Washington's leadership doesn't remember the lessons of the 9-11 attacks, GOP candidate George Pataki, who was governor of New York that day 14 years ago, said Friday.
"Radical Islam, even if it's an ocean and a continent away, poses a threat to us here in America," Pataki told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "I also think the American people have forgotten the lesson."
He said he never looks forward to Sept. 11, as it was "just a horrible, horrible day," but still, on that day, Americans came together and put aside petty differences.
"We weren't Republicans or Democrats," he said. "We weren't black or white, young or old. We were Americans. And one of the most moving things to me was to see how we all had that sense of identity as Americans first and then whatever seems to superficially divide us way down below that."
But now, he said, "we are as divided as I've ever seen during my lifetime, when were so unified in the days, weeks and months after Sept. 11."
Pataki said that he didn't want to be partisan, given what day it is, but still criticized Senate Democrats on rejecting the Iran deal and who "will not allow a vote on one of the most important, if not the most important multi-national agreements of the last decade. It's simply outrageous."
He said that if he's elected he'd work across party line, as "the only way you're going to be able to really change this country is by putting together a bipartisan consensus in Washington."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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