Ted Cruz Defends Trump’s Shaky 9/11 Claims: ‘A Traumatic Experience for All of Us’

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) defended President Donald Trump’s disputed account of his experience on September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, arguing that the event was a “traumatic experience” for everyone and that he trusted the president’s retelling.

The Republican appeared on CNN’s The Source on Tuesday night to speak with host Kaitlan Collins when she asked him about Trump’s claim, made during Tuesday’s Tunnel to Towers event on the Ellipse, that two firefighters physically attempted to carry him away from a building they feared would collapse near One Liberty Plaza in the days after the attacks.

Trump later wrote on Truth Social that he was at the World Trade Center site after the terror strike with construction workers, insisting his account was “accurate.”

“I mean, he’s kind of making it sound like he was pulled out of the rubble, though, with the firefighters,” Collins said. “Do you think that’s appropriate?”

“September 11th was 25 years ago, it was a horrific moment for our entire country, and you could doubt whatever you want about Donald Trump, but the man is a New Yorker, he loves New York, and I have every doubt that what he’s conveying there is what he experienced,” the senator replied. “And that was a traumatic experience for all of us.”

“Yeah. Some people might just hear that and think he’s exaggerating his role. Should anyone exaggerate what happened on 9/11?” Collins pressed.

Cruz continued: “Look, think when you’re sharing your feelings, your sentiments, I remember I was in DC on 9/11. We lived less than a mile away from the Pentagon.”

He continued to share his experience there and his wife Heidi Cruz’s evacuation from the White House, as well as having lost a close friend.

At the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” remembrance event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the president said he “looked out my window” after the attack and later took a “whole crew” of his workers downtown.

Trump then recounted being near One Liberty Plaza, formerly the U.S. Steel Building, when two firefighters allegedly feared the building was about to come down.

According to Trump, the firefighters grabbed him under the arms, “literally lifted me up,” and “started running with me.”

The account is the latest version of Trump’s description of his activities in New York following the attacks. He has previously claimed that he sent hundreds of his workers to assist with recovery efforts around Ground Zero.

Fact-checkers have repeatedly reported there’s no evidence of Trump deploying a large workforce to assist in the recovery operation, citing the claim from a former FDNY battalion chief who said he had no knowledge of Trump participating in the work.

Watch above via CNN.

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