Rudy Giuliani ‘Confirms’ 9/11 Celebrations In Unbelievable Way
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We are now into week two of the media’s obsession with Donald Trump‘s claim to have seen thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11, a claim that is at once patently false and worthy of endless debate. Enter former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to make the whole thing even more absurd.
This should have been an easy, one-day story, because what Trump said is fairly easy to debunk:
“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. Thousands of people were cheering.”
There is no ambiguity in Trump’s claim, he says he watched thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrate, which flatly did not happen. Yet when he presents, as evidence, a completely unsourced report of a handful of rooftop celebrations, one single report, the media acts like this is now a conversation. The Washington Post reporter who wrote that story has become a sympathetic figure because Trump mocked his disability (he absolutely did), but Serge Kovaleski did an absolutely terrible job on that report. He published an unattributed, explosive rumor that turned out to be false, and did not correct or retract it. Remember, his report didn’t just say there were celebrations, it said cops detained and questioned people for celebrating. That’s checkable, and it did not happen.
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Even if it did, Trump’s still a liar, yet somehow, the possibility that any Muslim ever celebrated 9/11 in America has come to constitute wiggle room for Donald Trump. Enter Mark Halperin, who tweeted this odd but of nonsense Tuesday morning:
Trump camp finds support for 9/11 claim in Fred Siegel @nypost op-ed. Not proof but contemporaneous citation. pic.twitter.com/I00q79VHkx
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) December 1, 2015
“Not proof but contemporaneous citation?” In what alternate Spock’s-got-a-beard universe does that mean anything to a journalist? All it really means is that the columnist Halperin cites, Fred Siegal, listened to the same rumors that Kovaleski apparently felt worthy of print, but unworthy of attribution. Delete your journalism account, Mark Halperin.
Here’s where Giuliani comes in…READ MORE
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