Kamala Harris compares January 6 to Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and criticizes ‘extremists’

Vice President Kamala Harris compared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol one year ago to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11. 

‘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 began. ‘December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001 and January 6, 2021.’

Harris alluded to civil rights fights of the past century. 

‘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.’  

‘We cannot let our future be decided by those bent on silencing our voices, overturning our votes, and peddling lies and misinformation by some radical faction that may be newly resurgent, but whose roots run old and deep.’ 

‘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 began

Biden and Harris arrive to speak from Statuary Hall at the Capitol 

‘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’

On Jan. 6, 2020, hundreds of 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. Five died in the chaos of the day, including one Capitol police officer. 

Arizona’s GOP Rep. Andy Biggs’ questioned Harris’ 9/11 and Pearl Harbor comparisons.

‘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. 

In the 9/11 terrorist attack, 2,977 people were killed. In the Pearl Harbor bombing, 2,,403 Americans lost their lives. 

The vice president then pivoted to a push for legislation to expand voting rights. 

‘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?’   

‘The violent assault that took place here, the very fact of how close we came to an election overturned, that reflects the fragility of democracy,’ she said. ‘The American spirit is being tested.’  

‘Here in this very building, a decision will be made about whether we uphold the right to vote and ensure free and fair elections. Let’s be clear – we must pass voting rights bills that are now before the Senate.’ 

Biden, meanwhile, used his speech to tear into former President Trump. 

‘We saw with our own eyes rioters menace these halls, threatening the life of the Speaker of the House. Literally erecting gallows to hang the vice president of the United States of America,’ Biden recalled. ‘What did we not see? We didn’t see a former president, who just rallied the mob to attack, sitting in a private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours.’

‘Here is the truth,’ Biden continued. ‘The former president of the United States of America created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.’

Trump did so ‘because he values power over principle. Because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest, than America’s interest,’ Biden said.

‘And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution,’ Biden stated. ‘He can’t accept he lost.’ 

The Senate has put back and forth negotiations on Biden’s Build Back Better social spending bill on the back burner and pivoted toward bills that would expand voting rights.  Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer threatened to use a ‘nuclear option’ to break the 10-vote filibuster if senators don’t come to an agreement by Martin Luther King Jr. day. 

After Democrats swept the House, Senate and presidency in 2020, GOP-led states like Georgia, Arizona and Texas pushed through new voting restrictions, particularly ones that made mail-in voting more difficult. 

She compared the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol one year ago to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and 9/11

A fiery blasts rocks the World Trade Center after being hit by two planes September 11, 2001 in New York City, killing nearly 3,000

Thick smoke billows up from stricken American warships during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, December 7, 1941, killing  2,400 

Democrats have called the restrictions ‘racist’ and say they disproportionately impact young voters and voters of color who lean Democratic. 

House Democrats have passed two voting bills, but they’ve been stuck in the Senate as 60 votes are needed to overrule a filibuster in the split 50-50 upper chamber, where Harris casts the tie-breaking vote. 

Thought Schumer has pitched changing the rules so there’s a carve-out for the voting rights bills, he’s getting resistance from moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. 

He needs every Democratic senator to support the move.

Speaking from the Capitol Tuesday night, Manchin said the ‘filibuster needs to stay in place any way, shape or form that we can do it,’ according to Punchbowl News.