Trump Backtracks From Lie About ‘Top Secret’ Video of $400 Million Cash on Jet in Iran

Admission He Lied? Not Quite.

Donald Trump Friday morning, in an effort to pivot away from the most disastrous three weeks of his campaign, did something almost unprecedented: while not admitting he lied about a story he’s been telling at rallies for several days now, he backtracked.

Losing to Clinton in the polls, often by double digits this week, Trump pulled back from the story he made up about seeing a “top secret” video filmed by the government of Iran that showed $400 million in cash on a plane in Iran.

“It looks like we paid $400 million for the hostages,” Trump falsely claimed on Wednesday, telling supporters that America paid ransom for the U.S. service members temporarily detained after illegally entering Iranian waters.

“I’ll never forget the scene this morning,” Trump on Wednesday told supporters at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida. “Iran — I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape, of taking that money off that airplane. Right?”

“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, you don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right?”

“And they have a perfect tape, done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape, it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”

Even after his campaign spokesperson admitted later on Wednesday what Trump saw was b-roll on Fox News, Trump repeated his lie all day Thursday.

But from Trump no apology to the U.S. government, no apology to the U.S. military, no apology to supporters he lied to, and no apology to all the Americans overseas, whose lives he put in danger by lying that the U.S. government will pay ransom for hostages, which it will not, as President Obama stated at a press conference at the Pentagon Thursday.

Some responses via Twitter: