Kaitlan Collins Just Pressed Ted Cruz On Trump's Claim That Firefighters Carried Him To Safety On 9/11—And Cruz's Response Speaks Volumes

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz downplayed the seriousness of President Donald Trump's latest lie about the September 11 terror attacks during an interview with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, telling her the attack was a “traumatic experience” for everyone and that Trump can be forgiven if he's loose with details.

Trump made the claim during Tuesday’s Tunnel to Towers event on the Ellipse. He said that firefighters had actually pulled him to safety after hearing that a building would collapse near Ground Zero.

Without specifying where exactly the incident occurred, Trump said:

“I’ll never forget two firemen, we thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big, strong guys. And I’m not the smallest guy in the world. They grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here.'"

“They literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up, and they started running with me. I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself.’ But they were amazing. But they thought it was coming down but it didn't come down. U.S. steel."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

If the story sounds familiar it's because it is.

Back in 2021, Trump claimed "two big firemen" pulled him to safety after he predicted a nearby building would collapse, suggesting that his own prescience ultimately saved him and others. At the time, he said "We were hearing creaks, I've never forgotten it, it was I think the United States Steel Building it was called at the time, and it's 50 stories tall, and we heard creaks."

Trump claimed he "said 'that building is going to come down,' and two big firemen grabbed me, and grabbed other people, and they just moved out of that area." In fact, Trump was miles away from the site of the attacks that day and did not visit the site for the first time until several days later.

In response, Collins, speaking to Cruz on The Source, commented that Trump "is kind of making it seem he was pulled out of the rubble" when he never was.

To this, Cruz said:

“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. And that was a traumatic experience for all of us.”

Collins replied:

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

Cruz recalled where he was on the day of the attacks, reflecting on the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, which hijackers initially planned to crash into the Pentagon before passengers intervened:

“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.” ...

"For everyone who lived through that, we could smell the smoke ... That was a moment 25 years ago that changed our country."

You can watch their exchange in the video below.

It was the non-answer we've come to expect from Cruz, who was quickly called out.

Trump has long been criticized for disrespecting the memory of those who perished on September 11, even as far back as the very day the attack took place.

On September 11, 2001, Trump, then just a New York real estate mogul, called into a New York TV news broadcast as the station aired footage of the World Trade Center attacks and claimed that his property at 40 Wall Street would now become the tallest building in the area.

That claim turned out to be false; according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, 70 Pine Street, at 952 feet, became the tallest building in the area after September 11. Trump's building at 40 Wall Street is 927 feet tall, 25 feet shorter than 70 Pine Street.

In 2015, Trump—in one of the most widely circulated stories from his presidential campaign—claimed he'd seen "thousands and thousands" of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the attacks. Fact checks from Politifact, The Washington Post, The New York Times and FactCheck.org, have debunked this claim entirely.