Eric Swalwell slammed for 'lack of sensitivity' after comparing Russian meddling to Pearl Harbor attack

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U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat seeking his party's 2020 presidential nomination, took more criticism Thursday after comparing Russian meddling in U.S. elections to the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the U.S. into World War II.

This time, the operators of the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii slammed Swalwell in a tweet regarding his remarks earlier in the week in response to news of a phone call last week between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders discussed a variety of issues, including nuclear weapons, a three-party arms control agreement, the conflict in Venezuela and Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on his Russia investigation.

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“We are dismayed at the lack sensitivity to those lives lost on December 7, 1941 by a candidate for President,” read the USS Arizona tweet, which was first reported by the Daily Caller. “These attacks that caused thousands of deaths have no place in this type of political discourse.”

More than 1,100 sailors and Marines were killed on the USS Arizona during the Japanese attack that accelerated U.S. entry into World War II.

Swalwell initially drew backlash Wednesday when he likened Trump's call with Putin to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt chatting up the emperor of Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor or George W. Bush calling Usama bin Laden after 9/11.

"Remember that time Pearl Harbor was bombed and FDR called the Emperor of Japan? Or the time the Twin Towers were struck and Bush ringed Osama Bin Laden? No? I don’t either. So why’d @realDonaldTrump call Putin after the Mueller Report was released? #CommanderInCheat," Swalwell tweeted.

He also said the most basic function of any government is to protect its people.

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"The most basic function of a government is to protect its people from a foreign attack. We were attacked in 2016. If the President and Attorney General aren't willing to protect us, we will do the work ourselves," he wrote.