Donald Trump shrugs off evidence he supported Iraq invasion in 2002

“It was probably the first time somebody asked me the question”, Trump said. “Then shortly after that I started saying – I started really studying and looking at it – I didn’t like it because you’re going to ruin the balance of the Middle East. Which is what happened”. “Nobody cared about my comments”, Trump said in response, arguing that he vocally opposed the war in 2003.

“I could have said that”, Trump said of his 2002 interview supporting the invasion of Iraq. But Buzzfeed found an interview from the early 2000s in which the real estate developer offers lukewarm support to shock radio host Howard Stern.

Trump called Rove, who was a senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, “a very negative force” and a “loser”.

At at CNN town hall interview in Columbia, South Carolina, Trump was confronted with the meeting, managing only to say, “I could have stated that”, and pointing out he was not a politician at the time.

On Thursday, BuzzFeed News also uncovered audio file of another interview Trump gave to the Howard Stern Show in September 2002, in which he expressed support for an invasion of Iraq.

“But by the time the war started I was against the war, and there are articles, I mean there are headlines in 2003, 2004, that I was totally against the war”.

“Are for invading Iraq?” Stern asked Trump on the first anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Replied Trump: “I could have said that”.

During the CBS debate, Trump said: “I’m the only one on this stage that said, ‘Do not go into Iraq”. “You know, I wish the first time it was done correctly”.

Now will you stop claiming you’re the only GOP candidate against the Iraq war before it began? Trump was asked, to which he answered, “Yeah, I guess so”.

Trump said that the pontiff was a “wonderful guy”, adding that he would meet with the Pope “anytime he wants”.