During tonight's Commander-in-Chief forum, Hillary Clinton challenged Donald Trump on his consistent denials that he supported the Iraq War before the invasion.
"I have taken my responsibility for my decision. He refuses to take responsibility for his support," Clinton said. But Trump disputed Clinton's account, saying he was consistently against the invasion.
So, did Trump always oppose the invasion? Let's re-up our previous fact-checks.
FACTS: The only report that found Trump speaking about the Iraq war before it happened was by Buzzfeed News, which reported that in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Trump was directly asked if he would support the invasion of Iraq, which didn't begin until March 2003. "Yeah, I guess so," Trump responded. "I wish the first time it was done correctly."
Shortly after the Iraq war began in 2003, Trump began slowly condemning the decision and told the Washington Post in March of 2003 that he thought the Iraq war was "a mess."
VERDICT: False. Trump admitted to supporting the Iraq war in 2002 before the war began though he did progressively change his decision publicly within the next year.
It bears mentioning that Trump vice presidential pick Mike Pence strongly supported the Iraq War — he co-sponsored and voted in favor of the bill authorizing the Iraq War when he was a House representative from Indiana, and opposed measures to set a timeline to withdraw troops.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article stated that the Iraq invasion began in January 2003. It began in March 2003.
