OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Kamala Harris marked the one-year anniversary of the incident at the U.S. Capitol by claiming that day was comparable to the attacks of Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001.
In a speech calling from the Capitol on Thursday, the vice president claimed that “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.”
For the record, roughly 2,400 Americans died during the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
A reported 2,996 people were killed during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Below is a transcript of her comments:
Fellow Americans, good morning. 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. Dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars but a place in our collective memory. December 7th, 1941. September 11th, 2001.
And January 6th, 2021. On that day, I was not only vice president-elect, I was also a United States senator. And I was here at the Capitol that morning at a classified hearing with fellow members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Hours later, the gates of the Capitol were breached. I had left, but my thoughts immediately turned not only to my colleagues but to my staff, who had been forced to seek refuge in our office, converting filing cabinets into barricades.
What the extremists who roamed these halls targeted was not only the lives of elected leaders. What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is.
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. On January 6th, we all saw what our nation would look like if the forces who seek to dismantle our democracy are successful: the lawlessness, the violence, the chaos.
What was at stake then and now is the right to have our future decided the way the Constitution prescribes it, by we, the people, all the people. 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.
When I meet with young people, they often ask about the state of our democracy, about January 6th, and what I tell them is January 6th reflects the dual nature of democracy, its fragility, and its strength.
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