His question was ridiculous, Alex Jonesesque chem trail level conspiracy nonsense.
He made other flubs during that speech so I wouldn't get too carried away with this one. It's like he started saying he was born in Afghanistan and stopped mid Afghanistan. It was a flub.
Flubs is putting it very kindly. I'm pretty sure he knew exactly what he was doing when he implied Mateen was just the kind of person Trump has been trying to keep out, foreign born and all. That wasn't the only flub... For example:
1) Trump: Theres no screening for refugees coming to the US
Trump is wrong: There is an extensive, onerous screening process for refugees
who come to America.
2) Trump criticizes Libya intervention, supported it himself
Trump has repeatedly characterized Libya as a unique failure of President Obama
and Hillary Clintons foreign policy. But he actively supported that intervention, even
though he's spent much of his candidacy pretending he didn't.
3) Trump: Clinton wants to admit "hundreds of thousands" of refugees to the US
Trump is wrong here as well: Clinton has only called for increasing the number of Syrian refugees by 65,000.
4) Trump: The Orlando shooter was "born this Afghan"
Again, a lie. Born in NY just like him.
5) Trump: "Large numbers" of Somali refugees joining ISIS
This dramatically misrepresents the number of Somali refugees from the US who have joined ISIS, which a New York Times story pegs at no more than 15.
6) Trump: Obamas "famous apology tour" created ISIS
ISISs precursor, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, emerged in 2004 to resist the American
occupation. Led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, the group consisted of Sunnis,
many of them disgruntled former Iraqi soldiers left without paychecks after the Bush
administration disbanded the Iraqi army.
ISIS was created by the Iraqi coalition authority, which ousted the entire
government of Iraq. It was when 30,000 individuals who are part of the Iraqi
military were forced out. They had no employment, they had no income, yet they
were left with access to all the same arms and weapons."
The Bush administration's mismanagement of Iraq encouraged thousands of skilled
Iraqis to take their expertise to the anti-American insurgency that eventually became
the Islamic State.
7) Trump: Hillary Clinton wants to ban guns
Clinton has not called for anything remotely resembling a ban on guns she wants
to ban assault weapons but has otherwise not called for a gun ban. A policy that I
do not agree with her on.
8) Trumps criticism on pushing for regime change in Syria
As with his initial approval of the Libya invasion, Trump has grossly distorted his
record on Syria. He once called for a "big, beautiful safe zone" in the country.
The weirder, specific problem here is the knock on Clinton and Obama for creating
ISIS by "pushing for the overthrow of the regime in Syria" when Trump has
himself called for ground troops in Syria.
He's a flubber alright...