Democratic Congressional candidate Amy McGrath said she felt the same way after President Donald Trump's election victory as she did after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
McGrath, who recently won the Democratic primary for Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, spoke at a "Meet the Candidates Series" event on Nov. 20, 2017 where she said she woke up the morning after Trump was elected feeling as if she had been sucker punched.
"And then, of course, the results of the election, we have a new commander-in-chief. And that morning I woke up like somebody had sucker punched me. I mean, I felt like, ‘what has just happened to my country?’" McGrath said at the event hosted by Indivisible Bourbon County.
"The only feeling I can describe that's any close to it was the feeling I had after 9/11," McGrath said. "'What just happened, where are we going from here,' and it was that just sinking feeling of sadness, and I didn't know what to do."
Approximately 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including military officials and employees in the Pentagon and many rescue workers in New York City.
The National Republican Congressional Committee called on McGrath to apologize for her "deeply insensitive, divisive, and disappointing" rhetoric.
"In her own words, Amy McGrath woke up the morning after President Donald Trump’s election feeling the same way she felt after a terrorist attack where 2,977 Americans were killed," NRCC press secretary Maddie Anderson said. "Her rhetoric is deeply insensitive, divisive, and disappointing. She should apologize immediately for saying that our President’s election caused her to experience the same emotions as the families of 9/11 victims."
McGrath isn't the first congressional candidate to make controversial connections of the sort. Dan Helmer, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran this year in Virginia's 10th Congressional District, compared Trump to 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden.
McGrath was the first female Marine to fly an F-18 Hornet in combat and has strong support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She will face Rep. Andy Barr (R.) in the November general election.