President Trump on Monday signed a bill extending the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund into law, telling first responders in attendance that he was "down there" with them at the time.
Trump spoke from the White House during a signing ceremony for the bill that recently passed the Senate, interjecting while describing how the law will benefit first responders with this aside.
"And I was down there also," Trump said, referring to Ground Zero. "But I'm not considering myself a first responder. But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you."
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Politifact notes that "it is accurate that Trump was at least near Ground Zero two days following the Sept. 11 attacks." In 2001, he claimed he had "a lot of men" who would be "helping to reconstruct" at Ground Zero, and during the 2016 election, he claimed that he was "there" and he "helped a little bit" to clear the rubble. Snopes and Politifact both investigated the claim that Trump had men assisting in the recovery and couldn't determine its accuracy, although Snopes quoted a retired New York City Fire Department deputy chief as saying, "This is the first I'm hearing of it. There would have been no need for that." CNN wrote on Monday that this claim is one "that 9/11 responders have called dubious." Brendan Morrow
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