It pains me every time I have to say it, but Donald Trump is right.
When he called for a 35% tarriff on imported goods, he was right, when he said that every other Republican candidate was owned by a billionaire or a bank, he was right, and now, dammit, now we’re going to have to say that he's right about George W. Bush and 9/11.
During an interview last week on Bloomberg TV night, Trump, who’s still the 2016 Republican frontrunner, did something that’s pretty much unforgiveable in Republican circles.
He blamed former George W. Bush for failing to stop 9/11.
The Republican reaction to these comments has been swift and predictable.
Jeb Bush, who apparently thinks defending his brother will win him the White House, said Trump's comments were “pathetic.” Ben Carson called them “ridiculous.” Congressman Peter King, meanwhile, said they “sound[ed] like a Michael Moore talking point.”
But here’s the thing: Donald Trump is right. George W. Bush didn’t do enough to stop 9/11.
It’s not like this is some “truther” conspiracy theory, either.
It’s well-documented fact.
As Peter Beinart points out
over at The Atlantic, the George W. Bush administration was warned time and time again that Bin Laden was trying to attack American and, inexplicably, did nothing to stop him.
Over the first 9 months of 2001, the CIA sent the Bush administration no fewer than 36 different warnings about a potential Al-Qaeda attack on American soil.
The most explicit of these was a Presidential Daily intelligence Briefing, or PDB, that came on August 6, 2001 - one month before 9/11.
The CIA told Bush in very plain language that Bin Laden was ready to strike in the US and “follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and ‘bring the fighting to America.’"
Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was later asked about this very PDB at a hearing of the 9/11 Commission.
Her answer was as shocking as it was damning.
So what exactly was the Bush administration doing while the CIA warned it that Osama Bin Laden, the world’s number one terrorist, was planning to attack us here in America?
Bush did nothing, nothing at all.
