Families of 9/11 victims slam Democrats for saying Jan 6 riot was worse

The surviving friends and families of victims that died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks say they'd appreciate it if reporters and unhinged pundits in Washington stopped using the unspeakable trauma for political fodder.

President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech back in April glossed over 9/11 entirely, instead he insisted that. Jan 6 was "the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War."

However former intelligence officials, Rep. Eric Swalwell, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are among those who described the sought-after Jan. 6 commission as "9/11-style."

A lengthy piece by Fox News details the disgust and anger that family members of 9/11 victims feel whenever they hear the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6 being compared to the tragedy from two decades ago.

Here's a breakdown:

• Jim Riches, retired New York Deputy Fire Chief, lad lost his firefighter son. "Are they kidding me? 3,000 people died, plus we have more people dying from the air that was down there … They're comparing it to score points politically. The families are really [angry]. When I talk to them, when they compare it to that, they find that outrageous."
• Debra Burlingame's brother was a pilot, murdered in the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. "There are a lot of young people who have no living memory of 9/11 … When you have all these comparisons and analogies, which are inflated and ridiculous, it minimizes what actually happened, and that's what's happening here. It's a deliberate ploy." The piece by Fox mentions Debra wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed at the end of May expressing similar sentiments.
• Joe Connor's cousin Steven Schlag died in the World Trade Center. He remembers trying to contact Schlag that day but couldn't get through and still remembers the moment the towers fell. "They just dehumanize our families for political gain. I guess they call it gaslighting. They can say these things that will make people believe that these riots were worse than the worst thing that happened on American soil. Either they're ignorant or they're just really devious and clever, and you can put nothing past them, because if you're willing to lie to that degree … It's a disturbing trend to me."
• Don Arias's brother worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower. "Clear thinking people see these inflammatory statements as the bulls--t they are. There’s no comparison."
• "Grizzly Joe" lost four friends, got their names tattooed on his arm. "Numerous criminals masquerading as self-styled ‘patriots’ (I call them ‘extremists’) fought with police officers and sullied the Capitol by virtue of the incursion. It strikes me that if folks need to compare January 6 to 9/11, they have no faith in their ability to portray January 6 as the unfortunate criminal act that it was."

Other Sept. 11 comparisons by media and political pundits include that not passing the For the People Act would be a "replay of 9/11," HuffPost’s White House correspondent saying the Capitol riot was "1000 percent worse" than 9/11, and FBI Director Chris Wray last month compared it to a series of ransomware attacks impacting large US companies.