WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris paid tribute to victims on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when four hijacked passenger planes crashed into New York’s World Trade Center towers, a Pennsylvania field and the Pentagon, shocking the world and starting a years-long U.S. war on extremists.
Biden and Harris paid tribute to the nearly 2,977 lives lost that day by visiting all three sites on Wednesday. In New York, they sat among leaders past and present, including former President Donald Trump and his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, during the annual reading of the names of those who died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
Harris and Trump shook hands at a ceremony just hours after their controversial presidential debate On Tuesday night, they blamed each other for the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after the United States retaliated there for the 9/11 attacks.
Biden and Harris then traveled to Shanksville 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.
According to reporters traveling with the president and vice president, the two walked to a sandstone boulder in the field that marks the site of impact.
Trump also visited the crash site and memorial in Shanksville on Wednesday, according to press reports at the scene.
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 U.S. defense operations center.
“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 our darkest hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together — to defend our country and to help each other. That is why terrorists attacked us in the first place: our freedom, our democracy, our unity.”
“They failed. But we must remain vigilant. Today, our longest war has finally come to an end. But our commitment to prevent further attacks on our people will never be fulfilled,” he continued.
Both the president and Harris praised the Obama administration’s 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden, a notorious terrorist who targeted the United States for years before ordering his al-Qaeda network to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
“(A)two years ago, President Biden ordered the operation that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy,” Harris said in a statement. “We remain vigilant against any terrorist threats against the United States or the American people and continue to disrupt terrorist networks wherever we find them.”
Tributes from Congress
Congressional leaders 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 courage of New Yorkers, our first responders, the families of those taken from us, and Americans across the country,” Schumer wrote on Wednesday, Oct. “We will never forget the souls we lost on 9/11 and in the years since.”
In remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell paid tribute to the victims of 9/11 and 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 is pretending the war on terrorism is over,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The vice president herself claimed last night that ‘for the first time in this century, there is not a single member of the United States military serving in a combat zone.’”
“Of course, this would be news to the U.S. troops who were conducting operations against ISIS in Iraq last week, to the sailors intercepting Houthi missiles in the Red Sea, and to the families of the soldiers killed and wounded in the attack on Tower 22 near the Jordanian border with Syria earlier this year,” McConnell said, referring to the Iranian-backed militants’ attacks on transport ships and a U.S. Air Force and Army base on Jordan’s northernmost tip.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries marked the anniversary by laying a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the U.S. Capitol, which honors 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 lost and remember the strength and courage of our first responders who ran toward danger rather than away from it. We will never forget their extraordinary sacrifice,” Johnson, R-Louisiana, said in a statement.
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, drew attention to emergency workers who developed chronic health problems after performing their duties at the crash site in Manhattan.
“Hundreds of first responders selflessly and courageously answered the call and ran toward danger. They risked their own safety to save anyone they could find. Because of the toxic exposures they experienced at Ground Zero, many of them developed serious or fatal chronic illnesses,” Jeffries said in a statement, noting the more than two dozen New York firefighters who have died this year from 9/11-related illnesses.
“Our commitment to our brave first responders is unwavering and must endure. House Democrats will always stand with the heroes who gave their all on that tragic day,” Jeffries said, criticizing Republicans who in 2019 got stuckand some who voted against a government medical fund for first responders. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”
