Donald Trump’s claim that “thousands” of New Jersey Muslims went out and celebrated the September 11th attacks has been thoroughly debunked, but that’s not going to stop him from insisting that it happened.
On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Chuck Todd gave Trump yet another opportunity to admit that he did not, in fact, see footage of people “on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations … cheering as the [World Trade Center] came down.” “This didn’t happen in New Jersey,” said Todd at one point. “You’re running for president of the United States. Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters.”
But the Republican front-runner stuck to his guns: “I saw it on television. So did many other people. I’ve heard Jersey City. I’ve heard Patterson. It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television. I saw clips. And so did many other people. And many people saw it in person. I’ve had hundreds of phone calls to the Trump Organization saying, ‘We saw it. It was dancing in the streets,’” said Trump. “I’m not going to take it back.”
Why would he when it’s exactly the sort of thing his supporters want to hear?
