WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris remembered the victims on the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That day, four hijacked airliners crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, an airfield in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, shocking the world and sparking a years-long U.S. war against extremists.
Biden and Harris remembered the nearly 2,977 people who lost their lives that day, visiting all three sites on Wednesday. In New York City, they sat among past and present world leaders, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, during the annual reading of the names of those who died when the Twin Towers collapsed.
Harris and Trump shook hands at the ceremony, just hours after their (*11*)controversial presidential debate Tuesday night, blaming each other for the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after the U.S. invaded in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks.
Biden and Harris then traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to lay a wreath at a memorial near the airfield where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.
They also brought pizza and beer to the volunteer firefighters on site.
According to reporters accompanying the president and vice president, both walked to a sandstone rock on the field that marks the impact site.
According to press representatives present, Trump also visited the memorial and crash site in Shanksville on Wednesday.
Biden and Harris ended the day by laying a wreath at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where 184 people were killed when a hijacked plane attacked the center of US defense operations.
“On this day 23 years ago, terrorists thought they could break our will and bring us to our knees. They were wrong. They will always be wrong,” Biden said in a statement. “In the darkest hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together – to defend our country and help each other. That’s why terrorists targeted us in the first place: our freedom, our democracy, our unity.”
“They have failed. But we must remain vigilant. Today, our longest war is finally over. But our commitment to prevent another attack on our people will never end,” he continued.
Both the president and Harris welcomed the Obama administration’s killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. Bin Laden was a known terrorist who had provoked the United States for years before ordering his al-Qaeda network to carry out the September 11 attacks.
“(I)n two years, President Biden ordered an operation that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy,” Harris said in a statement. “We remain vigilant against any terrorist threat directed against the United States or the American people, and we will continue to dismantle terrorist networks wherever we find them.”
Honors from Congress
Leading members of Congress also paid tribute to the victims on Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York attended the morning ceremony at Ground Zero in Manhattan.
“Today and every day, we remember and honor the sacrifice, resilience and bravery of New Yorkers, our first responders, the families of those taken from us, and Americans across the country,” Schumer posted on X on Wednesday. “We will #NeverForget the souls we lost on 9/11 and in the years since.”
In a speech on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell paid tribute to the victims of 9/11 while criticizing the Biden administration for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also attacked Harris for comments she made on the debate stage on Tuesday.
“The Biden-Harris administration is acting as if the war on terrorism is over,” said the Kentucky Republican. “The vice president herself claimed last night that ‘for the first time this century, not a single member of the U.S. military is on active duty in a combat zone.'”
“This would, of course, be news to the U.S. troops who conducted operations against ISIS in Iraq last week, and to the sailors who intercepted Houthi missiles in the Red Sea, and to the families of the soldiers killed or injured in the attack on Tower 22 near the Jordan-Syria border earlier this year,” McConnell said, referring to Iran-backed insurgent attacks on ships and a U.S. Air Force and Army base in Jordan’s northernmost tip.
Both Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries commemorated the anniversary by laying a wreath at the 9/11 Memorial in the U.S. Capitol, which is dedicated to the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
“The terrorists of 9/11 sought to destroy America, but they were no match for the indomitable American spirit. On this solemn day, we honor the lives of those who lost theirs and remember the strength and courage of our first responders who ran toward danger, not from it. We will never forget their extraordinary sacrifice,” Johnson, of Louisiana, said in a statement.
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, drew attention to rescue workers who developed chronic health problems after working at the crash site in Manhattan.
“Hundreds of first responders selflessly and courageously answered the call of 911 and ran into danger, risking their own safety to save anyone they could find. Due to the toxic exposure they were exposed to at Ground Zero, many of them developed serious or fatal long-term illnesses,” Jeffries said in a statement, referring to the more than two dozen New York City firefighters who have died this year from 9/11-related illnesses.
“Our commitment to our brave first responders is rock solid and must endure. Democrats in the House of Representatives will always stand up for the heroes who gave their all on that tragic day,” Jeffries said, criticizing Republicans who in 2019 come to a standstilland some who voted against a state medical fund for the helpers. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”
