fell. but trump made another claim last night, one that is a little harder to fact check, trump boasted he has a sixth sense. sort of a spidey sense when it comes to predicting terror attacks. cnn s athena jones is in washington. he essentially said last night if everyone listened to him the twin towers might be standing. that s right, john. he said about 18 months before 9/11 he warned about osama bin laden saying he s a bad guy, you better take him out. he s going to be trouble. trump also touted his own high iq and his high poll numbers last night. meanwhile his opponents are blasting his tough rhetoric and hoping for a poll surge of their own. i haven t done this yet. i brought my family. [ cheers and applause ] i brought my family. reporter: donald trump in south carolina, turning his campaign into a family affair. good evening. isn t he the best?
out a national database of muslims, calling for surveillance of mosques and repeating a debunked claim that he saw thousands in new jersey celebrating on 9/11. last night he accused the media of quashing evidence of the celebrations. i said very, you know, very strongly and very correctly. i said there are people over there and they were dancing in the street. and they were dancing on rooftops. so i was taking heat because, you know, the liberal media they want to guard that. they don t want that out. reporter: jeb bush blasted trump s claim on new day . 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. 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. now, trump will be back on the trail on saturday
continue to be at a statistical tie in the polls, i wouldn t be surprised to see going after elected politician, which trump is not, and cruz will very happily point to the fact he has a record, has a proven record of standing up for conservative values, and that s a great way to promote his own candidacy while not directly attacking trump back. which i think is the path to go. so maybe not fair to suggest, amanda, that cruz is scared. but there is a risk in alienating trump voters, yes? well, any candidate should be interested in getting as many voters as they can whether they re supporting trump, carson, bush, rubio, whoever. i personally don t like the nasty aspect of politicking against other republican candidates. i think the best path is to show by you have the most positive attraction to get those voters and to be a happy warrior going through this election because as maria pointed out we ve had enough nastiness so far. but i actually think there is an obligation to point
campaigning in florida. and on monday in new york his campaign says trump will be joined by a coalition of 100 african-american evangelical pastors and religious leaders who will endorse him in a press conference after a private meeting at trump tower. the campaign hasn t released the names of those religious leaders yet, john. that will be interesting to see on monday. athena jones, thank you so much. let s talk about this with cnn political commentators amanda carpenter who once worked for ted cruz and maria cardona who once worked for hillary clinton. amanda, i want to start with you here. henry barberer, republican strategist great article in boston globe today about trump s support in new hampshire. you can t peel voters off of him with a crowbar. essentially saying the people who like trump like him just no matter what. well, it s the kind of thing that amazes all of us in the media that he can say things we don t know are totally true. and it comes down to the fact that he s