Former Republican strategist Matthew Dowd said on Tuesday that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol carried out by pro-Trump insurrectionists was worse for the nation than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“Because there’s been no accountability, it’s given permission to do more of this,” Dowd said on MSNBC. “And not only has it given permission to just average people out there who might do crazy things, it’s allowed the Republicans just to continue this big lie that they’ve pushed across.”
Dowd, who was chief strategist on President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection effort, said he recently visited the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, where he contemplated the 16th president’s warning that America would only be destroyed from the inside.
“That’s what I fear about right now,” Dowd said, adding:
“What would happen if after 9/11 we had done nothing? To me, though there was less loss of life on January 6th, January 6th was worse than 9/11 because it’s continued to rip our country apart and give permission for people to pursue autocratic means. And so I think we’re at a much worse place than we’ve been.”
“I think we’re in the most perilous point in time since 1861 and the advent of the Civil War,” he added.
See more of Dowd’s comments below: