Trump's Saddam praise

Trump's Saddam praise earns bipartisan scorn

By Nick Gass

Donald Trump has been lamenting the death of Saddam Hussein for months. On Tuesday, in yet another sign that the general election is less hospitable territory than the Republican primary, his repeated praise of the late Iraqi dictator finally caught up with him.

"He was a bad guy — really bad guy," the presumptive Republican nominee told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. "But you know what? He did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. Over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism."

Trump has maintained that he opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the outset, although he offered support in September 2002 during an interview with Howard Stern. (“Are you for invading Iraq?” Stern asked. “Yeah, I guess so," Trump replied.)

Hillary Clinton's campaign tore into his latest comments, portraying them as only the latest instance of the Manhattan businessman cozying up to tyrants.

“Donald Trump's praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds. He has applauded the strength China showed in the Tiananmen Square massacre, offered admiration for Kim Jong Un's murderous consolidation of power in North Korea, and consistently lavished praise on Vladimir Putin," Jake Sullivan, Clinton's top foreign policy aide, said in a statement. "Tonight, Trump yet again lauded Saddam Hussein as a great killer of terrorists, noting with approval that he never bothered to read anyone their rights. In reality, Hussein's regime was a sponsor of terrorism – one that paid families of suicide bombers who attacked Israelis, among other crimes. Trump's cavalier compliments for brutal dictators, and the twisted lessons he seems to have learned from their history, again demonstrate how dangerous he would be as Commander-in-Chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who spent part of his morning condemning the Trump campaign's handling of a social media post he denounced as anti-Semitic, was unequivocal in denouncing the Saddam remarks as well.

“He was one of the 20th century’s most evil people. He was up there. He committed mass genocide against his own people using chemical weapons,” Ryan said in an interview with Fox News' "The Kelly File," adding, “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy.”

Even so, he added, Trump is still "far better to be commander in chief than Hillary Clinton in my mind," adding that when the presumptive nominee "says things that I don’t agree with I’m going to speak my mind."