Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson followed rival Donald Trump’s lead Monday in saying he too saw a video of Arab Americans cheering as New York’s twin towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.
Within days of the 9/11 attacks, police, fact-checkers and US media had debunked the rumors that people were cheering from rooftops of Jersey City, across the river from Manhattan.
But Trump, the billionaire frontrunner for the Republican nomination, suddenly revived the story on the campaign trail Saturday, eight days after deadly attacks in Paris.
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. 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.
Carson, who is currently Trump’s top rival in the race, told reporters a similar story Monday.
Asked whether he had seen footage of American Muslims in New Jersey cheering on 9/11, Carson said “I saw the film of it, yes.” Pressed which footage he saw, he said “the newsreels.”
