Donald Trump’s signature issue has become insisting, against all evidence, that “thousands and thousands” of American Muslims partied on 9/11 because they were so happy about terrorism that killed their fellow Americans. Following the pattern of Trump’s 2011 birther crusade, journalists have not stopped asking him about it, and he has not budged, to the point of absurdity. “Mr. Trump’s memory is fantastic. I’ve never come across a situation that Mr. Trump has said something that is not accurate,” Trump’s lawyer Michael Coen insisted on CNN this week. Anchor Jake Tapper was incredulous: “Seriously?”
Trump has drawn volunteers to his fight. On Fox News last night, Greg Guttfeld said Trump could end the controversy by just offering $100,000 for photos. Then Eric Bolling added his own flourish to the conspiracy theory: he insisted not only that Muslims in New Jersey were tailgating 9/11, but that they knew 9/11 was going to happen in advance.
I remember specifically the news reports about Jersey City. They said people were on the roofs watching the planes fly in. They were tipped off prior to the thing. This was a narrative that was going on. I remember video. I don’t remember if it was Pakistan or Paterson.
They’d have to have pretty tall buildings in Karachi to watch from their rooftops as the Twin Towers fell down halfway across the globe! When BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski asked what Bolling was talking about, Bolling got pretty mad. It resulted in a Twitter battle of facts vs. feelings, with Bolling insisting he must be right because he was sad when the towers fell. Then Bolling cited a Fox News article about people celebrating 9/11, but as Kaczynski explains, that story is usually used as evidence that Israelis knew 9/11 was coming. In 2001, five young Israeli guys took photos of themselves as the Twin Towers were falling. Paterson, Pakistan, whatever. Muslims, Israelis, whatever. Something bad happened and it made me feel bad! Trump 2016!