TRUMP'S LIES ABOUT MUSLIMS AND 9/11

To most Americans September 11, 2001 is an event to be treated with respect.

To one American, it was a time to spread a vicious, racist lie. Donald Trump accused thousands of New Jersey Muslims of cheering on the terrorists.

On November 21, 2015, Donald Trump, at one of his political rallies, made the following claim: “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.”

A day later, he had an interview with ABC This Week George Stephanopoulos who confronted him about this claim. George Stephanopoulos said the following: “You know, the police say that didn’t happen and all those rumors have been on the Internet for some time. So did you misspeak yesterday?”

Donald Trump replied with: “It did happen. I saw it...There were people that were cheering on the other side of 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 that building came down — 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.”

The fact is that there is not a shred of evidence anywhere to back up this claim.

Politifact said the following about Trump's statement: "We looked back at the record to see what we could find about American Muslim celebrations in New Jersey on 9/11. While we found widely broadcast video of people in the Palestinian territories celebrating, we found no evidence to back up Trump’s description of events on American soil." Politifact conducted an exhaustive search of newspaper and television transcripts on LexisNexis, looking for reports from September 2001 through December 2001 that made any mention of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks.

There are only two explanations here. One is that Trump deliberately lied. The second is even more disturbing. Does Donald Trump know the difference between reality and fantasy?

Fact-checking Trump's claim that thousands in New Jersey cheered when World Trade Center tumbled (Politifact, 11-22-15)