Donald Trump’s previously stated claim that the wives of the 9/11 hijackers fled the U.S. prior to the terrorist attack has been debunked multiple times since he first shared it last fall. Yet the newly minted politician shared the story again in Thursday’s GOP debate.
The party front-runner said the families of embedded terrorists returned to Saudi Arabia in the days and weeks before the attack on Manhattan and Washington, D.C., while they could still leave the country without raising alarm among federal officials.
While Trump was quick to link the story to a terrorism discussion at the Fox News-sponsored debate, he did not touch on a clarifying follow-up report by the 9/11 Commission that found “there is no support for Trump’s claims, as the report states that virtually all of the hijackers were unmarried.”
Giving examples of other issues Trump has admitted to “changing his tune on,” moderator Megyn Kelly asked Trump if he believed changing his mind was a flag to voters who sought consistency. Trump defended his changes of mind on other issues, but did not say why he continued to share the 9/11 story.
“I have a very strong core, but I’ve never seen a successful person who wasn’t flexible,” Trump said. “If you’re gonna be one way and you think it’s wrong, does that mean the rest of your life you have to go in one direction because you don’t wanna change?”
