--- title: Donald Trump: Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, Mike Pence Can description: Donald Trump said it was alright for Mike Pence to make a "mistake" in supporting the Iraq War, but not for Hillary Clinton canonical: https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-17T23:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:56.590Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can og:description: "I don't care," Trump said og:url: https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd514dad9a321ab83/69889c35bc6cfc82df3ddd24/gettyimages-576595478.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3742 og:image:height: 2105 og:image:alt: Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally With Indiana Governor Mike Pence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can twitter:description: "I don't care," Trump said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd514dad9a321ab83/69889c35bc6cfc82df3ddd24/gettyimages-576595478.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 17, 2016 11:00 PM UTC  Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, greets Mike Pence, governor of Indiana and presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, on stage during a campaign event in New York City, on July 16, 2016. Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, greets Mike Pence, governor of Indiana and presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, on stage during a campaign event in New York City, on July 16, 2016.Bloomberg—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 17, 2016 11:00 PM UTC In his first interview with his new running mate, Donald Trump said it was alright for Mike Pence to make a “mistake” in supporting the Iraq War, but not okay for Hillary Clinton to have done the same. “I don’t care,” Trump said on _60 Minutes_ when journalist Lesley Stahl asked him about Pence’s support of the war. “But you’ve used that vote of Hillary’s that was the same as Governor Pence, as the example of her bad judgment,” Stahl pressed. “Many people have, and frankly, I’m one of the few that was right on Iraq… He’s entitled to make a mistake every once in a while,” Trump said. “But she’s not?” Stahl asked, referencing Clinton. “No,” Trump responded. “She’s not.” One of Donald Trump’s favorite cudgels against former Secretary of State Clinton is her vote for the Iraq War when she was a senator from New York, saying it shows a key difference in their decision-making ability that she supported the war and he did not. (Never mind the fact that he [told Howard Stern in 2002](https://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/in-2002-donald-trump-said-he-supported-invading-iraq-on-the#.osDMlo3K5) that he would support an invasion.) But Indiana Gov. Pence, Trump’s new running mate, also supported the war at the time. He co-sponsored and voted in favor of the bill authorizing the Iraq War when he was a House representative from Indiana, [NBC reports](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/fact-checking-trump-s-first-appearance-running-mate-mike-pence-n610871). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can","datePublished":"2016-07-17T23:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:56.590Z","description":"\"I don't care,\" Trump said","url":"https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Mike Pence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd514dad9a321ab83/69889c35bc6cfc82df3ddd24/gettyimages-576595478.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd514dad9a321ab83/69889c35bc6cfc82df3ddd24/gettyimages-576595478.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally With Indiana Governor Mike Pence","caption":"Donald Trump, presumptive Republican presidential nominee, greets Mike Pence, governor of Indiana and presumptive Republican vice presidential nominee, on stage during a campaign event in New York City, on July 16, 2016.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4409827/donald-trump-mike-pence-hillary-clinton-iraq/","name":"Donald Trump Says Hillary Clinton Can't Make Mistakes, But Mike Pence Can"}}]}] ```