CNN's Jake Tapper and Trump Organization Vice President Michael Cohen had a spirited back-and-forth on Monday as Tapper challenged Cohen on his memory of seeing on television Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the 9/11 attacks.
Multiple media outlets say Trump's claims of seeing people celebrating in the United States aren't true, and that he likely is confusing a newspaper story – later said to have been a rumor – that a few Muslims in New Jersey celebrated and actual video of Muslims in the Middle East celebrating.
"How do you explain that there's no evidence, no video evidence for what Mr. Trump claims he saw on television? How do you explain that?" Tapper asked when Cohen appeared as a guest on "The Lead with Jake Tapper."
"I'm not so sure that that's true," Cohen said. "I've worked for Mr. Trump now for a long time. And I can tell you that Mr. Trump's memory is fantastic. I've never come across a situation where Mr. Trump has said something that's not accurate."
"Seriously?" a skeptical Tapper asked.
"Yeah, seriously," Coen said.
Tapper said there's no video – or even still photos – that have turned up, and that someone likely would have produced them if they existed.
"You don't think that there are conservative media outlets out there who want Donald Trump to win, who want Donald Trump to be the next president who would desperately love to put this video up on their website?" Tapper asked.
Cohen said they have put other things up that corroborate Trump's claims and that many of his Twitter followers say they saw the video as well.
Tapper then asked Cohen about the video of Trump moving his arms around while mocking Serge Kovaleski, a former Washington Post reporter, for a story he wrote mentioning the New Jersey celebrations. Kovaleski later said he didn't remember everything he wrote in 2001, but added that the reports were later attributed to rumors.
But it was Trump's gesticulating and holding his hand at an odd position while mocking Kovaleski's claims he doesn't remember the story that have drawn Trump criticism. Kovaleski and his current employer, The New York Times, say Trump was clearly making fun of the reporter's physical condition that limits his arm movements and leaves his hand resting in an odd position.
Trump has said he didn't know about Kovaleski's condition and, therefore, couldn't have been mocking him, but the reporter himself says they knew each other in the early 1990s.
"How many people have covered Donald Trump in the past? Thousands upon thousands," Cohen told Tapper when shown the video.
"With that disability?" Tapper responded. "I would guess one."
"Do you really think Mr. Trump remembers this specific reporter?" Cohen said.
"You said he has a fantastic memory," Tapper shot back.
"He most certainly does," Coen said, but added, "He sees thousands and thousands of reporters a year."
Finally, Tapper asked whether Cohen ever talks to Trump about toning down his rhetoric.
"Do you ever have a conversation with him and say, you know, 'You really actually could be president,'" Tapper said. "'You're the front-runner, you could get the Republican nomination, you actually could win. Now is maybe a time to be a little bit more of a statesman and not attack people on Twitter, and not make fun of whatever? Do you guys ever have that conversation?'"
"Well, we definitely talk about Mr. Trump being the front-runner," Cohen said. "And we definitely talk about Mr. Trump winning the presidential bid in this upcoming election."
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