NEW YORK CITY — During a Monday speech, New York native Donald Trump accidentally used the name of the international convenience store chain 7-Eleven in place of the date of the deadly terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center that killed more than 3,000 people.
Trump, speaking at Buffalo's First Niagara Center ahead of Tuesday's primary, hoped to defend "New York values," which were previously bad-mouthed by his chief rival, Sen. Ted Cruz.
"I wrote this out. And it's very close to my heart because I was down there. And I watched our police and our firemen down on 7-11, down at the World Trade Center, right after it came down," the Republican front-runner said.
"Now, New York has been a symbol of American strength to the world. Now, where do we see the values? We see the values with our New York police and firefighters. They don't get enough credit. These are great, great people. Great Americans."
Trump appeared at the event with former Jets coach Rex Ryan.
The candidate hadn't publicly acknowledged his mistake as of Tuesday morning, according to CNN.
Trump is currently leading in the Republican delegate count with 756 to Cruz's 559 and John Kasich's 144, according to Real Clear Politics. A candidate needs 1,237 delegates to clinch the GOP nomination.
Trump is looking to win as many of the 95 delegates up for grabs in New York, where he is more than 25 points ahead of his rivals, according to RCP polls.
A big day for New York and for our COUNTRY! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2016
