Trump claims that '100 percent' of ISIS' territory will be reclaimed by next WEEK then catches himself and says 'I don't want to say too early'
- President Trump claimed Wednesday that a global coalition will have liberated '100 percent' of the territory ISIS once controlled by next week
- The U.S. president admittedly pre-empted a formal announce as he delivered remarks at a televised State Department event
- 'It should be formally announced sometime probably next week that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate,' Trump said
- Added: 'I don't want to say too early'... 'I want to wait for the official word'
- Vice President Mike Pence said earlier in the day that it would be weeks before all of the territory that ISIS took is reclaimed
- 'The territory that's been reclaimed is 99 percent,' he said. 'Quite frankly, we're informed in a matter of weeks that all of the territory that ISIS has claimed...'
President Trump claimed Wednesday that a global coalition will have liberated '100 percent' of the territory ISIS once controlled by next week.
The U.S. president admittedly pre-empted a formal announcement as he delivered remarks at a televised State Department event, where he proclaimed, 'I don't want to say too early.'
'The United States military, our coalition partners and the Syrian Democratic forces have liberated virtually all of the territory previously held by ISIS in Syria and Iraq,' he said. 'It should be formally announced sometime probably next week that we will have 100 percent of the caliphate.'
As if realizing he was jumping the gun, Trump added, 'But I want to wait for the official word.'
President Trump claimed Wednesday that a global coalition will have liberated '100 percent' of the territory ISIS once controlled by next week
He claimed a minute later that ISIS had been 'decimated' in Iraq and in Syria.
'Thanks to the Global Coalition, including all of you here today and to our other partners, the ISIS caliphate has been decimated. Nobody thought it was possible to do with this quickly,' he said.
Vice President Mike Pence told CBS News earlier in the day that it would be weeks before all of the territory that ISIS took is reclaimed.
'The territory that's been reclaimed is 99 percent,' he said. 'And quite frankly, we're informed in a matter of weeks that all of the territory that ISIS has claimed...'
Interviewer Jeff Glor interrupted Pence to note that Trump has claimed that ISIS will be totally defeated in a matter of days.
'The ISIS caliphate has been crushed, we have taken back 99 percent of that territory, but we will not rest or relent until all of what ISIS claimed before has been captured,' Pence told him.
Trump did not claim that 100 percent of the territory ISIS took had been liberated. He merely claimed that the global coalition was close to freeing all of the territory in Iraq and Syria from ISIS' rule.
The president said that he told his generals when he was in Iraq on Christmas Day to finish the job.
'Three weeks ago, I was in Iraq and I was talking to some of our great generals, and I gave them the absolute go ahead. I said go at it. How long will it take once you get started? He said, "Sir, one week." I said, "Where did that come from, one week?" And he meant it and it's about week since they really got going and they'll be informing us very soon officially that it's 100 percent.'
Trump was quick to clarify that reclaiming the territory won't necessarily ensure that the terrorist threat is totally eliminated.
'Now, you're always going to have people, they'll be around,' he said. 'They're sick. They're demented. But you're going to have them no matter how well we do militarily.'
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Mike Pence said earlier in the day that it would be weeks before all of the territory that ISIS took is reclaimed
He applauded U.S. forces and said, 'You can't do better than we've done militarily, but you'll have people that will be around but we'll search them out and you'll search them out and we'll find them.'
Trump on Tuesday night in his State of the Union address that the U.S had 'liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers' and American allies are working to destroy the 'remnants of ISIS.'
As such, he said, 'It is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.'
In a CBS interview on Wednesday morning, taped after the president's speech, Pence defended the pullout and remarks he made hours after an attack on American forces, in which he'd claimed that ISIS had been devestated.
'I always regret the loss of American service members in battle,' he told Glor, who asked if he regretted what he said.
Pence the U.S. 'will completely crush the ISIS caliphate' soon after it was allowed to take root by Barack Obama after his 'hasty' withdrawal from Iraq.
'I think that every American can be proud of the progress that we have made...and they can be confident that the U.S. and our coalition partners will continue to lean into the fight against any resurgence of ISIS in the future,' he said.
He pledged, 'We're going to stay in the region we're going to be prepared to strike back at ISIS.'
