I saw people celebrating 9/11 in Jersey City: Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he saw people cheering the September 11 attacks across the river in New Jersey — a claim officials strongly deny.

Mr Trump first told the story on Saturday at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, as he pressed the need for greater surveillance, inclu-ding monitoring certain mosques, in the wake of the Paris attacks.

“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,” Mr Trump said on Saturday at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama.

Mr Trump repeated the assertion on Sunday in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, as Mr Stephanopoulos explained to Mr Trump that the police had refuted any such rumours at the time.

“It did happen. I saw it,” said Mr Trump. “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, he said.