Carl Paladino just claimed that when Osama Bin Laden went to visit the 9/11 memorial, it was "a message to Osama Bin Laden that, look, we conquered New York." This is the brain rot that happens when you start making excuses for Trump's 9/11 lies. Bin Laden was dead for a decade before Trump visited Ground Zero. The mental gymnastics required to defend Trump's fictional heroics at the site is now openly insane. This ties directly into the pattern: Cruz defended Trump's fabricated rescue stories, and now Republicans like Paladino are inventing entire phantom meanings to justify why Trump lied about being there on 9/11 in the first place.