I saw hostage plane in Geneva, not plane shuttling $400M to Iran

U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has backtracked on a claim that he saw video footage of a U.S. cash payment to Iran, BBC reported on Friday.

The U.S. indeed paid that money to Tehran in January, in a publicly announced settlement of a decades-old global arbitration case dating back to when Iranians paid Washington for military equipment they never received.

Trump first mentioned this footage from the Iranian government at a rally the previous day in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The footage from the hostage release in Geneva doesn’t match Trump’s description of what he saw. “Maybe that’s what he’s doin” with this – you know, this bogus video claim”, Kaine added. The U.S. had no way to directly deliver cold hard currency to Iran. “It’s a tape that was a ideal angle, nice and steady”. “And the only bit of news that is relevant on this is the fact that we paid cash”. Trump was the only one to say he saw it all unfold on a secret camera.

Donald Trump holds up a Purple Heart during a campaign event.

Hicks called the video, “merely the b-roll footage included in every broadcast”. And they have a flawless tape, obviously done by a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. “And if that plane takes off then we are going to let you go”, said Abedini. “The point is, $400 million in cash that most likely ended up in terrorist camps used against the west was given in exchange for hostages and the President of the United States lied to the American people, that’s the point”.

According to CNN, it was a rare reversal for Trump, who has stood by inaccurate or unproven claims previously – insisting he’d seen videos of Muslim Americans in New Jersey cheering the September 11, 2001, attacks.

While the Obama administration has denied the settlement reached with Iran at the Hague was related to the prisoners’ release, one of the four US citizens the Iranians let go told Fox Business News their release was delayed by almost a day at the airport in Tehran while officials waited for “another plane” to land.

President Obama at a Thursday news conference bristled as he explained the decision to send the $400 million to Iran as part of an arms deal with that country from the 1970s.

“I’ll never forget the scene this morning”, Trump told the crowd on Wednesday.

The message from Trump came in the form of a tweet earlier this morning. “How do you do that?” he said at a campaign rally.

“It’s a military tape”.

“You know, it was interesting because a tape was made”, Trump said during a rally in Portland, Maine.

“Clinton’s home email server that she lied to the American people about was a profound national security risk”, Trump said.

Trump is downgrading his claims here, saying “I guess” it was money coming off the plane and that the footage “has to be” given to us by Iran.