Families of 9/11 victims ripped Congressman Charles Rangel Tuesday for likening the East Harlem building explosion to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Politicians like Rangel should be the last to compare anything to 9/11. They failed to protect us,” said retired city Deputy Fire Chief James Riches, whose firefighter son, James Jr.., was killed trying to rescue people from the collapsing World Trace Center towers.
“Rangel has been in office too long. He’s losing it. They need new blood in office up there,” said Riches, who lives in Dycker Heights, Brooklyn.
The East Harlem gas explosion was a “devastating loss” to that community, Riches said, but added, “It shouldn’t be compared to 9/11.
Andrew Arias, whose brother, Adam, a vice president at Eurobrokers, died on the 84th floor of Tower 2, said Rangel’s reference to 9/11 “crossed the line.”
“Wasn’t this a gas explosion, a gas leak?,” Arias said.
“It’s a horrible thing what happened in East Harlem. But eight people were killed compared to 3,000 people. What’s he even talking about? Does everything have to be compared to 9/11?”
Rangel has defended his remarks calling the East Harlem explosion “our community’s 9/11.” He said he meant what he said.
“Some people didn’t think so, but that was the first thing I thought,” he said
“I had first described the tragic incident that took place in the heart of East Harlem as ‘our community’s 9/11’ because the chaos and shock resulting from the explosion was as devastating. While it was neither a terrorist attack nor as destructive in scope and scale, it caused immeasurable pain to everyone in our beloved community where I was proudly born and have lived all my life. Our community is resilient and will recover from the tragedy stronger and as united as ever, just as our country did after 9/11.”
Rangel, 83, first elected in 1970, faces a tough Democratic primary challenge. He was nearly defeated two years ago by state Sen. Adriano Espaillat.
Espaillat is challenging Rangel again, and Harlem preacher Michael Walrond — an ally of Rev. Al Sharpton — also has thrown h is hat in the race.
Rangel has made provocative comments in the past.
He once likened the U.S. invasion of Iraq to the Holocaust.
And Rangel once said the opposition to ObamaCare was fueled by prejudice against the first black president.