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Kamala Harris participated in the commemoration at the National September 11 Memorial Museum located at ground zero on Sunday to mark the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Her visit to the Big Apple came as a pre-recorded interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd showed the vice president claiming domestic threats to democracy should be treated in the same manner as foreign terrorists.
She suggested that ‘attacks from within’ were ‘very harmful’ to America’s status as a ‘role model’ of democracy.’
Joining Harris in New York City on Sunday was second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Also spotted at the somber event are Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, among others.
Before the ceremony, Harris and Emhoff were seen smiling as people took pictures of the couple.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden was arriving in Washington, D.C. – ending his weekend at his home in Wilmington early to participate in a wreath laying and deliver remarks at the Pentagon.
Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff participate in a commemoration ceremony marking the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at ground zero in New York City on Sunday
New York Representative Alexandria Ocsio-Cortez also attended the ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan on Sunday
Former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who was in office during the terrorist attack, attended the ceremony in Manhattan on Sunday despite his fall from fame working with the former president and pushing claims the 2020 election was stolen
Harris’ appearance Sunday came as NBC News aired a pre-recorded interview in which the vice president suggested attacks on democracy inside the US should be treated the same as outside attacks
Despite the uniting day 9/11 tends to be, Harris reiterated other Democrats’ sentiments in her NBC interview by claiming Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 are threats to democracy.
‘When I was on the Senate Intelligence Committee, that was actually my favorite committee when I was in the Senate,’ Harris told Todd.
‘The reason is, when we’d walk through the doors – each of us, Republicans, Democrats, Independents – when we walked through the door of the SCIF, that secure room, press could not come in,’ she explained. ‘No cameras, no public, just us. People would take off their jackets, they’d roll up their sleeves, and they were Americans first, focused on the threats to our national security – in common, on common grounds, with a common purpose, which is to defend our nation against attack.’
‘When I think about what we have been seeing in terms of the attacks from within,’ Harris added, ‘I wish that we would approach it the same way – as Americans, instead of through some partisan lens.’
Host Chuck Todd nudged Harris forward, ‘It sounds like you think this threat is as great.’
Spotted at the commemoration was Biden’s DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attended the ceremony on Sunday to mark the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack
Kamala and Emhoff smiled for pictures before the somber ceremony on Sunday
‘I think it is a threat. And I think it is very dangerous and I think it is very harmful. And it makes us weaker,’ the vice president replied.
She suggested that the US had a duty to root out domestic threats to electoral freedom ‘as a defender and an example of a great democracy.’
‘And one of the things though that comes with that privilege is that we hold ourselves out to be a role model, which means the rest of the world, like any role model, watches what we do to see if it matches up with what we say,’ Harris explained.
The vice president took an outwardly political turn when she called out the Republican candidates ‘who are election deniers’ running for state secretary roles.
‘I’m very concerned about it,’ she said of the message that US election denialism sends to the world.
‘Because there are so many issues going on in the world that I think require, at least how we as Americans have traditionally thought about what is right, what is good, what should be fought for, what should be human ideals, and certainly the ideals of democracies.
‘And I think that through the process of what we’ve been through, we’re starting to allow people to call into question our commitment to those principles. And that’s a shame.’
Harris had been criticized earlier this year for comparing the January 6 Capitol riot to September 11th and to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.
‘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 said in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on the insurrection’s one year anniversary.
‘Dates that occupy not only a place on our calendars, but a place in our collective memory: December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, and January 6, 2021.’