Ted Cruz ridiculed for defending Trump 9/11 claims

Read the original at The Independent ↗
Cite

Sommerlad, J. (2026, September 10). Ted Cruz ridiculed for defending Trump 9/11 claims. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-9-11-ted-cruz-kaitlan-collins-b3047860.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

The Independent · collected 2026-09-10 · by Joe Sommerlad

Quick Summary

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz defended President Donald Trump's claim that he was saved by firefighters from a collapsing building on 9/11, despite there being no evidence of the incident occurring. Cruz stated that he believes Trump's account is true because "the man is a New Yorker" and it's unlikely that Trump would fabricate such an experience. The defense drew widespread criticism from various individuals, including leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and chess champion Garry Kasparov, who called out Cruz for his loyalty to Trump. Trump himself responded with a lengthy post on Truth Social, attacking a journalist for questioning his record on 9/11.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-10, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, New York City's first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani, faces controversy over his decision to attend memorial events despite calls from some victims' families and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for him to stay away. Mamdani, who lost an older brother in the attacks, insists on honoring those affected by reading out names at Ground Zero. Meanwhile, nearly 110,000 signatures have been collected through a petition urging Mamdani not to attend, citing concerns over his past associations and appointments that some see as conflicting with the solemnity of the event. Despite this opposition, Mamdani is moving forward with plans to release more than 170,000 pages of documents related to air quality around Ground Zero in the months following 9/11, aiming to provide transparency on what the city knew about toxic conditions and how they handled it.

Written for “9/11 Memorial Controversies” on 2026-10-25, grounded in this article and the 169 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 9/11 Memorial Controversies
Politics · 170 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Mother Jones
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 20% hedged 2 of 10 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles describe the same presidential speech where Trump recounts being hauled away from an unsafe structure by firefighters on 9/11, albeit with slight variations in wording.”
NBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 2% hedged 1 of 47 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles report on President Trump's claim that firefighters carried him to safety near Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks”
Zeteo
⚖️ Leans strongly left 🔴 50% hedged 1 of 2
“Both articles report on President Donald Trump's claims about being in an unsafe structure after 9/11, during a speech at the Ellipse in Washington D.C.”
CBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 18% hedged 7 of 38 📰 publisher trust 74
“Both articles describe the same speech by President Trump on September 11, 2026, in which he recounts an anecdote about being near Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks”
The Independent
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 7 of 121 📰 publisher trust 59
“Article A is about a claimed incident by Donald Trump involving two firemen in Manhattan after 9/11, while Article B is a reflection on FDNY Ladder 118's crew and the events of that day, but does not mention this specific anecdote or Donald Trump”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
59/100
The Independent's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
170
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-10 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Independent · 3015 article(s) · 6 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 6 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Joe Sommerlad
52 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 In one exchange, Trump was asked whether personal matters should be “off limits” when campaigning and mused with a grin: “I know one thing: if my mother said that about me, it would be a major news story.
🔮 The opposition has been widely predicted to win back the House of Representatives at next month’s midterms, which would see it regain control of its powerful investigative committees and enable its members to make life much more difficult for President Donald Trump’s administration.
🔮 In a letter from Counsel to the President William Scharf to Politico’s Global Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Greenberger dated Monday, the outlet is accused of publishing “a series of demonstrably false and defamatory articles in an apparent effort to manufacture a narrative of dysfunction and infighting in the White House” while ignoring denials from senior officials and Trump himself.
🔮 Log in President Donald Trump’s decision to hit the road to campaign ahead of November’s midterms has been met with a mixed reception from political strategists, with some wishing he would keep a lower profile.
🔮 The latest pre-midterms poll from The Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos put the president’s approval rating at just 33 percent and found that 37 percent of the public would rather see a Democrat in charge of the economy.
2026-10-20 · assertive framing · Inflation has hit a new group of goods: Trump merch
🔮 “Zacharia’s real sin may have been to irritate the wrong people.”
🔮 The Washington Sun reports the policy could even see the Treasury hire private debt collectors to help reclaim the money from former students who are behind on their obligations.
🔮 Other comments went on to suggest the pictures may have been altered using photoshop or AI.
🔮 He added that the MPD’s Internal Affairs and Criminal Investigations divisions were on the scene and that there was no further threat to the public. Chief Carroll said the suspect was the only participant in the shooting but that investigators would still like to speak to the other participants in the initial witnesses, who fled the scene when the shooting began, and any other eyewitnesses who could elaborate on how it started. The incident comes almost a year on from the shooting of two members of the West Virginia National Guard in D.C. Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe 24 – part of President Donald Trump’s federal deployment of Guardsmen to Washington – were fired on in an ambush near Farragut West metro station on November 26, 2025, just two blocks northwest of the White House.
🔮 Trump endorsed the state AG in May – helping him to beat the incumbent, Sen. John Cornyn, in the GOP primary – despite reportedly being warned against doing so by advisers in light of the candidate’s history of scandal in public office.
Also by Joe Sommerlad
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 52 articles by Joe Sommerlad →

Topics

9/11 D.C. Republican Texas Washington

Subjects

Trump PERSON · 4× Ted Cruz PERSON · 3× Cruz PERSON · 2× D.C. GPE · 2× Donald Trump PERSON · 2× Republican NORP · 2× CNN ORG · 1× Manhattan GPE · 1× Texas GPE · 1× Washington GPE · 1×

Narrative

Among those scorning Cruz’s defense was leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who tweeted: “ted cruz once famously was caught watching porn on this website on 9/11 so i’m not surprised this is his defense for trump.” Piker was alluding to the senator’s official account notoriously liking a two-minute clip from an adult film that was posted on Twitter by “SexuallPosts” on September 11, 2017, a blunder subsequently blamed on an unnamed staffer. “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything,” observed chess champion Garry Kasparov.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-10
🔮 The president delivered a speech on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Tuesday in which he recounted an anecdote about witnessing the United States Steel Building in Manhattan “creaking” days after the infamous terror attack on the World Trade Center, the 25th anniversary of which will be observed Friday.
2026-09-10 · The Independent
Ted Cruz ridiculed for defending Trump 9/11 claims · assertive framing

Claims (19 extracted, 0 hedged)

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has come to the defense of President Donald Trump after he was accused of inventing a story about being hauled away from an unsafe structure by firefighters in the wake of 9/11. asserted
he → come → 9/11
The president delivered a speech on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Tuesday in which he recounted an anecdote about witnessing the United States Steel Building in Manhattan “creaking” days after the infamous terror attack on the World Trade Center, the 25th anniversary of which will be observed Friday. asserted
anniversary → deliver → which
Trump said he was ushered to safety by “two firemen, big, strong guys,” who “grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here!’” asserted
who → say → arm
“They literally lifted me up,” he continued. asserted
he → lift → me
“This is not easy to do. asserted
This → do → ?
I’m big. asserted
I → ’m → ?
They lifted me up and they started running with me. asserted
they → lift → me
I said, ‘Fellas, I can run myself,’ but they asserted
I → say → myself
But they thought it was coming down. asserted
it → think → ?
It didn’t come down.” asserted
It → come → ?
The president has told versions of the same story at least twice before – in 2016 and 2021 – despite there being no evidence of it having really happened, prompting CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins to ask Cruz about it on The Source Wednesday. asserted
it → tell → Source
“September 11 was 25 years ago,” the senator responded. asserted
senator → respond → ?
“And you can doubt whatever you want about Donald Trump but the man is a New Yorker, he loves New York, and I have every [sic] doubt that what he’s conveying there is what he experienced and it was a traumatic experience for all of us. asserted
it → doubt → us
Among those scorning Cruz’s defense was leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who tweeted: “ted cruz once famously was caught watching porn on this website on 9/11 so i’m not surprised this is his defense for trump.” Piker was alluding to the senator’s official account notoriously liking a two-minute clip from an adult film that was posted on Twitter by “SexuallPosts” on September 11, 2017, a blunder subsequently blamed on an unnamed staffer. “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything,” observed chess champion Garry Kasparov. asserted
Kasparov → scorn → anything
“There is a genuine competition for which Republican has most debased himself in service to Trump,” said The Bulwark’s founder Sarah Longwell. asserted
founder → be → Trump
“But I think it’s Ted Cruz with a bullet.” asserted
it → think → bullet
Others derided the senator as a “bootlicker,” a “coward,” a “suck-up” and a “disgrace” for again standing up for a man who publicly insulted his wife when they were rivals for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. asserted
they → deride → 2016
The president angrily defended his remarks in a lengthy Truth Social post late Tuesday, attacking New York Magazine and New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman for questioning his record on 9/11 and his decision not to return to the Big Apple for the anniversary commemorations. asserted
president → defend → commemorations
Rather than join his four presidential predecessors – Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden – to pay his respects at Ground Zero, Trump will be at the Pentagon in D.C. instead. asserted
Trump → join → D.C.
💬Give feedback
🕘History 🎫Support