“She characterized it only in passing,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said on Sunday. “She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans." | Carolyn Kaster/AP File Photo Congress Trump has ‘no moral authority’ to talk about 9/11, Nadler says

President Donald Trump has “no moral authority“ to talk about 9/11, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday.

“He stole $150,000 from some small businessperson who could have used it to help rehabilitate himself. And that's why we appropriated it, why I got Congress to appropriate that money,” Nadler said on “State of the Union” on CNN. “To use it for his own small business of 40 Wall Street, he has no moral authority to be talking about 9/11 at all.”


Nadler was referencing how Trump‘s company accepted post-9/11 funding for a building that had not sustained any damage. Trump said the building qualified because his company had suffered economic losses in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. The funding came from the Empire State Development Corp., New York’s economic development agency and was intended for small businesses.

Trump targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) last week for comments she made about discrimination of Muslim Americans after 9/11. Conservative pundits latched on to one portion of Omar’s comments — in which she referred to the attacks by saying that “somebody did something“ — to argue that Omar was minimizing tremendous human loss. Trump responded by tweeting a graphic video of the Twin Towers collapsing juxtaposed with Omar’s comment, earning criticism from Democrats for targeting a Muslim woman.

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Nadler said he didn’t have a problem with Omar’s remarks.

“She characterized it only in passing,” Nadler said. “She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans. And she just said that, after that happened, it was used as an excuse for lots of discrimination and for withdrawal of civil liberties.

“9/11 occurred in my district. I'm very familiar with it,” Nadler added. “I know a lot — I know people, a lot of people, who suffered from it.“