Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani recalls seeing “pockets” of people celebrating after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, though admitted Donald Trump may be exaggerating his claims of seeing thousands.
“We did have some celebrating — that is true,” Mr. Giuliani, who was mayor at the time of the attack, said on CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday. “We had some pockets of celebrating.”
Asked how many people he witnessed celebrating the attacks, Mr. Giuliani guessed, “Ten. Twelve. Thirty. Forty.”
“We had one situation in which a candy store owned by a Muslim family was celebrating that day, right near a housing development. And the kids in the housing development came in and beat them up,” he said.
However, Mr. Giuliani said he would have known had there been “thousands and thousands” of people cheering as the twin towers fell, a repeated claim by Mr. Trump that fact-checking publications have called false.
“I would’ve known that for sure,” Mr. Giuliani said. “I think what he’s doing is exaggerating.
“People were celebrating, he’s right about that. I didn’t see any evidence of thousands of people celebrating,” Mr. Giuliani added.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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