Christie: ‘I don’t recall’ Arabs in NJ cheering on 9/11

Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) said Sunday that he has no recollection of Arab Americans in Jersey City celebrating the 9/11 terrorist attacks, something fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump raised over the weekend.

“I don’t recall that — I don’t,” Christie told reporters in Manchester, N.H., according to NJ Advance Media.

{mosads}“It was a pretty emotional time for me because, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s family involved, there were, you know, friends involved and it was a pretty harrowing time,” Christie continued.

“I do not remember that, and so it’s not something that was part of my recollection,” the GOP presidential candidate added.

“I think if it had happened, I would remember it, but, you know, there could be things I forget, too. But I don’t remember that, no.”

Trump said earlier that he recalls Arab Americans cheering the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

“[They] came tumbling down,” he said at a rally Saturday “And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, were thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.”

Trump than reiterated that claim during an interview early Sunday with ABC host George Stephanopoulos.

“It did happen — I saw it,” he said. “It was one television. I saw it. George, it did happen.

“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey — where you have large Arab populations,” Trump continued.

“I know it might not be politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering … as those building came down,” the New York business mogul added. “And that tells you something. Not good.”

Rumors have long circulated that Muslim Americans applauded the attacks In Newark, N.J., and Paterson, N.J. Multiple local leaders and law enforcement officials there, however, deny that those accounts are accurate. 

The Anti-Defamation League criticized Trump’s account as “factually challenged” during a statement released Sunday.

“It is unfortunate that Donald Trump is giving new life to long-debunked conspiracy theories about 9/11,” the organization said.