be a good idea “at this moment,” but held out the idea that a trip might still be arranged.

“I don’t think it registers with the voters to be honest with you. What I really want to do is focus on our country and the election, but I might,” he said. “I’ve been invited by numerous countries to go.”

Mr. Trump also responded to the Clinton campaign’s criticism last week that he was wrong to make the near-immediate call that a missing airliner was linked to terrorism before having the facts.

“Why should I be politically correct?” he said, adding that there was nothing wrong with the timing of his statement because “I’m turning out to be right. I’m always right… you’ll see, you’ll see. I’m always right.”

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131 comments

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Scott West subscriber

she “knows nothing about national security” and dismissing her experience as irrelevant because “she’s incompetent.”

I not sure that is completely accurate. She did relay the truth about Benghazi attacks to Chelsea immediately even if she perpetuated a lie to the American people. Also, she did press the RESET button with Putin and now they only buzz our military assets instead of firing on them.

Isn't that enough??

Tim Iversen subscriber

Donald Trump is heads and tails above Hillary Clinton on national security and foreign policy. Trump has declared he will guard our borders and prevent ILLEGAL immigration, unlike Democrats like Hillary. Trump will confront our enemies instead of hide terrorist events like Hillary did in Benghazi, Libya. Trump will make America great like we were when Ronald Reagan was president. Reagan created peace thru strength. He stood up to the Soviet Union, at the time a powerful entity that was a threat to the world. Hillary will bring more chaos in the world such as Obama has brought via appeasement toward muslim terrorist organizations and countries riven by islamic terrorism.

Trump towers above Clinton on issues relating to national security and foreign policy. It's why he will win!

John Adams subscriber

Trump rise parallels the rise of Hilter. We need to defeat this neo-Nazi.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/why-comparing-donald-trump-to-hitler-makes-perfect-sense/

Matthew Rensen subscriber

@John Adams and those who read this: Folks, It has been said that liberals will say anything to get their agenda moving, after all "The ends justifies the means" Don't get duped.

@Matthew Rensen @John Adams

Poppycock! Trump's rise in fact parallels Ronald Reagan's. Americans are drawn to his candidacy because he wants to make America great again. He will if we let him.

Stuart Scudder subscriber

@John Adams

John

Hiel Hilter!

The US will use our Glorious NATO to take over the world in the next 70 years. Our history's greatest nation uber alles. It is our "Shining City on the Hill's" destiny to rule the world for a thousand years with our Glorious Brave Europeans and their newly glorious brave refugees and our Glorious Arsenal of Nukes.

Easy to understand why the name of Hilter will exceed the glory of the namesake Hitler.

NATO

Matthew Cush user

Trump's plan on the nukes reminds me of that old episode of "All in the Family", when Archie Bunker presents his "plan" to prevent plane hijackings: arm all the passengers, so no one has any advantage over anyone else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lDb0Dn8OXE

Jill Garcia user

Dear Hillary Clinton,

Nobody cares about your right-wing policy positions here in California. We are about to knock you out of the race with our 500 delegates. I'm sorry it had to end like this, but we know that Bernie Sanders reflects our values and is also poised to beat Trump in the general.

Sincerely,

California Democrats

@Jill Garcia Ah, yes California, the place I left 40 years ago. Even then it was the land of fruits, flakes and nuts, the Walking granola bars.

Bernie Sanders is a socialist which if you know anything about history, is nothing to be proud of. Socialism will make everyone equal, equally poor and so far in debt that no one will be able to recover from in a life time.

Claire Potter subscriber

Hillary was the worst SOS we have ever had combined with the worst president ever. They managed to make everything far worst than ever before. President Bush was winning the war on terror and the region was stable. Hillary and obama stabbed Mubarak in the back and were complicit in the murder of our Ally Qaddafi and Ambassador Stevens.The created the chaos in the region and encouraged the muslim invasion of western Europe. I find it hard to comprehend how anyone could think she has a leg to stand on, with regards to anything she has done in her life.

Gregory Worthington subscriber

@Claire Potter Yes, because Bush is known for what a great job he did in Iraq. There was no ISIS in the middle east before Bush's Iraq fiasco.

Our "ally" Qaddafi? The same one who bombed Pan Am and slaughtered 270 people? I can see why people with your intellect and knowledge of history think Bush did a great job. Since you call this murderer an ally, I have to ask if you work for Al Qaeda or the Taliban?

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-12552587

Trump will do a much better with foreign policy.

Trump 2016!

@Gregory Worthington @Claire Potter I'll go slow for the one's not paying attention in class. When we overthrew Saddam, Qaddafi "got religion" and turned over a new leaf. Perhaps you were in a coma during that time? Here's a photo off obama shaking hands with our ally Qaddafi. The same ally he and Hillary later had killed.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/09/obama-shakes-hands-libyas-qaddafi.html

President Bush tried the same tactic against Assad of Syria, but the democrats sent pelosi over to scotch the deal.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pelosi-defies-bush-meets-syrian-leader/

Once obama was elected, he sent over kerry to tell Assad obama had his back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10283045/John-Kerry-and-Bashar-al-Assad-dined-in-Damascus.html

Think how Assad felt when obama tried to overthrow him.

Think about how our other allies viewed obama and Hillary's tactics of stabbing our allies in the back.

TBC

@Gregory Worthington @Claire Potter

Here's a little blurb where Biden says how great obama is on Iraq.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/biden-once-called-iraq-one-of-obamas-great-achievements/article/794909

And here's is what obama said about ISIS and then lied about later.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/09/03/spinning-obamas-reference-to-isis-as-a-jv-team/

To conclude, President Bush was winning the war on terror. obama said it was all good after he took over and then everything turned to merde..

Try to stay awake in class. You'll do better.

Trump is smarter than all those so called politicians. Letting everyone have nuclear weapons is brilliant in that we can bring our troops home and the rest of the world can just blow each other up. We should just look after our country and make it great again!

With the wall, we won't have to worry about Mexicans stealing our jobs by sending their rapists here.

@Gregory Worthington This comment must be from a Hillary supporter, cleverly disguised to make Trump supporters look stupid. I can't see any other explanation.

Shame on you, Hillary supporter, for misrepresenting yourself!

William Braun subscriber

Can anyone be satisfied with this choice of candidates? I'm waiting to wake up from this nightmare. This is for the President of the United States, not some country club on Long Island.

@William Braun Except Trump is the only candidate who will make this country great again and help the real Americans take our country back.

@Gregory Worthington @William Braun How? By sitting down for a chat with Kim Jong-un? By becoming Vladimir Putin's lap-dog?

He's not even elected yet and he's already giving away the store.

Oh, that's right. Trump probably doesn't know what a store is. That's where some people buy food and where other people work hard getting it to them. These are 95% of the population who don't have servants to bring their food to them.

Timothy Boucher user

Crooked Democrat or Crazy democrat. Take your pick.

@Timothy Boucher Basically you're saying you don't have the capability to discern between two diametrically opposed candidates. That says more about you than them.

Steven Chen subscriber

It seems that HRC is attacking Trump's weaknesses exactly what the data and surveys recommended.

It is too early to know whether this kinds of attack can damage Trump much.

Guess we just have to wait and see.

greg mcelvy subscriber

I can't believe that I just read a post where the writer thought it was a good idea to have an unstable guy with his mitts on the nuclear football. Then he must ecstatic that Kim Jun Un is trying to develop a hydrogen bomb or that Pakistan is a coup away from the Taliban possessing nuclear weapons.

Bernard Nachman subscriber

@greg mcelvy .... now there will be a list of hillary lovers spouting the hillary talking points.... brilliant folks they are ... and of course hillary refuses to answer any questions about her own positions continually parroting "trump is unqualified, trump is unqualified... awk awk ".... problem is, in all the situations were her decisions were critical... the outcome was disastrous.... hugging hrc is like hugging a cactus... never has a good outcome.

STEVEN FRANKEL subscriber

React to intelligence, Greg? Like the video that caused the Benghazi murders of our Ambassador and 3 others. Just brilliant. Either she bought the lies Obama told her about a video or she knew it was bogus. So either she is credulous or mendacious, take your pick. Either way she is disqualified from holding an office of a public trust.

Henry Dafler subscriber

@greg mcelvy Then again, how much blackmail material do these bad guys have on Hillary? They've read her emails and given money to her her foundation. They may want something in order to keep quiet or in return for their money.

@greg mcelvy @Bernard Nachman Name Hillary's accomplishments. Just try to.

@Bernard Nachman @greg mcelvy

Secretary Clinton has at least had to act on intelligence, respond to threats, talk to representatives of different countries, develop a rapport with world leaders. What can Trump say?

He got as much experience at foreign policy as I do and that means he's got nothing. He's even talking like its a good idea for Germany or Japan to have nuclear weapons which means he's daft.

The idea is that we elect a President to make us less nervous not more.

@Henry Dafler @greg mcelvy Now you are just making stuff up. The truth is that Secretary Clinton is better prepared to be President than anyone in the history of this country.

Rob Lawton subscriber

@greg mcelvy

I can't believe that a woman who made the 3am phone call such a central part of her propaganda, then fails miserably when said ill-fated call comes. She then proceeds to publicly blame it all on a video while secretly telling Chelsea that it was terrorism! Wow!

@greg mcelvy @Bernard Nachman

Yeah you are better than Trump as you lay on the beach sipping Pina Colada's on all that S&P index fund billions of loot that you made outperforming Trump.

:'l)

@greg mcelvy You can always trust Trump to do the right thing. Trump is so smart that he has a University named after him and he's the only person who can make this country great again.

@STEVEN FRANKEL Actually the video did play a part in the attack (actually two attacks). "But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video," Times reporter David Kirkpatrick wrote in a story on Khattala on Tuesday."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/khattala-benghazi-video-new-york-times

But Republicans refused to believe the people that were there. So we spend 10's of millions of dollars finding out no more than we knew a couple of months after the attack. I much rather have a leader who had been through something like that than someone who's going to look like a deer in the headlights when the first thing comes up.

Clinton is on a first name basis with our allies who at least trust that she is level headed and predictable. They know zero about Trump except that he is a blowhard with a thin skin. That you might have someone like that building walls on the Mexican border , banning Muslims, and deporting millions of people if frightening.

@greg mcelvy It reminds me of that old episode of "All in the Family", when Archie Bunker presents his "plan" to prevent plane hijackings: arm all the passengers, so no one has any advantage over anyone else.

Julie Keene subscriber

He is SUCH a big baby! There is nothing about this man that is presidential.

He looks more presidential in pants.

@Julie Keene

The trend is his friend, the trend is Hillary's end.

@STEVEN FRANKEL As opposed to no pants like Bill? To the jumpsuits worn by Hillary?

Raymond Klett subscriber

You continue to deride Trump but fail to do the same for Hillary. Just admit it, it isn't difficult, you're a Hil-liar-y toady. Your ersatz discernment is laughable.

RODGER POTOCKI subscriber

Clinton has a good deal of nerve given the Benghazi lies and killings, the failure of the Russian re-set button, the Libyan chaos, no Middle east peace, Iraq/ISIS, the Egyptian confusion and the failure to bring Afghanistan under control. Does she have one success other than in the delusional minds of her supporters and in raising money for herself and hubby?

Joseph Miksis subscriber

Donald Trump is the real life version of "Chauncey the Gardiner", reprising the Peter Sellers role from the movie "Being There".

Like Chauncey, Donald is a simple minded man whose knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. Just like Gardiner, Trump's "simple brand of wisdom" seems to resonate with today's jaded American public.

Perhaps America deserves a complete dolt like Donald Trump as our president. It would serve us right.

We still have time to build and stock our back yard bunkers for the inevitable melt down a Trump victory would cause. And remember to put your money and your valuables in your mattress, to barter with others if that's what occurs.

@Joseph Miksis "I like to watch".

I think we have stepped into the twilight zone. Trump can barely complete a sentence without congratulating himself yet Republicans eat this stuff up. It's like they are spoiling to elect Tony Soprano. I've have honestly never seen anything like it.

@Joseph Miksis

I can see how after Obama's election you would have doubt about voters' judgement, but I would say it's about 8 years to late there Joe! Trump has a lot of work to do to try to clean up some of the damage Obama and Hillary inflicted, and there's the bitter acts of sabotage he will undoubtedly perpetrate too!

"“When they don’t pay up, they’ve backed out of their obligations, then we no longer have an obligation to defend them,” he said. “You always have to be prepared to walk from something."

We are not in a position to back away from anything. Our hegemony is the reason why the world takes us seriously. We walk away from our allies and they will find other allies. The world isn't a real estate development.

Richard Rigazio subscriber

We need a President who believes he is ALWAYS right.

No, just had one. We really don't need another.

What national security positions?

A more pertinent question: What "accomplishments" as SoS? The ME greatly deteriorated under the Arab Winter in which Hillary and Obama spurred the masses to overturn their governments. Egypt luckily reversed Clinton/Obama support for Muslim Bro-hood Morsi, but their economy continues to suffer.

Hmm, the commander in chief test. Like Mrs. Clinton's prior advert about who do you want answering that 3 AM call? How did she handle HER 3 AM call from Ambassador Stephens in Benghazi? Can we elaborate on that failed, real life test, Mrs. Clinton? Or was that when you had that drunken stumble and had your little stroke that left you out of commission or without memory of critical events for, how long was that?

I would rather have our enemies worried into inactivity about an "unstable guy" in the White House that might incinerate them if they acted against our interests than have them hot to trot and do more mischief knowing how much it will cost to buy Mrs. Clinton's inaction.

This article just reaffirmed why she is the absolute wrong person to have in a position of authority over anyone. We don't need some criminal stumble bum in the White House.

@STEVEN FRANKEL

I thought you knew. Mrs. Clinton and Pres. Obama, upon hearing about the attacks in Benghazi, said, "The hell with them. It's late. Back to bed." The military begged them to send in help, noting that there were troops just minutes away.

I'm as sure of my "facts" as you are of yours.

@Julie Keene @STEVEN FRANKEL

One thing is for sure: They wanted us to think that a video did it...at least until after the election was over. Hillary did at least confide to her daughter Chelsea the truth though. Maybe they should have sent HER rather than Rice, and Carney who just gave us a bunch of Baghdad Bob shows.