A year ago, at the second debate for the Republican presidential candidates, Jeb Bush took aim at Donald Trump’s history of corruption — based on personal experience. The former Florida governor noted that Trump not only gave Bush money, but he also asked for something in return: “[Trump] wanted casino gambling in Florida.”Trump immediately interrupted, “I didn’t,” to which Bush responded, “Yes you did.” The back and forth continued for a while, with Trump insisting that the claim is “totally false,” and adding, “I promise if I wanted [casino gambling in Florida], I would have gotten it.”Even at the time, it was pretty obvious Trump was lying, but last week, Newsweek‘s Kurt Eichenwald took this a step further, highlighting a “previously undisclosed deposition of the Republican nominee testifying under oath.”
The deposition was part of a lawsuit he’d filed against Richard Fields, whom Trump had hired to manage the expansion of his casino business into Florida. In the suit, Trump claimed that Fields had quit and taken all of the information he obtained while working for Trump to another company. Under oath, Trump said he did want to get into casino gambling in Florida but didn’t because he had been cheated by Fields.
The report included a transcript of Trump describing his efforts to bring casino gambling to Florida, including hosting what Trump described as then-candidate Jeb Bush’s “most successful fundraiser.”When the lawyer asked, “You knew that Governor Bush, Jeb Bush at that time, was opposed to expansion of gaming in Florida, didn’t you?” Trump replied, “I thought that he could be convinced otherwise.”Given this, it certainly seems as if Bush’s version of events, as described in last year’s debate, was accurate. But there’s another angle to this: Trump said under oath that he wanted casino gambling in Florida, but he said during the debate that he didn’t.Both can’t be true. So which is it?
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."