Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is not backing down from a comment he made on Saturday that “thousands” of people in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers were leveled on 9/11.
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In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Trump doubled down on his assertion that he saw people in New Jersey – where the real-estate mogul claims there are “large Arab populations” – cheering as the World Trade Center came down.
Trump said on Sunday morning that people cheered in New Jersey on the day of the attack.
“It did happen – I saw it”, he said. “It was on television …”
Trump then pointed out that it may not be “politically correct” for him to talk about it, but that Muslims were definitely cheering on 9/11 and “That tells you something”.
By slandering New Jersey Arabs, Trump mistakenly thinks that all Arabs are Muslims.
“Somebody like Jeb, and others that are running against me – and by the way Hillary is another one; I mean, Hillary is a person who doesn’t have the strength or the stamina, in my opinion, to be president”, Trump said. And if those assumptions are true, one wonders whether the New Jersey Republican will soon look back at this period and wonder what might have happened if he’d shown a little more courage.
New Jersey is a pretty controversial city when it comes to its Muslim community.
The NY Times said “no news reports exist of people celebrating”.
On Sunday, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop (D) slammed Trump, denying that anyone had cheered in Jersey City following the attacks.
Fulop, who is a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2017, said in a statement that Trump was “shamefully politicizing an emotionally charged issue”.
It is well known that Republican candidate Donald Trump has no love for the Muslims, feelings that he doesn’t even try to hide, on the contrary.
When asked if he was open to an independent run, Trump stated that he would have to see how things went and that he has “to be treated fairly”.
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He added: “I do not remember that”. The article, which appeared on page 6, described Federal Bureau of Investigation probes after the attack in Northern New Jersey, saying in the 15th paragraph “law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river”. According to her, people were leaning out windows and cheering. I want surveillance of certain mosques, OK? “But I don’t remember that, no”.
