WATCH: Ex-Republican Strategist Matthew Dowd Explains Why 1/6 Was Worse Than 9/11

Horrific events often have the effect of unifying the country. The attacks on 9/11 was a good example of this. Despite the heavy partisanship of 2001, George W. Bush had a 90% approval rate soon after.

1/6 was another horrifying event in American history. But the country certainly hasn’t come together since. And that, Matthew Dowd says, is why the January insurrection was worse than the 2001 attacks.

The former Republican strategist made the comments during a Tuesday night appearance on Joy Reid’s show. The host began, “It feels like things have gotten worse since January 6th. I remember reading the reports when Trump ran for office he inspired a uptick in violent white nationalism. The chatter was this is our guy. He’s gone now. Even without his presence daily on social media we have members of congress openly paling around with people who marched in Charlottesville.”

Dowd responded, “I absolutely agree, I think it is much worse than on January 6th, much worse than it was in November. Much worse after January 6th. Part of the problem is because there’s been no accountability it’s given permission to do more of this. Not only it’s given permission to just average people who might do crazy things, it’s allowed the Republicans just to continue this big lie that they’ve pushed across.”

The guest concluded:

“To me, though there was less loss of life on January 6, January 6 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, and as I’ve said to you before, I think we’re in the most perilous point in time since 1861 and the advent of the Civil War.”

Todd Neikirk

Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.