Far-left Rep. Pramila Jayapal faced backlash for posting and then deleting a 9/11 memorial tweet that included the 19 al Qaeda hijackers in the total death toll — for the second year in a row.
Jayapal (D-Wash.), 56, scrubbed the controversial tweet marking the 21st anniversary of the terror attacks on Sunday, according to multiple reports.
“Today we remember the 2,996 people who were killed on 9/11 and all those who lost their lives while serving our country in the forever wars that followed,” the post read, alongside an image of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
The tweet had the exact same wording as the one Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, had posted in 2021. That post had also been deleted as of Monday afternoon.
Jayapal had yet to offer an explanation for why she used the improper figure for the second year running.
Officially, 2,977 people were killed when four hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pa. However, a Google search of the phrase “how many people died on 9/11” returns the 2,996 number.
Curiously, a post that appeared on Jayapal’s official Facebook account on Sunday used the 2,977 figure.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also appeared to have included the hijacker-inflated death toll in a since-deleted tweet over the weekend honoring those killed in the attacks.
“We can never forget — not just the 2,996 souls we lost on 9/11 — but also the first responders who ran into the buildings and those who sacrificed to stop Flight 93,” McCarthy wrote. “In one of the darkest moments of America, we saw some of the greatest character of Americans.”
“If you’re going to knock @RepJayapal for including the hijackers in the number of people killed on 9/11, please also include @GOPLeader in your criticism,” journalist Yashar Ali tweeted.
Still, Jayapal bore the brunt of the backlash, with many accusing her of honoring the terrorists responsible for killing thousands of innocent Americans.
“OMG she added in the 19 hijackers to the people ‘we’ mourn on 9/11. No, the number of people killed was 2,977. We do not mourn the hijacker Rep. Jayapal. Perhaps you do, but we do not,” conservative write Carmine Sabia tweeted.
“I’ll remember the 2,977 victims, and not the 19 terrorists, but you do you,” Jonathan H. Adler, a law professor, added.
Meanwhile, KTTH radio host Jason Rantz pointed out the identical tweet from last year, tweeting: “Never forget that Pramila Jayapal included terrorists in the 9/11 death toll. She did in 2021 and again in 2022.”
Former GOP congressional candidate Matthew Foldi added: “This is NOT a mistake — Pramila Jayapal, leading @HouseDemocrats, regularly mourns the 19 radical Islamic terrorists who declared war on civilization.”