Fact check: Trump, Carson on 9/11 ‘celebrations’

Donald Trump’s widely discredited claim that Muslims in New Jersey were seen on TV cheering the 9/11 terrorist attacks — and Ben Carson’s initial support of Trump’s remarks — has resulted in even more false claims, as both candidates try to explain their statements:

• Trump doubled down on his false claim that he saw on TV “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheering in New Jersey. He demanded an apology and cited as his support one news story about an alleged incident that was unattributed, unverified and not televised.

• Carson later clarified his remarks about 9/11, saying he was talking about news footage of Muslims celebrating overseas,

It was in a Nov. 21 speech

Trump, the leading Republican

A day later, on ABC’s This Week, Trump insisted: “It did happen. I saw it. It was on television. 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.”

There is no evidence, as others have pointed out, that thousands of people in New Jersey cheered the attacks on 9/11. PolitiFactWashington Post gave Trump’s claim their worst ratings.

The fact is that New Jersey and New York news organizations tried to track down rumors and unverified reports of celebrations in New Jersey cities and turned up little or nothing.

The Star-Ledgerwrote on Sept. 13, 2001

The New York Daily NewsDaily NewsDaily News

On Sept. 18, 2001, the Associated Press wrote that federal investigators had returned to Jersey City — specifically to the neighborhood that had been “home to a mosque where blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman preached before he was convicted of plotting the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks.” But there was no mention of any 9/11 celebrations in Jersey City. Instead, the paper wrote of “Arab-Americans [who] decried the terrorist attacks, and told of harassment they had suffered in the past week.”

The Star-LedgerSept. 23, 2001, storyStar-LedgerStar-Ledger

That story did say, however, that the paper interviewed two people who said they knew of one incident in Paterson regarding “a small handful of teenagers who shouted ‘revenge’ the night of the bombing.” There was no mention of Jersey City.

On Nov. 23, two days after he first made his 9/11 remarks, Trump claimed to have evidence that supported him. He tweeted out a link to a Sept. 18, 2001, Washington Post and demanded an apology.

The Post

The Washington PostPostPost

What’s clear to us — and should be to Trump — is that there were no widespread televised celebrations in New Jersey on 9/11. In fact, what Trump described would have been big news, and the reporters at the Daily News, Star-Ledger

Carson’s Revisionist Retraction

In an interview on Nov. 23told reporters in Nevada

“Well, you know, there are going to be people who respond inappropriately to virtually everything. I think that was an inappropriate response. I don’t know if on the basis of that you can say all Muslims are bad people. I really think that would be a stretch,” Carson said.

The next day, he denied that he was talking about New Jersey and blamed the media

“I thought we were just talking about the fact that Muslims were inappropriately celebrating,” he said. “I didn’t know that they had an agenda behind the question.”

We don’t know what Carson was thinking about when he was answering the questions, but the exchange between two reporters and Carson could not have been more clear. In fact, he was asked to verify that the video he saw was of Muslims in New Jersey, and he answered, “yes.”

Here is the relevant portion of the exchange

Reporter 1, Nov. 23

Carson

Reporter 1

Carson

Reporter 1

Carson

Reporter 2

Carson

Unlike Trump, Carson at least now acknowledges that it’s not true that thousands of Muslims were captured on TV celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11. But in doing so he rewrites the record.