A North Carolina GOP lawmaker is facing criticism over a deleted tweet from the weekend that compared 9/11 to the Friday attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Rep. Greg Murphy responded to a tweet from Rep. Ilhan Omar suggesting the attack would have been worse if the assailant had an AR-15 style weapon rather than a knife.
“Would have been worse @Ilhan if they had been flying planes into the buildings also,” Murphy wrote.
BROTHER OF CAPITOL ATTACK SUSPECT SAYS HE SEEMED PARANOID AND SUICIDAL LEADING UP TO THE INCIDENT
Murphy’s tweet provoked criticism by some who alluded that the tweet was insensitive both to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and to Omar, one of three Muslims serving in Congress.
North Carolina state Sen. Jeff Jackson, who is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina’s highly contested race next year, called the tweet “well beneath” Murphy.
“You just invoked Sept. 11 to attack a Muslim member of Congress. I knew you a little when you were in the state legislature. This is well beneath you. It doesn’t matter how strongly you disagree with her on policy, you should represent our state better than this, @RepGregMurphy,” Jackson tweeted.
Robert McCaw, director of government affairs for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also condemned the remark by Murphy.
“It is disrespectful to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, to their families and to the countless Muslim and other minority hate crime victims who were targeted in the wake of 9/11. His bigoted comments only serve to perpetuate the climate of hate that we are witnessing nationwide,” McCaw said in a statement.
However, other Republicans criticized Omar’s tweet, saying it was inappropriate to call for gun control in the wake of the incident.
“Truly despicable of you to capitalize on the heartbreak and grief of a fallen officer’s family to promote your political narrative. Officer Evans and his family deserve better from a sitting member of Congress,” Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said.
Arsen Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer, also responded to Omar’s tweet.
“You missed the part he was an Islamist and supporter of Louis Farrakhan!” Ostrovsky said.
One Capitol Police officer was killed and another injured in Friday’s attack when a suspect rammed his car into a barricade outside the building and jumped out with a knife before being shot dead.
The fallen officer was identified as William “Billy” Evans, a member of the Capitol Police force for 18 years. The wounded officer, Ken Shaver, was discharged from a Washington, D.C., medical facility in a wheelchair on Saturday.
The attack remains under investigation, and authorities identified the suspect as 25-year-old Noah Green of Indiana, who may have been living in Virginia.
Green’s Facebook account, which has since been taken down, revealed he had been struggling during the pandemic and recently lost his job. He also appeared to be a follower of the Nation of Islam, a black separatist group led by Louis Farrakhan.
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Murphy’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
