FBI file reveals story that won\u2019t fit Trump\u2019s narrative<\/b><\/p>\n
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump set off a firestorm when he claimed<\/a> that \u201cthousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.\u201d Trump was referring to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Debunkers subsequently swept in, such as Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, <\/i>quoting Trump \u201cdoubling down\u201d and insisting that<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>\u201cThere were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.\u201d<\/p>\n No, not good, if it were the product of a real memory. But Trump\u2019s recollection does not appear to be a real memory, though it contained a germ of truth.<\/p>\n In a series of updates to his \u201cdebunking\u201d story Kessler then referred to reporting<\/a> of \u201cFBI probes in northern New Jersey after the attacks, saying in the 15th paragraph that \u2018law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Kessler avers that \u201cThe reporters who wrote the story do not recall whether the allegations were ever confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n