WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris honored victims on the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when four hijacked commercial airliners crashed into New York City’s Twin Towers, a Pennsylvania field and the Pentagon, shocking the world and precipitating years of U.S. war targeting extremists.
Biden and Harris honored the nearly 2,977 lives lost that day visiting all three sites Wednesday. In New York City they sat among leaders past and present, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. 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 contentious presidential debate Tuesday night, during which they blamed each other for the deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan two decades after the United States invaded in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.
Biden and Harris then traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to lay a wreath at a memorial near the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.
They also brought pizza and beer to local volunteer firefighters.
Both walked to a sandstone boulder in the field that marks the point of impact, according to reporters traveling with the president and vice president.
Trump also visited the memorial and crash site in Shanksville on Wednesday, according to press who were present.
Biden and Harris closed the day by laying a wreath at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where 184 people were killed when a hijacked jet targeted the hub of U.S. defense operations.
“On this day 23 years ago, terrorists believed 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 of hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together — to defend our country, and to help one another. That is why terrorists targeted us in the first place: our freedom, our democracy, our unity.”
“They failed. But we must remain vigilant. Today, our longest war is finally over. But our commitment to preventing another attack on our people never will be,” he continued.
Both the president and Harris hailed the Obama administration’s 2011 U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, a known terrorist who antagonized the U.S. for years before directing his al-Qaida network to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
“(A)nd two years ago, 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 at the United States or the American people and we continue to disrupt terrorist networks wherever we find them.”
Tributes from Congress
Congressional leaders paid tribute to the victims as well 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, resiliency, and the bravery of New Yorkers, our first responders, the families of those who were taken from us, and Americans across the country,” Schumer posted on X Wednesday. “We will #NeverForget the souls we lost on 9/11 and in the years since.”
In remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell honored the 9/11 victims and also criticized the Biden administration for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also attacked Harris for comments she made on the debate stage Tuesday.
“The Biden-Harris Administration pretends the war on terrorism is over,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The vice president, herself, claimed last night that ‘there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone (for) the first time this century.’”
“This, of course, would be news to the U.S. service members who conducted operations against ISIS in Iraq last week, and to the sailors intercepting Houthi rockets in the Red Sea, and to the families of service members killed and injured in the attack on Tower 22 near Jordan’s border with Syria earlier this year,” McConnell said, referencing Iran-backed militant attacks on shipping vessels and a U.S. Air Force and Army base in the northernmost tip of Jordan.
Both U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries marked the anniversary by laying a wreath at the 9/11 memorial in the U.S. Capitol that honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
“The 9/11 terrorists sought to destroy America, but they were no match for the indomitable American spirit. On this solemn day, we honor the lives of those lost and remember the strength and courage of our first responders who ran towards danger, not from it. We will never forget their extraordinary sacrifice,” Johnson of Louisiana said in a statement.
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, called attention to emergency workers who developed chronic health issues following their duties at the Manhattan crash site.
“Hundreds of first responders selflessly and bravely answered the call and ran towards danger. They risked their own safety to rescue whoever they could find. Due to the toxic exposures they endured at Ground Zero, many went on to contract severe or terminal long-term illnesses,” Jeffries said in a statement, spotlighting the more than two dozen New York firefighters who died this year from their 9/11-related diseases.
“Our commitment to our courageous first responders is ironclad and must endure. House Democrats will always stand up for the heroes who gave everything on that tragic day,” Jeffries said, blasting Republicans who in 2019 stalled , and some who voted against, a government medical fund for the responders. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”
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