On Wednesday, September 11th, it was the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. US President Biden and Vice President Harris, along with former President Trump and his 2024 running mate Vance, all visited the site in New York where nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in the terrorist attacks 23 years ago.
According to reports from Reuters and the Associated Press, Trump (Donald Trump) and Vance (JD Vance) arrived at the World Trade Center site around 8 a.m. and took photos with some of the people there. Harris and Biden arrived about half an hour later.
The previous night on Tuesday, Trump and Harris, respectively as the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, participated in a heated debate held in Philadelphia and broadcast by ABC News. This was their first debate ahead of the upcoming US presidential election on November 5, 2024 – just eight weeks away.
The commemoration event at the World Trade Center site began with the tolling of bells and a minute of silence. There were no speeches; instead, relatives of the victims started reading out the names of the deceased.
Harris and Trump were seen shaking hands and talking before the commemoration event, with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also present. Photos from the scene showed him standing between Biden and Trump.
Following the commemoration event in New York, Biden and Harris planned to fly to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to participate in another memorial event. They would then return to Washington to attend related memorial activities at the Pentagon.
On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, leading to suicide attacks. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York; a third plane hit the Pentagon; and the fourth plane was crashed in a rural area in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew attempted to regain control. These coordinated attacks resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 individuals.
In a morning statement, Biden said, “23 years ago today, terrorists believed they could break our spirit and make us kneel. They were wrong, they could never succeed. In our darkest times, we found light. In the face of fear, we united, defended our country, and helped one another.”
Trump also planned to visit the memorial in Pennsylvania. He told Fox News on Wednesday, “This is a very, very sad, terrible day. There has never been anything like it.”
Earlier, Biden released a statement paying tribute to those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks and honoring the hundreds of thousands of Americans who volunteered for military service in the aftermath.
Biden expressed his gratitude, saying, “We owe an unpayable debt to these patriots of the 9/11 generation.” He mentioned American troops deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflict zones, and how they captured and eliminated mastermind Osama bin Laden and his deputies.
The 9/11 attacks destroyed the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one of the tallest buildings in the world, along with ten other surrounding buildings. The site later became known as “Ground Zero.”
This tragedy altered America’s foreign policy, domestic security measures, and the mindset of many Americans who had previously not experienced attacks from foreign extremists, leading the country into a twenty-year war on terror in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, US congressional leaders posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to 13 service members who died in the suicide bombing attack at Kabul airport on August 26, 2021. At that time, the US was in the process of withdrawing from Afghanistan.