Kamala Harris Selects New Communications Director Following Several Staff Exits; Vice President Compares January 6 To Pearl Harbor, 9/11

Following a slew of recent layoffs from her office, Vice President Kamala Harris has named a new communications director.

Harris has chosen longtime Democratic communications staffer Jamal Simmons to serve as her communications director, according to Fox News. The choice is anticipated to be publicized this week.

VP chooses Jamal Simmons as new comms director

Ashley Etienne, Harris' former communications director, revealed in November that she would be leaving her position in December. Simmons, a Michigan native, will succeed her. Etienne isn't the only vice president's office employee who has lately stated his intention to leave.

Last month, Harris' main spokesperson, Symone Sanders, quit. Vincent Evans, the vice president's deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental relations for over a year, said this week that he is departing to become executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Thursday, Peter Velz, the director of Harris' press operations, completed his last day on the job. He has stated that he would be leaving Harris' office in November to take up a new position in the State Department.

The resignation came after a CNN investigation in November that revealed rising discontent within Harris' office, as the vice president's approval ratings continue to plummet despite a succession of gaffes during her first year in office.

In a speech at the Capitol on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris compared the attack on January 6 to the 9/11 attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people, and the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. There were 2,977 persons murdered in the terrorist assault on September 11, 2001. The bombing of Pearl Harbor claimed the lives of 2,403 Americans. Harris referenced previous century civil rights battles, as per Daily Mail.

The Greeks created the term democracy around 430 BC, which means "for the people," and democracies date back to the ninth and tenth centuries in places like Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the United Kingdom, San Marino, and Switzerland.

White House defends Kamala Harris' Jan. 6 statement

Because the United States is the oldest modern democracy, some have argued that the United States is the oldest modern democracy. The Constitution is the world's oldest governmental document that is still in effect today. The United States democratic system is based on the Constitution. Critics of Harris' 9/11 connection, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, are using the statements as an "excuse."

Per The Washington Examiner, the White House backed Vice President Kamala Harris' remarks in which she compared last year's Capitol riot to the Pearl Harbor bombing and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. People latching on Harris's statements Thursday, which drew a line between December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, and January 6, 2021, according to press secretary Jen Psaki, were shifting responsibility for protecting democracy.

Harris' statement that the dates "instantly remind all who have lived through them where they were, and what they were doing when our democracy came under attack" drew immediate rebuke, with critics pointing to the thousands of Americans who died at Pearl Harbor and in the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and Twin Towers, which prompted the United States to go to war.

Ari Fleischer, press secretary to former President George W. Bush, called the move "absolutely absurd and ridiculous" in a Fox News interview. The Jan. 6 riot resulted in the death of a Trump supporter and indirectly led to the deaths of two U.S. Capitol Police officers.