Today marks the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, when Al Qaeda terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Or, as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) likes to describe it, "some people did something." She used that description while speaking at an event for the Council of American-Islamic Relations in California. The full quote is below:
"Here's the truth," she said. "For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen. Frankly, I'm tired of it. And every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties."
Every September 11 in New York City, the victims' loved ones read aloud the names of their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives who perished that day. This year, one speaker did not let Omar's shocking comment go unaddressed. Nicholas Haros Jr., who lost his mother, Frances Haros, in the attack, showed up to today's ceremony with a shirt that read, "some people did something" and a message for the congresswoman.
"'Some people did something' said a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota…Today I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom."
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 11, 2019
Full video here: https://t.co/K2m92hUsMP#September11 pic.twitter.com/3DjjsPYzCw
"'Some people did something,' said a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota, to support and justify the creation of CAIR, [The Council on American-Islamic Relations]," Haros said after reading his mother's name. "Today I'm here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom. Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done. There is no uncertainty about that. Why your confusion?"
The representative published the following message on Twitter today.
September 11th was an attack on all of us.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 11, 2019
We will never forget the thousands of Americans who lost their lives in the largest terror attack on U.S. soil.
I will continue to fight to make sure we care for the first responders and families who lost loved ones. #NeverForget
Still, her initial message about the terror attacks appeared to be an attempt to try and skew the narrative with an emphasis on political correctness. The New York Times was guilty of the same thing today. Its report on the anniversary this morning read, “Eighteen years have passed since airplanes took aim at the World Trade Center and brought them down.” Airplanes, not terrorists.
The news outlet apologized and corrected the line following a hefty round of backlash.
"Eighteen years have passed since terrorists commandeered airplanes to take aim at the World Trade Center and bring them down," the controversial sentence now reads.
Today is always a somber day as we commemorate the tragedy. After crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, terrorists tried to crash one more plane before hero passengers downed the aircraft in a Pennsylvania field.
Never forget.