November 27-2015
Donald Trump has insisted in recent days that American Muslims gathered in the streets in New Jersey and cheered as the World Trade Center collapsed in September 2011. Police in New Jersey say no such thing ever happened.
Trump made his assertion first on Friday in a speech in Alabama. He said. “Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
The next day he was challenged by George Stephan-opoulos as he taped his Sunday news show. Trump held fast. “George, it did happen,” Trump said.
Stephanopoulos said, “Police say it didn’t happen.”
Trump responded, “There were people that were cheering on the other side of [the Hudson River in] New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.”
On Friday, Trump also said, “Something’s going on. We’ve got to find out what it is.”
There were cheers of support in some Middle Eastern countries that day, which were broadcast on US television. A persistent rumor of Muslims celebrating in Paterson, New Jersey, has cycled on the Internet for years. But that rumor was knocked down by Paterson police officials at the time. The New York Times said a computer search it made of news accounts from that period shows no reports of mass cheering anywhere in Jersey City.
