McEnany said, among other things, that Trump “is decades and decades and decades against record – against foreign wars”.
She continued: “You have this president who, when Washington was unanimous in saying, ‘We are going into Iraq,’ this president said, ‘No, that’s not the right decision. ‘
Facts first: Trump never publicly opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003 before it took place. Rather, he expressed tentative support for the invasion at the end of 2002 and waved in early 2003. He only became an explicit opponent of the war more than a year after it began. And although McEnany did not define “Washington” exactly, there was no unanimity among Washington politicians about entering Iraq: 156 members of the House and Senate voted against the 2002 resolution to elect President George W. Bush. To authorize Bush to use military force against Iraq.
Trump himself has repeatedly claimed that he opposed the war before it began. But as we have written before, this is not true. (We also wrote about the inaccurate allegations made by his opponent, Vice President Joe Biden, about his own position on the war.)
When radio host Howard Stern asked Trump in September 2002 if he was “invading Iraq,” Trump replied, “Yes, I think so. I wish it was done correctly the first time. ‘ (Trump’s comments on Stern were revealed during the 2016 campaign by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Nathan McDermott, who both worked for BuzzFeed at the time.)
Trump did not express a firm opinion on the looming war in a Fox interview in January 2003, saying that “whether you attack or not attack” and that Bush “may have to do something or not do something.” The day after the March 2003 invasion, Trump told Fox: “It looks like a huge success from a military standpoint.”
And in his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Trump argued that a military strike on Iraq would be necessary.
Shortly after the 2003 invasion, Trump began expressing skeptical or critical thoughts about the war, calling it a “mess” in a short commentary at an Academy Awards post-party later in the week of the invasion, but he did not become an explicit opponent until 2004. You can read more about his evolution here.
The congressional vote
Both the House and the Senate voted to approve the use of military force against Iraq, so it is certainly fair to say that there was great support in Washington for the war.
But it was never ‘unanimous’ support.
In the House, 133 members, including 126 Democrats, voted no to the 2002 authorization resolution. So did 23 senators, including 21 Democrats.
More members of the Democratic House voted no than yes (81). Among the members who voted no is the most powerful Democrat in Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was the House minority whip during the 2002 referendum.
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