is completely contradicted the next day by somebody on his staff. talk about the mosul contradiction this weekend. i could list a hundred of them starting with the press and trump and mattis. but let s just talk about mosul right now. this is a seemingly pretty big contradiction and involves something seriously which is how donald trump will conduct himself at commander in chief. iraqi forces have the latest effort to expel the islamic state. it comes as whether information should be revealed in advance of efforts to fight american opposition forces overseas, including the terror group. during thursday s news conference, president trump pushed back when he was asked to offer details of what these battle plans were going to be. i m not going to tell you about what response i m going to do. i m not talking about i m going into mosul for four months. we are going to attack mosul four months and three months later, we are going to attack
exact same statements and hasn t tried to fill that knowledge vacuum at all. he just has absolutely no curiosity about these operations, where we have substantial number of american forces helping iraqi forces on the ground there. but john heilemann, again, the trump smoke screens, the trump distractions, whether you re talking about the press, we are talking about the press instead of an fbi investigation. here, we are talking about what trump says about mosul that is not accurate. and, yet, the breaking news is that barack obama and donald trump together will be remembered, if donald trump can keep it together long enough to stay in office, donald trump, along with barack obama, will be remembered as the two presidents, most likely who defeat isis, certainly on the ground. we have made great progress under barack obama and i suspect we will make great progress under james mattis and donald
because we want to get the leaders of isis. okay. well, in the meantime the following day, they are out of there. look at mosul. for years i ve heard that is where the isis leaders are. they are staying at mosul. so what do we do? instead of element of surprise, what do we do? what a disaster! but why can t we do it like secretly, right? why can t we do this quietly? i ve been reading about we are going to attack mosul now and you have to, for three months. and i m saying, you know, the element of surprise, right? joe, is this something like media nit-picking or does this expose something about the campaign promise and tactic of the president? i think what it does, it shows, ones again, there a huge difference between running for president and being president. barack obama swore he was going to shut down gitmo right away.
joe. mark halpern and john heilemann, if you re like me, you have spent this presidents day weekend, obviously, in mourning, listening to abbott gold. i know i have. and watching old beta max tapes of bjorn borg. we need to be in solidarity with our sweden brothers? i bought something this weekend from ikea. there are so many contradictions in this administration and actually i think right now the biggest problem, mark, the right hand doesn t know what the left hand is ever doing. donald trump comes out and says one thing about mosul and then
response. i don t say i m going in mosul in four months. we are going to attack mosul in four months. then three months later, we are going to attack mosul in one month. next week, we are going to attack mosul. in the meantime, mosul is very very difficult. you know why? because i don t talk about military, and i don t talk about certain other things. you re going to be surprised to hear that. and, by the way, my whole campaign, i d say that, so i don t have to tell you. reporter: right, so there will be a response? president trump: i don t have to tell you. i don t want to be one of those guys that says, yes, here s what we re going to do. i don t have to do that. i don t have to tell you what i m going to do in north korea. reporter: in other words, there will be a response. president trump: wait a minute, i don t have to tell you what i m going to do in north korea. and i don t have to tell what i m going to do with iran. you know why? because they shouldn t know. an