Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson backed up claims by Donald Trump Monday that Muslims in northern New Jersey were celebrating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
During a press availability after an event in Nevada, Carson said that he “saw the film” of Muslims celebrating the attacks, pointing to “news reels” of said celebrations.
“Dr. Carson, were American Muslims in New Jersey cheering on 9/11 when the towers fell. Did you hear about that or see that?” ABC News’ Katherine Faulders asked Carson, who sits third in the Washington Examiner’s latest power rankings.
“Yes,” Carson replied. “There are going to be people who respond inappropriately to virtually everything. I think that was an inappropriate response. I don’t know if, on the basis of that, you can say that all Muslims are bad people. I really think that would be a stretch.”
“I saw the film of it… Yes,” Carson told the reporter when asked again if he saw the celebrations in New Jersey, pointing specifically to “the news reels.”
Carson’s remarks come a day after Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about those who cheered on the attack from across the river.
“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations,” Trump told the host. “They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down.”
“Police say it didn’t happen,” Stephanopoulos told the GOP front-runner. Trump, however, did not back down and repeated his claim.
“It was well covered at the time,” Trump said.
WATCH: @RealBenCarson tells ABC he saw news footage of Muslims in New Jersey cheering as towers fell on 9/11: https://t.co/DJCSJdZxXS— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) November 23, 2015
