On Monday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” host Audie Cornish said that she wants to honor people killed on September 11, 2001, “but I can’t because we want to talk about the Michigan Senate race. It’s not that I don’t think that people who are upset about Hasan Piker can’t be upset. What I don’t understand is, is 9/11 not so massive on its own that we don’t need to drag random Senate races into it?”
While discussing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), and Vice President JD Vance at 9/11 ceremonies, Republican strategist Katie Frost said that “no one in the Republican Party has been seen campaigning with someone who said America deserved 9/11. This is a serious issue that Democrats are having to answer for, particularly in Michigan, where you see the brother of the pilot who was on the plane that was flown into the Twin Towers is now doing an ad for Mike Rogers.”
Cornish then cut in to say, “I think, Katie, what I’m asking though, is — I understand what you’re saying. What I — the footprint I think I’m processing is, we’re in the middle where we’re concerned about AI cyberattacks. There [have] been some attacks by Iran on water. We have the 9/11 event itself, [in] which, thousands of people died, and I want to honor them, but I can’t because we want to talk about the Michigan Senate race. It’s not that I don’t think that people who are upset about Hasan Piker can’t be upset. What I don’t understand is, is 9/11 not so massive on its own that we don’t need to drag random Senate races into it? Though, I can’t actually get an answer about whether we are better off — safer today than we were then. I cannot get that answer. Because I have spent the entire time hearing about a mayor who’s been in office for less than six months.”
Frost replied, “I would say we are safer than we were. And if you had gone back 25 years ago and said there would never be another significant terrorist attack on American soil in 25 years, no one probably would have believed you.”
Cornish responded, “But why not take that win? Why spend this time spinning our wheels looking at foolishness that has nothing to do with whether or not we’re safe or the lives of those people? It’s been a news story that’s been, like, actually driving me legitimately crazy. I don’t like — what? Like, maybe I could hear about the toxic air that killed people…why isn’t it okay for 9/11 to be 9/11? Why does 9/11 have to be 2026 midterms?”
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