Kamala Harris slammed for comparing Jan 6 riot to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor

Vice President Kamala Harris caused outrage Thursday by comparing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington by al Qaeda terrorists.

“Certain dates echo throughout history, including dates that instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were, and what they were doing when our democracy came under assault,” Harris said in remarks at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Wednesday morning. 

“Dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars, but a place in our collective memory: December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, and January 6, 2021,” Harris added.

Critics immediately slammed the vice president, accusing her of a hyperbolic lack of historical perspective.

“Your ‘collective memory’ is drowning in exaggeration,” Tim Graham of the Media Research Center tweeted in response to Harris. “The ‘independent fact checkers’ are taking the day off on this hyperbole.”

“VP Kamala Harris just equated the riot on January 6th to the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor,” conservative Kansas radio host John Whitmer said. “These people are so asinine!”

Many critics pointed out the disparate death tolls of the three events.

“The Capitol riot was bad, political violence is wrong, & people are being prosecuted for it,” Washington Examiner reporter Jerry Dunleavy tweeted. “It wasn’t comparable to Pearl Harbor (2,403 sailors, soldiers, & civilians killed by the Japanese Empire) nor comparable to 9/11 (2,977 Americans & others killed by Al-Qaeda). Obviously.”

“December 7, 1941: 2,300 Americans killed. September 11, 2001: 3,000 Americans killed. January 6, 2021: 1 American killed (Ashli Babbitt),” commentator Ben Shapiro wrote. 

“Comparing January 6th to Pearl Harbor is unhinged. Thousands of American [sic] were killed by the Japanese that horrible morning, and the war in the Pacific Theater had a death toll of roughly 30 million,” tweeted David Hookstead, the Daily Caller’s sports and entertainment editor. “January 6th wasn’t good, but it didn’t result in a savage and brutal World War.”

“You can believe January 6th was bad, and at the same time believe it’s nothing like WWII, 9/11 or any other war,” Hookstead added in a subsequent tweet. “Two things can be true at the same time!

“Pearl Harbor- 2403 Americans killed, 9/11- 2996 Americans killed, #Jan6– 1 trespasser murdered, #KamalaHarris is a disgrace,” wrote Jim Hanson, executive director of conservative nonprofit America Matters.

“2,403 Americans died on Pearl Harbor and nearly 3,000 died on 9/11 in events that resulted in the U.S. going to war for the years that followed,” said Texas Republican congressional candidate Christian Collins, who labeled Harris’ statement a “Deeply delusional comparison from a deeply unserious person.”

“Death tolls: Pearl Harbor: 2,390. Sept 11: 2,974. Jan 6: Ashli Babbitt,” chimed in former Boston sports columnist, radio host and current podcaster Gerry Callahan. “Our vice president is a despicable demagogue.”

In addition to the fatal shooting of Babbitt by a US Capitol Police officer, the department’s union estimated that nearly 140 cops were physically injured or emotionally traumatized by the attack. 

Three other Trump supporters died of medical emergencies during the riot, while Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, himself a Trump supporter, died of a stroke one day later. Four officers who responded to the violence and at least one accused rioter later died by suicide.