(CNN) — Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he doesn’t believe Donald Trump’s claim that “thousands” of American Muslims cheered the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“I don’t believe it happened. I know many Muslims that were just as angry and saddened by the attack on our country. I don’t believe it,” Bush told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on CNN’s “New Day.”
Trump and his advisers have stood firm behind his statement that American Muslims celebrated the attacks shortly after 9/11 in New Jersey. Trump’s chief counsel, Michael Cohen, told CNN Tuesday that Trump was “probably right” with his comment and added it could not be disproved: “There’s no way to say that it wasn’t.”
Bush said the comment points to a bigger problem about the need for “serious leadership.”
“Look Donald Trump says these things to prey on people’s fears, their anger, their frustration with Washington. He’s quite effective at it, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about and he’s not a serious leader,” Bush said. “We’re living in difficult times, we need serious leadership to be able to solve the problems that we have domestically and lead America around the world so that we can create peace and security for ourselves.”
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