The terrorist group ISIS has been responsible for multiple terror attacks and killings over the last several years. One of the questions that occasionally pops up when talking about ISIS is... where did they come from? What is their background?
If you listen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the blame for the rise of ISIS can be laid squarely at the feet of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Trump specifically cites Clinton as the main reason that ISIS came to be. During several recent campaign speeches, including one in Tampa this week, Trump echoed the same message about ISIS and Clinton. Trump has said this on the campaign trail:
"Hillary Clinton invented ISIS with her stupid policies."
Our partners at PolitiFact took a look at Trump's claim to see if it was accurate. PolitiFact reporter Josh Gillin says that Trump's claim rates FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter. Gillin says that Trump's claim is based on the time when Clinton was a Senator from New York.
"On one hand, Donald Trump is referring to the 2002 Iraq War vote," said Gillin. "The vote was, for lack of a better term, a popular vote among senators to vote to go to war. The record shows that Clinton was just one of many senators who voted to go to war against Iraq, so she was not the only one and acting alone."
Gillin says that as far as the actual creation of ISIS, that was an evolution out of an Al-Qaeda group in Iraq that started around 2004.
"The group that came to be ISIS evolved out of Al-Qaeda, and really, it was focused on Iraq and the conflict in Syria," said Gillin. "Now, in those intervening years, Clinton became Secretary of State under Barack Obama. Clinton actually wanted to arm Syrian rebels, an idea that was ultimately overruled by President Obama. Clinton was for regime change in Libya, which is what brought ISIS into that country. These are the policy decisions that Trump is pointing to, but it wasn't one specific policy that created ISIS."
Gillin notes that experts say that those policy decisions may have had a long-term influence on the evolution of ISIS, but to blame one person - in this case, Clinton - for the rise of ISIS is quite a stretch. Because of that, PolitiFact rates Trump's statement FALSE on the Truth-O-Meter.
SOURCES: Clinton responsible for the formation of ISIS?
- PolitiFact article
- 60 Minutes, Donald Trump and Mike Pence interview, July 17, 2016
- Donald Trump press release, "Hillary’s foreign policy: a before and after look at the world," July 10, 2016
- Donald Trump press release, "Clinton’s reckless invasion of Libya, and the terror haven she left behind," July 19, 2016
- Donald Trump, Speech, June 22, 2016
- CNN, "Did Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton create ISIS?" Jan. 4, 2016
- YouTube, U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke’s speech at Republican National Convention, July 18, 2016
- New York Times, "House Benghazi Report Finds No New Evidence of Wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton," June 28, 2016
- New York Times, "Hillary Clinton, ‘smart power’ and a dictator’s fall," Feb. 28, 2016
- House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Oct. 10, 2013
- CBS, "Gates: Some Benghazi critics have "cartoonish" view of military capability," May 12, 2013
- Associated Press, "Former GOP lawyer: Military acted properly on Benghazi," May 16, 2016
- Factcheck.org, "Trump’s attack on Clinton’s character," June 22, 2016
- The Fact Checker, "Fact-checking Donald Trump’s attack on Hillary Clinton," June 23, 2016
- PolitiFact Florida, "Jeb Bush: 'ISIS didn't exist when my brother was president' and al-Qaida was 'wiped out,'" May 28, 2015
- PolitiFact, "Donald Trump suggests Barack Obama supported ISIS, but that’s a conspiracy theory," June 15, 2016
- PolitiFact Florida, "Jeb Bush selectively recounts details of Iraq and ISIS," Aug. 14, 2015
- PolitiFact Florida, "Obama refused to sign plan in place to leave 10,000 troops in Iraq, Bush says," May 18, 2015
- PolitiFact, "Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim he never discussed Libya intervention," Feb. 25, 2016
- Interview, Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution senior fellow, July 18, 2016
- Interview, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, July 18, 2016
- Interview, Christopher Preble, Cato Institute vice president of defense and foreign policy studies, July 19, 2016
- Interview, Austin Long, Columbia University associate professor of International and Public Affairs, July 20, 2016
- Interview, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump spokesman, July 20, 2016
- Interview, Joshua Schwerin, Hillary Clinton spokesman, July 18, 2016
- Interview, John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, July 20, 2016