The Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 is back in the news cycle following the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith. In both MSNBC and CNN, contributors could not help themselves but compare the riot to the worst days in our nation's history.
Michael Beschloss, NBC's presidential historian, said January 6 was not just like the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, where almost 3,000 Americans were killed, but also compared it to the Civil War and Pearl Harbor:
From time to time, America faces threats from monsters who want to destroy our democracy. That happened in 1861, with the Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln and you know, northern soldiers and northern voters came to our rescue, saved the Union. The same thing happened in 1933. Almost at the last minute, Franklin Roosevelt came to power saved our economic system. Pearl Harbor, 1941. We were bombed. Our system was very much in danger, our democracy, many people were giving it up and saying that, you know, the democracy had seen its last days, Franklin Roosevelt helped to put a coalition together at the last minute to save democracy and freedom around the world. 9/11, 2001, Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, hated our democracy, tried to destroy it. You see where I’m going?
"What we see in this indictment is that on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump, just like those other threats to American democracy, tried to destroy our system to take away our rule of law, came very close to doing it, to take away our system of elections, to take away our tradition of peaceful transfer of power to a new elected president," Beschloss continued.
Former Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger said on Wednesday: "You think of Rudy Giuliani...America’s mayor after 9/11 that’s not only not caring about this really craziest attack since 9/11 to happen in this country, he's actually fueling it."
Adam Kinzinger compares the Capitol riot to Sept. 11th: "You think of Rudy Giuliani...America’s mayor after 9/11 that’s not only not caring about this really craziest attack since 9/11 to happen in this country, he's actually fueling it." pic.twitter.com/ovLh0epXFE
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 2, 2023
Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanon, a CNN contributor, said when he heard about Trump being indicted for January 6, it felt similar to when he heard about when U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden.
Michael Fanone says Trump's indictment made him feel "the way that I did when I learned that our military had killed Osama bin Laden." Even Laura Coates was taken back. Later adds "what I say or what Republican lawmakers say is just, you know, shit to take up time on cable news" pic.twitter.com/H4b0Ahbpx3
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 2, 2023