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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has shown he is not one to back down.

In fact, when he was questioned by ABC News today about his assertion that "thousands and thousands of people" cheered the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 just across the river in New Jersey, Trump doubled down.

"It did happen. I saw it. It was on television. I saw it," Trump said.

George Stephanopoulos responded, "You saw that with your own eyes? Police say it didn't happen."

Trump said: "George, it did happen. There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. 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 — as those buildings came down, and that tells you something. It was well covered at the time."

We asked our library to look through contemporaneous news reports. They tell us that that they could not turn up any news accounts of American Muslims cheering or celebrating in the wake of Sept. 11.

, New Jersey, does address the celebrations but it concludes that they never happened. Reuters reports:



After Trump initially made the assertion on the stump on Friday, 

The New York Times came to the same conclusion

Politics and Government News

Election 2016

In an interview, Donald Trump said people in New Jersey -- 
"where you have large Arab populations" -- were cheering when the Twin Towers came down. Police, however, have said it did not happen.

Trump doubles down on claim he saw thousands cheer in N.J. on 9/11

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