Fetterman Compares Jan. 6 Capitol Breach to 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

Pennsylvania Lt Gov. and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator John Fetterman speaks at a reception for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 2022. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman on Nov. 2 compared the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach to the 9/11 terrorist attacks that left nearly 3,000 Americans dead and launched the United States into a decades-long war in Afghanistan.

Fetterman made the remark while speaking at a campaign event in Erie County, Pennsylvania, asking Selena King, a political strategist who moderated the event, whether she watched the events of the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally live on television and how it affected her emotionally.

“I was shocked that that happened, and especially being a person of color,” King said, claiming that “if they were people of color, it would have been totally different.”

Fetterman responded that for him, personally, the feeling “was similar” to watching the hijacked-planes fly into the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

“It was jarring,” Fetterman said, describing Jan. 6. “The last thing I would actually kind of think it was similar to is that feeling of 9/11, you know, when you see the planes hit.”

“We had this idea where you—I watched this—and I can’t believe that you have thousands of people like overrunning, you know, our government like that, and how jarring, and shocking, and how police officers die there,” he continued.

Many people criticized Fetterman’s comments on social media.

“Anyone who compares Jan. 6 to 9/11 is pond [explicit], and they should be called out until they slither away for good,” one user wrote.

Another called Fetterman’s comment “a slap in the face to victims” of 9/11.

NTD News has contacted the Fetterman campaign for comment.

‘Losing Ground’

Fetterman, whose still recovering from a stroke he suffered on the campaign trail, is hoping to gain momentum in the Senate race following his shaky debate performance recently against Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity surgeon who has recently been endorsed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city’s largest newspaper.

Republican Pennsylvania Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at an event with Nikki Haley in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 26, 2022. Mark Makela/Getty Images

In a last-minute push by Democrats touring key states to light a fire among voters, President Joe Biden will attend a rally in Pennsylvania alongside former President Barack Obama and Fetterman on Saturday.

According to an Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on Nov. 3, Oz leads Fetterman 48 to 46 percent among very likely voters, which is within the margin of error of 3 percentage points. Other recent polls have also found the Democrat either tied or slightly ahead of Oz in the lead-up to Election Day on Nov. 8.

Democrats have frequently invoked the Jan. 6 protest on the campaign trail as one of their best weapons to demonize “MAGA Republicans” or at times the whole Republican Party. “MAGA” refers to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

This is despite Jan. 6 ranking low in relevance among voters. A Harvard Caps/Harris survey (pdf) that was conducted last month among 2,010 registered U.S. voters found that only 7 percent see the event as important.

The survey found that Americans rank inflation, economy, immigration, crime, women’s rights, health care, guns, national security, and school safety, as the most concerning issues in the United States today.

From NTD News