Wall Street Journal: Trump Uttered Biggest Doozy of All

'We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President'
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2019 9:33 AM CST
Wall Street Journal : Trump Uttered Biggest Doozy of All
President Trump listens during a briefing with reporters about border security in the briefing room of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump is used to taking flak from the editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. But a devastating criticism from the conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal was generating attention on Friday. The editorial came in response to the president's comments during a Cabinet meeting that the Russians "were right" to be in Afghanistan in the 1980s because "terrorists were going into Russia." Safe to say the editors of the Journal disagree: "We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President." The Russians were not right to be there, says the editorial. "The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with three divisions in December 1979 to prop up a fellow communist government."

The invasion, widely condemned by non-communist nations, showed just how dangerous the Kremlin could be, and "Mr. Trump’s cracked history can’t alter that reality." The editors also fault Trump for making light of other nations' contribution of soldiers to the American effort in Afghanistan. "They tell me a hundred times, ‘Oh, we sent you soldiers. We sent you soldiers,'" said Trump in the meeting. The president's "mockery is a slander against every ally that has supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan with troops who fought and often died," says the editorial. Read it here. (More President Trump stories.)

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