The GOP presidential candidate spoke in a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and told the audience that he can “feel” terrorism.
Advertisement
Christie had previously said Sunday he did not recall the incident Trump has recently described. “And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down”, Trump told a rally in Alabama. “Because I can feel it. My father always used to say… everything you touch just turns to gold, and he’s got a great sense of location and business and things”.
Kovaleski is a Pulitzer prize winning journalist. There have also been reports that in Paterson, about 20 miles northwest of Jersey City, a small group of teenagers of Arab descent celebrated in the streets.
“We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters”, a Times spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Kovaleski has not directly responded to Trump’s impression of him, but has been retweeting articles about it and thanking friends who branded the imitation “shameful”.
“I could have said: ‘Oh, I misspoke.’ I’m not big on that, am I?”
Mr Trump replied on his Twitter page, writing: “The failing @nytimes should be focused on good reporting and the papers financial survival and not with constant hits on Donald Trump!”.
Super PACs are reportedly stepping up their spending to oppose Trump, and Cohen and Trump have indicated they could consider that effort a nullification of Trump’s pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee and forgo an independent run if it’s not him.
Kovaleski was familiar to Trump because he had, according to Politico, covered Trump for several years when he worked for the New York Daily News.
He appeared to dial back his words slightly, saying he “saw people getting together and in fairly large numbers celebrating as the World Trade Center was coming down” both “on television and I read about on the Internet”.
Advertisement
John J. Farmer Jr., who in 2001 was the New Jersey attorney general and the state’s chief law enforcement officer, said this week that investigators found no evidence those celebrations took place. When an ABC News reporter asked Carson whether American Muslims were “cheering” as the World Trade Center buildings fell, he answered affirmatively, citing “newsreels” from that day.
