Media

It’s 9/11, So It Figures We’d See Some Hot Takes Like These

A man stands in the rubble, and calls out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower 11 September, 2001, in New York. (DOUG KANTER/AFP via Getty Images)

DOUG KANTER/AFP via Getty Images

Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
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On the 19th anniversary of September 11, 2001, some used the memory of terrorist attacks against America and compared it to COVID-19 deaths.

On September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon took the lives of 2,977 people. Today, the death toll continues, as some who worked in the aftermath suffer from related illnesses.

While many took the time to remember 9/11 and pay tribute to those lost, others had less-than-thoughtful takes. (RELATED: Here’s Why The Media Is Wrong To Compare Coronavirus Deaths To 9/11)

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman began his 9/11 tribute tweet by claiming that it is “hard to remember how large the terrorist attack loomed in our national psyche” because the death toll from “COVID-19 is already the equivalent of 60 9/11s.”

Krugman continued on to say that “Americans took 9/11 pretty calmly” and that “daily behavior wasn’t drastically affected.” He pushed back on those “describing the aftermath as a time of national unity,” writing that “Republicans began exploiting the atrocity almost immediately.”

“Almost two decades on, it’s now clear that the real threat to America comes not from foreign terrorists but from home-grown white supremacists. But you know what? That was true even in 2001,” Krugman wrote.

CNN’s White House correspondent John Harwood used the day to try and compare the terrorist attacks to a global pandemic, too. (RELATED: NYT Suggests Planes, Not Terrorists, Were Responsible For 9/11 Attacks)

“The pandemic is now EVERY WEEK taking twice as many American lives as were lost on 9/11,” Harwood tweeted.

Attorney and Trump critic George Conway called out President Donald Trump for COVID-19 deaths on the anniversary of 9/11. He wrote that it is “almost 66 times the number of innocent dead” from 9/11.

The Washington Post’s “conservative opinion writer” Jennifer Rubin also brought up the global pandemic, tweeting that “Trump has allowed more than sixty-six 9/11’s.”

“The right- wing that cannot feel fury but instead cheers a president that allowed this to happen really has left the realm of human decency,” according to Rubin. “The level of intellectual dishonesty and character failure blows my mind.”

Cori Bush, the Democratic nominee for Missouri’s 1st Congressional district, began her tribute tweet by pointing out those who died on 9/11 and the people who continue to die due to illnesses caused by the attacks – which are “combined with a lack of access to healthcare.”

“We also mourn the 192,000 lives that have been lost this year in our country due to terroristic negligence from the President,” Bush added. “The equivalent of 64 September 11th attacks.”

Talk show host Chip Franklin took things a step further and wondered if “anyone else” is “concerned that Trump is going to manufacture a 9/11 type of attack right before the election?”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) referred to the 2001 terrorist attacks as an “incident” in a tweet Friday, sparking major backlash.

“Today we remember all the lives lost and families affected during the horrific incident that occurred in 2001. #NeverForget,” the NAACP tweeted.

Meanwhile, The Lincoln Project’s co-founder Ron Steslow claimed in a now-deleted tweet Thursday evening that “every day @realDonaldTrump remains President is equivalent to one of the WTC [World Trade Center] towers falling on 9/11.”