Who is lying? Donald Trump, or the NYPD?
Washington (CNN)Donald Trump twice repeated over the weekend that he saw people cheering in New Jersey after the September 11 attacks -- but his claims are being widely disputed as false.
Trump first made the claim at a campaign rally in Alabama on Saturday, where he said he "watched the World Trade Center go down" and watched in New Jersey, "as thousands of people were cheering as the building was coming down."
He doubled down on those claims in an interview Sunday with ABC's "This Week," even as George Stephanopoulos pushed back.
"There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations," Trump said. "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."
"Police say it didn't happen," Stephanopoulos pressed, to which Trump said he saw it himself on television.
Trump claimed: "It was well covered at the time."
But numerous publications and local politicians have said Trump is incorrect.
Both Politifact and The Washington Post's Fact Checker analyzed Trump's claim. Politifact rated it "pants on fire" and The Washington Post gave it "four Pinocchios."
Neither outlet could find any news reports that corroborate Trump's account of events. There were a few reports of rumors that there were celebrations in New Jersey, along with images of Palestinians celebrating overseas that were broadcast locally.
A September 17, 2001, an Associated Press story referred to "unfounded ... rumors of rooftop celebrations of the attack by Muslims" in Jersey City, New Jersey.
And in a September 18, 2001, article, The Washington Post wrote that "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." But there was no source for the information and there is no evidence of anything coming of the questioning.
