MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell blasted President Trump late Tuesday for a previous statement he made about the amount of friends he lost because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“As soon as Trump said that in the campaign debate in South Carolina that he lost hundreds of friends on 9/11, I said that he was lying,” O’Donnell said on MSNBC. “I didn’t know how many friends he lost on 9/11 but I knew it wasn’t hundreds.”
{mosads}O’Donnell was referencing comments Trump made during a 2016 Republican presidential primary debate in South Carolina, where Trump said that he lost hundreds of friends after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
O’Donnell added that it was clear Trump was lying because he immediately changed the figure a day later while speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” Trump said that he lost many friends on Sept. 11, 2001.
But O’Donnell said that it’s clear Trump was lying when he made those comments, noting that Trump had not attended a single funeral related to the terrorist attacks.
“Donald Trump did not attend a single 9/11 funeral,” O’Donnell said. “Not one. There has been much debate in the news media about how do you know when a Trump lie is a lie and not just a falsehood.
“One way of knowing is that he stops saying it. And when I held that lie up to Donald Trump’s face even he could see how evil that lie was. And even Donald Trump knew he could never try to tell that lie again.”
O’Donnell added that “Trump tried to steal the grief of 9/11 families and use it as his own.”
He also noted that this isn’t the only lie Trump has said in regards to the terrorist attacks. Trump has also claimed that he witnessed people celebrating the attacks in New Jersey on the day of the attacks.
O’Donnell’s comments came the day the nation mourned the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths.
Trump spoke at a 9/11 memorial service in Shanksville, Pa., on Tuesday, the memorial site where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.