Pants on fire: Donald Trump told a completely fake story about 9/11, but he’s sticking by it

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he saw “thousands” of people cheering the September 11 attacks in New Jersey — something that is widely known to be untrue.

But instead of recanting when asked about the fake anecdote, the would-be Republican presidential candidate doubled down.

Trump first told the story Saturday at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama, as he pressed the need for greater surveillance, including monitoring certain mosques, in the wake of the Paris attacks.

“I watched when the World Trade Centre came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering,” Trump said Saturday at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama.

Trump repeated the assertion Sunday in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week, as Stephanopoulos explained to Trump that police had refuted any such rumours at the time.

“It did happen. I saw it,” said Trump. “It was on television. I saw it.”

“There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Centre came down,” he said.