A writer went viral debunking claims about Donald Trump and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Saturday after the Republican running for governor in Pennsylvania credited Mr Trump as being a “champion” of New York and the United States in the immediate aftermath.
Jeff Pearlman, a sports writer from New York, went viral on Twitter in response to Doug Mastriano’s comments at an appearance beside the ex-president in Wilkes-Barre. At the Saturday rally, Mr Mastriano and others like Marjorie Taylor Greene reiterated and gave full-throated endorsements of the lies and conspiracies about the 2020 election which Mr Trump has spread for nearly two years.
During one moment of the rally, the Republican candidate claimed that Mr Trump was “at the World Trade Center” on 9/11 — “we saw him”, Mr Mastriano told a cheering crowd.
The claim is not supported by reality. In Mr Trump’s own statements at the time, he claimed that to have watched the horrific scene from his apartment building in Manhattan. He only began to claim later that he was at the scene in person.
It was refuted online by sports writer Jeff Pearlman, who took on a number of Mr Trump’s own false claims as well in a viral Twitter thread.
Donald Trump has famously weaponised his experiences on 9/11 against his political opponents, most notably in 2016 when during a Republican primary debate he attacked former Florida Governor Jeb Bush over his brother’s performance as president and the fact that the 9/11 attacks occurred while he was in office.
His chosen candidates in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial and Senate races, Mr Mastriano and Dr Mehmet Oz, are both trailing their respective opponents in most polls.
