Trump Again Boasts He 'Spent A Lot Of Time' At Ground Zero With First Responders
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he “spent a lot of time” at Ground Zero in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, resurfacing an old claim he has touted repeatedly without evidence to back it up. During a Rose Garden speech after signing a law to provide permanent financial aid to survivors and first responders who became ill after working at the site of the fallen Twin Towers, Trump told the audience he, too, was there.
“Many of those affected were firefighters, police officers and other first responders,” he said. “And I was down there also. But I am not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you.”
Trump’s statement ― a suggestion that he deserves some measure of credit for showing up at the site ― echoes previous remarks he’s made about Sept. 11, where he told his supporters that he assisted with recovery efforts. “Everyone who helped clear the rubble ― and I was there, and I watched, and I helped a little bit ...” he said. “Clearing the rubble. Trying to find additional lives. You didn’t know what was going to come down on all of us ― and they handled it.” The vague implication that he was lending a hand, even placing himself in harm’s way, remains completely unsubstantiated.
Trump also spoke to a German TV reporter on Sept. 13 ... he said in the interview that he had “a lot of men” helping out ― roughly 225 total ― PolitiFact was unable to corroborate that claim after researching it earlier this year. At a rally on November 2015, Trump claimed that he watched from his apartment as people leapt from the crumbling towers and that he witnessed the second plane coming in. Since Trump Tower is located more than four miles away from where the World Trade Center stood, it’s highly unlikely Trump could have seen the destruction from his window.
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