President Trump, on Monday, said he is mulling the release of the video of the U.S. military raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“We’re thinking about it. We may,” Trump told reporters. “We may take certain parts of it and release it, yes.”
On Sunday, Trump said, in a White House address, that he had viewed the raid from the Situation Room, saying it was like “watching a movie.”
“It was an amazing display of intelligence and military power and coordination, getting along with people,” Trump said Monday at Andrews Air Force Base before departing for Chicago.
“We had a great weekend for our country,” Trump said. “We captured a man that should’ve been caught a long time ago. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. He’s done tremendous damage. … So that was a big, big day and a big weekend, and we’re very happy about it.”
Trump on Sunday gave a detailed account of the raid.
“When we landed with eight helicopters, a large crew of brilliant fighters ran out of those helicopters and blew holes into the side of the building, not wanting to go through the main door because that was booby-trapped. And there was something — it was something really amazing to see. I got to watch it, along with General [Mark] Milley, Vice President [Mike] Pence, others, in the Situation Room. And we watched it so clearly,” he said.
Trump was asked if the soldiers had body cameras, to which he replied: “Well, I don’t want to say how, but we had absolutely perfect — as though you were watching a movie. It was — that — the technology there alone is really great.” The president said:
A big part of the trip that was of great danger was the — it was approximately an hour and 10-minute flight, and we were flying over very, very dangerous territory. In fact, some of our leaders said that that could be the most dangerous — flying in and flying out. And that’s why, last night, we were so quiet about it. We didn’t say anything, and I didn’t make my remark until after they had landed safely in a certain area.
Although Trump gave a detailed account of the raid, the official White House photographer for Barack Obama implied that Trump might have staged a photo of administration and military officials.
Pete Souza, who has fiercely criticized Trump, wrote on Twitter: “The raid, as reported, took place at 3:30PM Washington time. The photo, as shown in the camera IPTC data, was taken at ’17:05:24′.”
The raid, as reported, took place at 3:30 PM Washington time. The photo, as shown in the camera IPTC data, was taken at “17:05:24”. https://t.co/XV0MFfFiTt
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
Souza also retweeted a post from former Obama adviser David Axelrod, who wrote: “Which of these pictures looks real and which looks posed?”
Which of these pictures looks real and which looks posed? pic.twitter.com/2xnYUAq3Dj
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) October 28, 2019
Later, Souza wrote: “Just to be clear, I didn’t say it was staged. Trump himself said he didn’t arrive to the Situation Room until “around 5pm”. So it’s definitely possible the photo was taken during the raid.”
Just to be clear, I didn’t say it was staged. Trump himself said he didn’t arrive to the Situation Room until “around 5pm”. So it’s definitely possible the photo was taken during the raid. https://t.co/h3yx8BbLAT
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019
Later, Souza walked back his earlier tweets.
“The latest reporting from the NYT: the helicopters left Iraq at 5PM (Washington time), and they reported it was about a 70-minute flight to Syria. So actual raid had to happen some time after 6:10PM.”
The latest reporting from the NYT: the helicopters left Iraq at 5PM (Washington time), and they reported it was about a 70-minute flight to Syria. So actual raid had to happen some time after 6:10PM. https://t.co/rErbPLJlpD
— Pete Souza (@PeteSouza) October 27, 2019