Donald Trump Alleges Hillary Clinton Made up ISIS Video Claim

The GOP frontrunner was interviewed by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

ByABC News
December 20, 2015, 1:34 PM

— -- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made up her claim that ISIS uses videos of him to recruit new members, said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

"Knowing the Clintons and knowing Hillary, she made it up," Trump said today on ABC's "This Week." During Saturday's Democratic debate, Clinton said ISIS is "going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”

Trump said many fact checkers have "vetted" the claim of Trump being used in ISIS videos and have proven it to be false.

Government sources and intelligence experts tell ABC News there is no evidence to support Clinton's claim that ISIS recruiters are "going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam."

Neither the White House nor National Security Council would back up Clinton's assertion, officials saying they are aware of no examples when asked by ABC News.

Two experts who closely track ISIS on social media also told ABC News that they have not seen the group using video of Trump to lure recruits.

In a separate interview on "This Week," Clinton communications director Jen Palmieri defended Clinton's claim but admitted that there is not evidence of a specific video ISIS has used.

"She’s not referring to a specific video, but he is being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda,” Palmieri said.

Later in the interview with Trump on "This Week," ABC News' George Stephanopoulos cited some examples where Trump's claims have been proven untrue, including that the September 11th attacks were celebrated in Jersey City, New Jersey.

"I'll go down that road and people may call me out but they turn out to be wrong," Trump said.

"There were plenty of people cheering," he added. "It was in Jersey and all over the world. There's an obvious problem and I think it’s disgusting."

ABC News thoroughly examined footage in and around Jersey City following the September 11th attacks and could not find any video or pictures to support Trump’s claims. There have only been anecdotal reports and rumors of small groups of people celebrating the attacks in Paterson and Jersey City, New Jersey -- none of which were televised at the time and none of which have been confirmed.

Law enforcement and local officials in New Jersey have also dismissed Trump's claims of massive celebrations.