Trump Reverses, Says He Didn't See Iran Cash Video
— -- After two consecutive days of providing detailed descriptions of a potentially damning video of a U.S. cash shipment to Iran, Donald Trump is admitting today he never actually saw any such video.
The message from Trump came in the form of a tweet earlier this morning.
"The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!" Trump exclaims in his tweet.
But he offers no explanation as to how or why he apparently confused the videos.
The controversy stems from a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday that revealed the United States sent $400 million in euros and Swiss francs to Iran at the same time Iranian officials released four American prisoners. Although the U.S. government maintains that the payment was part of separate settlement related to a decades-old arms deal, many critics believe it amounted to a ransom.
Speaking Wednesday at a rally in Daytona, Florida, Trump claimed to have seen "top secret" video of the cash transfer.
"I'll never forget the scene this morning," Trump told the crowd. "Iran — I don't think you've heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off that airplane, right? $400 million in cash."
He continued, "Now here's the amazing thing. Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, they don't have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn't do so well over there, right? And they have a perfect tape done by obviously a government camera, and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane, right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes, right? It's a military tape. It's a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady. Nobody getting nervous because they're going to be shot because they're shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane."
Even after questions were raised in the media about his account, the GOP presidential nominee continued with his story.
"You know, it was interesting because a tape was made," Trump said to supporters at a rally in Portland, Maine, on Thursday. "You know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country."
Intelligence officials tell ABC News they are not aware of any tape the Iranians made of the cash delivery. Iran has used propaganda videos in the past to embarrass the United States, like the video of the 10 U.S. sailors it briefly detained in January.
Last fall Trump claimed to have seen a video of "thousands and thousands" of Muslims cheering on rooftops in New Jersey after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. No video matching that description has ever surfaced.
