The U.S. remembered the lives taken and those reshaped by 9/11, marking an anniversary laced with presidential campaign politics as President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stood together in the plaza where the twin towers once stood.
Sept. 11 — the date when hijacked plane attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001 — falls in the thick of the presidential election season every four years, and it comes at an especially pointed moment this time.
Fresh off their first-ever debate Tuesday night, Harris and Trump met again at the 9/11 observances at the World Trade Center in New York and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.
Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance arrived at the trade center site around 8 a.m. and posed for photographs with some in the audience. Harris arrived with Biden about a half-hour later, to cheers of “Kamala!” from some audience members.
Biden and Trump shook hands, and then the president and Harris stood only a few feet from Trump and Vance, with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg between them.
But the political backdrop wasn’t top-of-mind for victims’ relatives such as Cathy Naughton, who came to the ceremony to honor her cousin Michael Roberts, one of hundreds of firefighters killed in the attack.
Twenty-three years later, “it’s just so raw,” she said. “We want to make sure people remember always, and say the names always and never forget.”
“Every year, it just doesn’t get easier,” she added.
Regardless of the campaign calendar, organizers of anniversary ceremonies have long taken pains to try to keep the focus on victims. For years, politicians have been only observers at ground zero observances, with the microphone going instead to relatives who read victims’ names aloud.
If politicians “care about what’s actually going on, great. Be here,” Korryn Bishop, who lost her cousin John F. McDowell Jr., said on her way into the ceremony. “If they’re just here for political clout, that upsets me.”
Biden, on the last Sept. 11 of his term and likely his half-century political career, was headed with Harris later to ceremonies in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, the three sites where commercial jets crashed after al-Qaida operatives took them over on Sept. 11, 2001. Trump also was due at the Flight 93 National Memorial near rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Officials later concluded that the aircraft that crashed there was headed toward Washington. It went down after crew members and passengers tried to wrest control from the hijackers.
The attacks killed 2,977 people and left thousands of bereaved relatives and scarred survivors. The planes carved a gash in the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters, and brought down the trade center’s twin towers, which were among the world’s tallest buildings.
The catastrophe also altered U.S. foreign policy, domestic security practices and the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to attacks by foreign extremists.
Effects rippled around the world and through generations as the U.S. responded by leading a “ Global War on Terrorism,” which included invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those operations killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops, and Afghanistan became the site of the United States’ longest war.
As the complex legacy of 9/11 continues to evolve, communities around the country have developed remembrance traditions that range from laying wreaths to displaying flags, from marches to police radio messages. Volunteer projects also mark the anniversary, which Congress has titled both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
At ground zero, presidents and other officeholders read poems, parts of the Declaration of Independence and other texts during the first several anniversaries.
But that ended after the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum decided in 2012 to limit the ceremony to relatives reading victims’ names. Bloomberg was board chairman at the time and still is.
Politicians and candidates still have been able to attend the event. Many do, especially New Yorkers who held office during the attacks, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was then a U.S. senator.
She and Trump overlapped at the ground zero 9/11 remembrance in 2016, and it became a fraught chapter in the narrative of that year’s presidential campaign.
Clinton, then the Democratic nominee, abruptly left the ceremony, stumbled while awaiting her motorcade and later disclosed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia a couple of days earlier. The episode stirred fresh attention to her health, which Trump had been questioning for months.
In 2008, then-senators and presidential campaign rivals John McCain and Barack Obama made a visible effort to put politics aside on the anniversary. They visited ground zero together to pay their respects and lay flowers in a reflecting pool at what was then still a pit.
To be sure, victims’ family members occasionally send their own political messages at the ceremony, where readers generally make brief remarks after finishing their assigned set of names.
Some relatives have used the forum to bemoan Americans’ divisions, exhort leaders to prioritize national security, acknowledge the casualties of the war on terror, complain that officials are politicizing 9/11 and even criticize individual officeholders.
But most readers stick to tributes and personal reflections. Increasingly they come from children and young adults who were born after the attacks killed a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle.
“Even though I never got to meet you, I feel like I’ve known you forever,” Annabella Sanchez said last year of her grandfather, Edward Joseph Papa. “We will always remember and honor you, every day.
“We love you, Grandpa Eddie.”
9/11 Memorial Events: Biden, Harris, Trump, Vance Remember the Tragedy
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump shook hands at the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City, Sept. 11, 2024, 23 years after the 2001 attacks.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both traveled to New York City following their first presidential debate showdown, to put politics aside and commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Wednesday marks the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly 3,000 people died as the result of a group of terrorists launching coordinated attacks against the U.S. by hijacking and crashing commercial airline planes at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in what became America’s most deadly terrorist attack.
President Biden; Harris; Trump; and his running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, attended the 9/11 memorial at the World Trade Center site, also known as Ground Zero, in lower Manhattan to commemorate 23 years since the terrorist attacks.
From left to right: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former President Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance pay their respects to 9/11 victims at Ground Zero in New York City on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
President Biden, former President Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris and Ohio Sen. JD Vance were seen standing side by side Wednesday during the 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero.
Trump and Harris were seen shaking hands Wednesday at Ground Zero ahead of a remembrance ceremony for 9/11 victims.
After the ceremony, Trump is expected to visit New York Fire Department Engine 4, Tower Ladder 15.
Vice President Kamala Harris shakes hands with former President Donald Trump as former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and President Biden look on during a remembrance ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center at Ground Zero, in New York City on Sept. 11, 2024. (ADAM GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)
He is then set to travel to Shanksville to the Flight 93 Memorial.
Biden and Harris are also expected to travel to Shanksville for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 Memorial.
Later, Biden and Harris will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
A Moment Of Unity In A Divided Nation
The 9/11 attacks were a defining moment in American history, and the anniversary continues to be a time for reflection and remembrance. This year, the anniversary comes at a time of intense political division in the United States. The 2024 presidential election is just a few months away, and the rhetoric between the candidates has been increasingly heated.
The fact that Biden, Harris, Trump, and Vance were all able to come together to honor the victims of 9/11 is a sign that even in a deeply divided country, there are still some things that can bring us together. It is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, we can find hope in the shared humanity that binds us.
The Twin Towers in 1994. (Stephan Schulz/picture alliance via Getty Images)
More than 400 first responders gave their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, including 23 New York City police officers, 37 Port Authority workers and 343 New York City firefighters.
The 40 passengers and crew members of Flight 93, all of whom lost their lives, are believed to have prevented a larger attack by fighting back against the terrorists who hijacked the plane. The field in Shanksville where the plane crashed is just a 20-minute flight from the U.S. Capitol.
The “Tower of Voices,” part of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on May 26, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden-Harris administration on Aug. 31, 2021, withdrew all U.S. military assets from Afghanistan, after having a presence for nearly 20 years following the 9/11 attacks.
The 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by al Qaeda while it was being sheltered by the Taliban.
