Rep Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., deleted her post on Twitter Sunday morning the almost 3,000 people killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — including the 19 hijackers that flew planes into the two World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The MediaIte website reported that Jayapal posted, "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," on Twitter Sunday, marking the 21st anniversary attacks, including the 2,977 innocent people that died and the 19 Arab hijackers responsible.
The tweet was later deleted, the news outlet reported.
It is not the first time Jayapal, who was elected to the House in 2016, has included the 19 terrorist hijackers in the tally of those who died during the attacks.
"Today we remember the 2,996 people who were killed on 9/11, and all those who lost their lives in the forever wars that followed," Jayapal tweeted last year while marking the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
In his remarks Sunday, President Joe Biden separated the number, mentioning the number of victims specifically as 2,977.
Biden said at a ceremony at the Pentagon Sunday, "21 years ago — 21 years — and still we kept our promise: Never forget. We'll keep the memory of all those precious lives stolen from — from us: 2,977 — at Ground Zero in New York; in Shanksville, where my wife is speaking now — in Pennsylvania; 184 of them here at the Pentagon."
Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter, and Republican House candidate in Maryland, Matthew Foldi, re-tweeted Jayapal's post before it was deleted, criticizing her.
"Why on earth is Pramila Jayapal including the 19 radical Islamic terrorist hijackers in the 9/11 death count?" Foldi posted. "This is not a mistake — Pramila Jayapal, [a] leading House Democrat, regularly mourns the 19 radical Islamic terrorists who declared war on civilization."
While the Wikipedia website lists the full 2,996 number as the total killed in the attacks, when searched on Google, the entry does breakdown the total including the number of hijackers, the 2,753 killed in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 in Pennsylvania.
Jayapal, however, also sponsored a House resolution last year honoring those lost and condemning U.S. actions and bias crimes against Muslims following the attacks.
"We must fully condemn all manifestations and expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious bigotry while also finally acknowledging the climate of hate that Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities have experienced in the two decades since Sept. 11, 2001," Jayapal said in a press release regarding the proposed resolution last year. "As we acknowledge that our own government implemented harmful policies that unfairly profiled and targeted Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities, we must also celebrate that these very communities have met these challenges with unwavering courage, strength, compassion, and resilience while uniting in the aftermath to advocate for civil and human rights — work which continues to this day to benefit all Americans."
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