Firefighters and 9/11 families outraged by Kamala’s comparison of the Capitol riot terror attack
‘Reckless, appalling – an insult is too mild a word’: Survivors and families of 9/11 victims voice utter fury at Kamala Harris for comparing Capitol riot to the Al Qaeda terror attacks
Mary Geraghty, 61, whose husband was an FDNY chief called the vice president ‘out of touch’ and said ‘there is absolutely no comparison. Insult is too mild a word’Widows and first responders called on Harris to apologize for her ‘insulting’ comparison. Families say they are tired of being used for political purposes 9/11 united the country against a common enemy, they say. January 6 saw a nation divided White House backed Harris’s comments saying critics were using it as an ‘excuse’ to address the significance of the riot
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Survivors of the September 11 terror attacks and the families of those who died have slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’s comparison to the Capitol riot as ‘reckless’ and ‘appalling.’
They called on Harris to apologize for her ‘insulting’ comparison.
In a speech given on Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of Capitol riots, Harris equated January 6 to the 9/11 attacks and Pearl Harbor. In the 9/11 attacks, 2,977 people were killed and more than 6,000 others were injured.
‘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. ‘December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001 and January 6, 2021.’
Mary Geraghty, 61, whose husband, New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief Edward Geraghty, died on 9/11, told DailyMail.com she was almost too upset by the comparison to comment.
‘I’m still speechless that our vice president would make that comment,’ she said. ‘There were terrorists that came onto American soil and slaughtered American citizens. There is absolutely no comparison. Insult is too mild a word.’
‘I guess you can’t expect much from someone who is so out of touch,’ she said.
Asked if she thought Harris’s comments were divisive, she said: ‘I think she was being Kamala Harris.’
FDNY Battalion Chief Edward Geraghty oversaw several firehouses on the day of the terror attack. His widow Mary Geraghty, 61, told DailyMail.com she was almost too upset by the comparison to comment. ‘I’m still speechless that our vice president would make that comment,’ she said. ‘There were terrorists that came onto American soil and slaughtered American citizens. There is absolutely no comparison. Insult is too mild a word.’
Equity trader John Ryan (left) worked for Keef, Bruyette & Woods which lost a third of their employees that day. His widow Patty said: ‘I think it’s quite distressing. I think it totally minimizes the deaths of 3,000 people who died on our soil that day.’ Mall manager Bruce Eagleson (right) died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center after making sure that 18 coworkers got out of the building before it collapsed. Mr Eagleson’s widow Gail was baffled by the comparison
Gail Eagelson, whose husband Bruce Eagelson helped get 18 people out of the building before perishing in the inferno, said Vice President Kamala Harris seems like a difficult person. She disagreed with her comparison of 9/11 to the January 6 riot on the Capitol building
Patty Ryan with her husband, Joseph ‘JR’ Ryan, who died in 9/11. She said the families of the victims of 9/11 are tired of elected officials using the tragedy for their political gains
On September 11, 2001, the coordinated attack on the World Trade Center in New York City by al Qaeda killed 2,977 innocent civilians and launched a 21-year war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, that took 2,403 lives and pulled the U.S. into World War II.
In her speech on Thursday, Harris described the Capitol Hill fracas as an assault on democracy.
‘I wonder, how will January 6 be come to be remembered?’ Harris said. ‘Will it be remembered as a moment that accelerated the unraveling of the oldest and greatest democracy in the world? Or a moment when we decided to secure and strengthen our democracy for generations to come?’
John Feal, (left) whose Fealgood Foundation was instrumental in getting the federal government to restore money to the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. Joseph Mistrulli (right) was a union carpenter working in Windows on the World on 9/11, he died in the attack. His daughter Angela would like to see Vice President Kamala Harris sit down with the families so that she understands their viewpoint
The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center killed 2, 9777 people and launched a twenty-year war on Iraq and Afghanistan
Families of men who died on 9/11 issued blistering criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tone-deaf comparison of the Capitol riots to the 9/11 terror attacks and Pearl Harbor
The White House defended Harris’s comments, claiming critics were missing the bigger point.
‘Instead of, for those who are being critics of the vice president’s remarks, I think instead of focusing on, or analyzing comparisons of moments in history, I would suggest that they be a part of solving the threat to democracy that occurs today … They are using this as an excuse not to be a part of that,’ White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
But NYFD Battalion Chief Geraghty’s widow Mary brushed off the White House’s defense of the Vice-President.
‘They’re accustomed to doing damage control to back her up,’ Geraghty said. ‘Politics aside, our government needs to do better.’
Angela Mistruli, whose father Joseph Mistrulli, a union carpenter working in the top of the North tower restaurant Windows on the World, said that Al Qaeda and the Japanese intended to cause death and suffering.
‘I don’t like bringing 9/11 into political conversation,’ she said. ‘I don’t believe the people on January 6 went there with the intent of harming anyone.’
She said she would like to see Harris sit down with the families of the victims to talk about how the government bring accountability to those responsible for that day.
‘This is a nation of laws and we’ve never had our day in court,’ she said.
Retired Fire Captain Anthony Varriale said putting events in their proper context is an important part of remembering.
He assigned to Engine 24, Ladder 5 on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan on 9/11.
‘I lost 11 guys in my firehouse,’ he said. ‘I lost 30 friends in all. I had to dig shredded bodies out of the rubble and she’s going to compare it to that?’
He said that Harris should step down as vice president.
‘It’s embarrassing that she’s the vice president of the United States. It’s like a knife to my gut,’ he said. ‘I think she should resign.’
The widow of another victim, Gail Eagelson, whose husband Bruce died in the South Tower of the World Trade Center after making sure that 18 co-workers made it out safely, said she was baffled by the comment.
‘I really don’t have respect for her, so I don’t listen to what she says,’ Eagelson told DailyMail.com
‘What is it? Seven people died at the Capitol, and that’s unfortunate, but how can you compare that to 9/11.’
On January 6, 2020, Trump supporters marched from his ‘Save America’ rally to breach Capitol security as members of Congress and former Vice President Mike Pence were certifying the vote in favor of Biden. Four people died in the chaos of the day, and one injured Capitol police officer died a day later after suffering a stroke.
Eagleson said she doesn’t remember where she was on January 6 last year.
‘I remember where I was when the federal building was bombed in Oklahoma,’ she said, referring to the April 19, 1995 home-grown terror attack that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. ‘I don’t really remember what I was doing.’
‘It seems like she’s a difficult person. She can’t keep staff. She seems like she has a chip on her shoulder. She kind of has an attitude.’
‘Here is the truth,’ Biden said. ‘The former president of the United States of America created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election’
John Feal, whose Fealgood Foundation spearheaded the effort to restore funding to the 9/11 Victim’s Compensation Fund, said Harris’s comments were reckless.
‘She joins a long list of elected officials who have misspoke, no knowing the pain that still exists in the 9/11 community,’ he said.
Harris misses the point of the two events, Feal said.
Biden wipes his eye as Harris delivers her remarks commemorating January 6
‘Both caused a lot of harm and damage to our country, but we witnessed 9/11 collectively as a nation,’ he said. ‘We witnessed 1/6 as a divided country.’
She was speaking recklessly, not knowing that words do hurt,’ he said. ‘Should she apologize? Absolutely. Will she apologize? I don’t care. I’m an Army vet, a 9/11 first responder and a kidney donor.’
He said that there was no justice for the victims of 9/11.
‘At least for January 6, justice will come,’ he said. ‘I hope that the bring the ringleaders to justices and I think they are — slowly.’
‘I don’t think she said it with malice, but maybe she thought she was going to score some political points with some people.
Harris compared the three events as an attack on democracy.
‘What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not only the lives of elected leaders … what they were assaulting were the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed and shed blood to establish and defend.’
She compared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol one year ago to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11
Patty Ryan, whose husband J.R. Ryan was a securities trader for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, which lost a third of its staff in the attack, said she was tired of politicians using her families tragedy as a political justification.
‘Its just so frustrating,’ she said. ‘What we went through with the withdrawal of Afghanistan. We felt so bad for those people and what was being done in our name. We are constantly being used for political purpose.’
‘I think it’s quite distressing. I think it totally minimizes the deaths of 3,000 people who died on our soil that day,’ she said.
Politicians also chimed in to condemn Harris’s comments.
‘Let’s just be clear here: When they try to act like this is something akin to the September 11 attacks, that is an insult to the people that were going into those buildings,’ Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Republican Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona questioned the 9/11 Pearl Harbor comparison.
‘Kamala compared Jan6 to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Twin Towers. Fear-baiting and truth-twisting at its finest,’ Biggs wrote on Twitter.
