This morning, Donald Trump formally signed a bill that will extend and authorize the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund through 2092, essentially making it permanent. He made the announcement at an event in the Rose Garden with more than 60 first responders in attendance (but not any Democrats, including the lead author of the bill). But as is his wont, Trump made the event about himself: "I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you."
MSNBC
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@MSNBC
President Trump to 9/11 first responders: "I was down there also, but I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you."
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Trump was right about one thing: he certainly shouldn't consider himself a first responder. In the 18 years since the tragic event, there has never been a single report that has indicated, or even suggested, that Trump helped out at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the attack (except for the occasions in recent years when Trump has bragged that he did so). However, there is a wealth of evidence that Trump has repeatedly and outrageously exaggerated and lied about 9/11 to fit his purposes.
Trump was indeed in NYC on September 11th, 2001—during a rally in 2015 in Columbus, Ohio, Trump told the crowd that he was in Trump Tower at the time. Despite being over four miles away from the World Trade Center, and almost certainly not having an unrestricted view of it, he claimed that he could see people falling from the buildings: "I have a window in my apartment that specifically was aimed at the World Trade Center, because of the beauty of the whole downtown Manhattan. And I watched as people jumped, and I watched the second plane come in…Many people jumped, and I witnessed that. I watched that."
The first indication of his disturbing lack of empathy for the victims of the attack came that very morning, when Trump was on air with WWOR discussing what happened. He was asked whether his building at 40 Wall Street, a 71-story building blocks away from the Twin Towers, had sustained any damage in the attacks. He proceeded to brag about how he now owned the tallest building in downtown Manhattan with the World Trade Center gone.
“40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan,” Trump said. “Before the World Trade Center it was the tallest. Then when the built the World Trade Center it become known as the second-tallest, and now it’s the tallest.” Alan Marcus, a former Trump publicist who happened to be working at WWOR that day, later told Politico that was an example of "Donald being Donald…He is the brand manager of Trump, and he is going to tout that brand, and he does it reflexively. Even on that day."
Brian Klaas
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@brianklaas
17 years ago, today, Donald Trump bragged about how his building was now the tallest one in downtown Manhattan since the Twin Towers fell.
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Trump didn’t do much out of the ordinary the rest of that day according to George Ross, a longtime attorney for Trump and an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. "It was just a day like any other day, except it was a horrible situation,” he told Politico. "We were in business, and this went down."
The first evidence that Trump actually did visit Ground Zero came two days later, when he was interviewed by a German news station three blocks away. He said during the interview that he had just visited the area for the first time—though his focus, again, was on whether his property nearby had been damaged. He admitted that the property “wasn’t, fortunately, affected" at the time. Trump also claimed that he had "a couple of hundred" workers coming down there to help "reconstruct" the area.
According to Snopes, there is no evidence to suggest Trump really did pay workers to help with cleanup efforts—they spoke to a former FDNY deputy chief who never saw a single Trump worker there:
Richard Alles, a retired deputy chief with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), who now serves as director of 9/11 community affairs for the law firm Barasch McGarry Salzman and Penson, told us that in all the hours, days and months he spent at Ground Zero as an FDNY battalion chief starting 20 minutes after the buildings collapsed, he never witnessed a large group of workers hired by Trump at the site helping with search and rescue. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” Alles told us by phone. “There would have been no need for that. Between police, fire and the construction crews, we had it all covered.”
Alles added that the construction crews he saw at Ground Zero who came to help rescue workers were from the trade unions and were not hired by Trump.
What has become clear is that in the years since 9/11, and particularly since he launched his campaign for the presidency in 2015, is that Trump's recollections of the day and its immediate aftermath have grown exceedingly preposterous and self-aggrandizing, and often used for political attacks against his opponents. It wasn't enough that Trump visited Ground Zero a few days after the attacks and may or may not have paid workers to help with recovery efforts—now, according to the President of the United States, he was personally clearing rubble and looking for survivors, which almost certainly did not happen.
Scott Dworkin
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@funder
Here’s video of @realDonaldTrump claiming he helped look for survivors & clear rubble on 9/11. He didn't. He was lying. #NeverForget
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Link: https://gothamist.com/2019/07/29/donald_trump_wtc_lies.php
Jim's Post: "In the 18 years since the tragic event, there has never been a single report that has indicated, or even suggested, that Trump helped out at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the attack...."
NBC News Reporter to Trump: "Tell me what it's like at ground zero. Tell me about the workers that you saw, and what they're doing there."
Trump describes the hundreds of workers he dispatched to the site. Visited himself.
Link: https://twitter.com/EddieZipperer/status/1156171073743990789
At most he walked around for a little while and then mugged for the cameras.
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A lot of people walked through there in the days right after. I could have if so inclined as our fire guys led PA Rescue One which was there for a while.
He’s a lying turd.
Interestingly, though, calling him "mentally ill" or "racist," has proven ineffective. There is one Democrat who has demonstrated, at times, that she knows how to handle him and provokes mini-tantrums within him when she handles him this way. Others might want to take not of that.
This is the usual routine from the crowd:
1. "Did you see what Trump said/tweeted?!?"
2. "I can't believe he said that!!!"
3. "Clearly, Trump is ________________"
4. "Did you see what Trump said/tweeted?!?"
5. "I can't believe he said that!!!"
6. "Clearly, Trump is ________________"
7. "Did you see what Trump said/tweeted?!?"
8. "I can't believe he said that!!!"
9. "Clearly, Trump is ________________"
10. "Did you see what Trump said/tweeted?!?"
11. "I can't believe he said that!!!"
12. "Clearly, Trump is ________________"
13. "Did you see what Trump said/tweeted?!?"
14. "I can't believe he said that!!!"
15. "Clearly, Trump is ________________"
Over and over, he has tried to steal the grief of 9/11 victims’ loved ones. Remember Trump lying about the hundreds of friends he lost that day. He didn’t lose one friend.
Keep supporting a narcissistic pathological liar, all you bots. You are America’s biggest threat.
Link: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/trump-september-11-first-responders
Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama were very decent human beings... but their presidencies were economic disasters.
Putting aside the nonsense that Trump is responsible for the strong economy, America’s “booming economy” means zilch if we:
— roll over and play dead, ignoring the rapid threats of climate change;
— allow the rule of law to be trampled upon;
— tolerate corruption and suffocate dissent and oversight;
— dismiss the intelligence community;
— promote division and strife amongst our people;
— diminish our longstanding institutions;
— allow outsiders to meddle in our democracy.
The collective "you" seem rather quiet about immigration laws being trampled on. And you're just as silent when the leftists are out promoting racial strife in blatant bold letters while simultaneously doing every stunt and twist necessary to try to tie race into nearly everything said by the G.O.P.
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tragedy/occasion to lie about oneself as a hero in it. We all do it to the tune of thousands of times a year or just dozens of times each breathing day.
Your comrade is the buffoon we all said he was back in 2015. You and your fellow bots, sadly, are lost in the con-man's game for whatever reason. It's something you cannot defend but it's nice you try to retro fit all of his lies and affix them to some sad tale that makes you feel you've made good choices.
driving libs absolutely insane.
Oh well.
The bots here are sure he's telling the truth.
unimportant things sacred things, mundane things..........
He’s pathological.
but he does remember writing the best seller "The Two Towers".
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It’s actually a personality disorder and will shift its focus to some other source of annoyance after 8 years.
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Chris should've known it was coming when a giant mosquito chased the family's Prius on the TripTik before they left.
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Plenty of full of shit people in this world...
But this is actually a pretty fucking horrendous thing to lie about. Right up there with Blumenthal from Connecticut making up a stint in Vietnam that Trump loves to talk about.
Just as fucking putrid. He really is a first-rate asshole.
I wasn’t attempting to justify Trump’s statement or provide cover for it.
Whataboutism is only used to justify and excuse.
Condemning both makes you human. That’s not gonna fly around here.
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