During a Saturday speech at the United Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, former President George W. Bush compared domestic extremists like those who attacked the Capitol in January to the terrorists who perpetrated the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Although Bush does not appear to have specifically referenced former President Donald Trump and his supporters, the implication of his remarks was obvious, especially since Bush even spoke of the determination by extremists based both in the U.S. and elsewhere to “defile national symbols.” Bush also said that Americans have a “duty” to confront domestic extremism, just as there’s a duty to deal with foreign threats.
Bush commented as follows:
‘We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within. There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.’
Watch Bush’s remarks below:
George W Bush on 9/11: "We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within … they are children of the same foul spirit and it is our continuing duty to confront them." pic.twitter.com/TGvHoCbjJV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2021
Bush isn’t even the first prominent conservative interest to compare those who attacked the Capitol on January 6 to the terrorists behind 9/11. In a recent video, the anti-Trump conservative group known as The Lincoln Project did the same, with a narrator in that video describing an initially unspecified attack on the United States in a way that could easily describe either the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, or the January Capitol assault. That video concludes by noting that there have “only been two large-scale terrorist attacks planned against the U.S. Capitol,” adding that the attack on “January 6 was ordered by an American president.”
Thus, the video pointedly asks:
‘Where do you stand? With the terrorists? Or America?’
Check out that video below:
An attack on the U.S. Capitol is an act of terrorism, whether the attackers are foreign or domestic. pic.twitter.com/dPbUX3AgKg
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) September 9, 2021
As for the country’s confrontation of those who have perpetrated and supported acts like the Capitol assault, authorities within the Justice Department are continuing to deal with hundreds of defendants who’ve been charged for their role in the attack. The House committee investigating the riot is also continuing its probe, having recently obtained troves of documents in response to its requests to government agencies for records covering critical junctures of the Trump era. The committee is also targeting records from private entities including a slew of communications companies covering individuals connected to the Capitol attack
