Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) drew ridicule and condemnation from across the political spectrum after defending President Donald Trump's claim that firefighters carried him from Ground Zero after 9/11.
Cruz was speaking to CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night, hours after Trump described his own role in the response to the 2001 attacks at a White House ceremony honoring emergency responders.
Trump told the crowd on the Ellipse that he was at the site the day after the attacks when a nearby skyscraper began to creak, according to PolitiFact.
"We thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen … grabbed me under the arm, said, 'Got to get out of here,' and they literally lifted me up," Trump said.
PolitiFact could find no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the recovery effort, a claim he has repeated for years.
The outlet found that accounts do support the fear that the building might collapse, but none place Trump at the scene. The earliest photograph or video of him near Ground Zero is dated Sept. 13, 2001.
Trump World Tower, the building his company had under development in 2001, stood about 5 miles uptown, the fact-checker noted. Richard Alles, then a New York Fire Department battalion chief, told PolitiFact in 2019 that he knew of no one who had ever witnessed Trump at the site.
"He's kind of making it sound like he was pulled out of the rubble with the firefighters," Collins said of those remarks Tuesday night. "Do you think that's appropriate?"
"9/11 was 25 years ago. It was a horrific moment for our entire country," Cruz replied. "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."
"Some people might just hear that and think he's exaggerating his role," Collins said. "Should anyone exaggerate what happened on 9/11?"
"Look, I think when you're sharing your feelings, your sentiments," Cruz answered, before turning to his own memory of being in Washington that day.
This answer drew serious rebuke.
"Senator Cruz ran for president in 2016 as a 'courageous conservative,' yet somehow, courage disappears whenever the name Trump comes up," said Gregg Nunziata, a veteran of the conservative legal movement who now leads the Society for the Rule of Law, in a post on X.
"Ted being Ted. Such a coward," wrote Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who ran against Trump in the 2020 primary.
"What a disgrace is Ted Cruz," added Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
"9/11, a completely normal and forgettable day for New Yorkers," wrote another X user, John Lund, in a sarcastic post. "Whenever you ask anyone where they were that day, almost 99% of people answer 'I don't remember.'"
Trump does not plan to attend the anniversary ceremony in New York on Friday, PolitiFact reported, and will instead mark the day at the Pentagon.