Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani pushed back Tuesday against Donald Trump’s repeated claims that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey and New York were celebrating the 9/11 attacks.
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” Giuliani said that Trump’s statements are “exaggerating” the reality, which he said is that that only “pockets” of celebrating took place.
“We did have some celebrating, that is true,” Giuliani conceded to host Alisyn Camerota. “We had pockets of celebration, some in Queens, some in Brooklyn.”
“How many?” asked Camerota.
“Ten, 12,” Giuliani said. “Thirty, 40.”
The former mayor went on to recount a story in which a Muslim family got beat up in a housing development after celebrating the attacks.
“We expected a lot of [celebrating],” Giuliani said. “We expected a lot of irrational acts of violence against people who would appear to be Islamic or Muslim … and we had very, very little. We had some language, we had some yelling and screaming. I can’t give you a number of the acts of violence, but nothing very serious.”
“We did have some reports of people celebrating that day while the towers were coming down,” Giuliani said before pouring cold water on Trump’s claim that “thousands and thousands” were celebrating. “I would have known that for sure.”
“I think what he’s doing is exaggerating,” Giuliani added.
Trump continued to hammer away at his claim Monday during an impromptu press conference at Trump Tower after the real estate mogul’s meeting with black pastors and during multiple interviews by members of his team.
The billionaire currently tops the Washington Examiner‘s latest power rankings.
