Ted Cruz Defends Trump's 9/11 Claims Amid Commemoration Events

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) defended President Donald Trump's disputed account of his experience during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, stating the event was a traumatic experience for all of them.

Cruz appeared on CNN's The Source, where host Kaitlan Collins questioned him about Trump's claim that two firefighters physically attempted to carry him away from a building 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 with construction workers and insisted his account was accurate.

Cruz responded that he had every doubt that what he's conveying there is what he experienced. PolitiFact found no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the recovery effort, a claim he has repeated for years. PolitiFact also states Trump was miles away from the World Trade Center on 9/11 and was not whisked out of any building near Ground Zero that day.

The White House did not provide evidence for Trump's story, with spokesperson Davis Ingle stating Trump was relaying his experience of a city reeling immediately after and in the days and weeks after the horrific attacks. President Trump honored 9/11 victims at the Ellipse on Tuesday, pledging to never forget. The event, spearheaded by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, showcased a 21-foot, nearly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Trump's presence began a week of commemorations that will culminate in several events on Friday, including one at the Pentagon. Trump said the steel beam is a reminder that "America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer and no terror can destroy." He paid tribute to Jeffrey Palazzo, a New York City firefighter, and Welles Crowther, an equities trader.

The U.S. Coast Guard will commission a new fast-response cutter this weekend in New York in honor of Palazzo. Trump's remarks briefly included political commentary, as he warned of people turning a communistic way.