Trump, Harris plan dueling 9/11 occasions in NYC, Pennsylvania

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris will each mark the twenty third anniversary of the 9/11 assaults at stops in New York Metropolis and Shanksville, Pa. 

The somber schedule is more likely to be overshadowed by fallout from Tuesday night time’s debate, among the many most anticipated occasions of the 2024 election — particularly after the final debate precipitated President Biden leaving the race. 

Biden and Harris will travel to Ground Zero in New York, to the Flight 93 Nationwide Memorial in Shanksville, after which to the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., to mourn the victims of the assaults in any respect three websites.

“You will notice the president and vp subsequent week collectively as they mourn the hundreds of lives that have been misplaced on that day and likewise the primary responders who clearly put their lives on the road to guard Individuals on that day,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre instructed reporters final week. 

Trump can also be planning to go to the 9/11 Memorial on Wednesday, in addition to a hearth station in New York Metropolis, earlier than touring to Shanksville for a Flight 93 memorial, in response to a marketing campaign official. 

Presidential candidates have overlapped on 9/11 anniversaries throughout election years earlier than. In 2016, Trump and then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton visited Floor Zero on the fifteenth anniversary of the assault. They arrived individually and didn’t seem to work together.

Final yr, Harris joined a 9/11 remembrance occasion in New York Metropolis whereas Biden attended a memorial ceremony in Alaska on his manner again from a visit to Asia, drawing conservative criticism. In 2021, Biden traveled to all three websites for the twentieth anniversary of the assault. 

Trump released a video to mark the date final yr, saying “nobody who lived by means of the horror of the September 11 terrorist assaults can ever neglect the agony and the anguish of that horrible day.”

Nevertheless, the previous president has a sophisticated historical past with the assaults. He has made doubtful claims about his presence at Floor Zero within the days after the assaults, and has made unfounded accusations about Muslim Individuals in New Jersey cheering because the World Commerce Heart got here down. 

This yr’s anniversary occasions come after Trump confronted widespread backlash for bringing his marketing campaign employees to an occasion at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery marking the anniversary of the Kabul bombing on Aug. 26, 2021, that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians. 

Trump stated that he was invited to the cemetery by the household of one of many lifeless service members, however the Military stated his marketing campaign violated legal guidelines in opposition to politicizing the navy cemetery after reviews that two of his marketing campaign staffers pushed apart a cemetery official attempting to implement the foundations. 

The previous president has additionally angered many 9/11 households in recent times as his golf programs have performed host to the LIV Golf tour, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund. The 9/11 households are waging an ongoing authorized battle searching for to carry Saudi Arabia liable for its alleged position within the 2001 assaults. Trump has largely ignored the criticism.

The group, 9/11 Justice,  launched a press release Tuesday criticizing reviews that PGA Tour officers, together with Tiger Woods, are assembly Saudi representatives for talks on a possible merger with LIV Golf. 

The 9/11 Fee established by Congress stated in 2004 that it uncovered “no proof that the Saudi authorities as an establishment or senior Saudi officers individually funded” al Qaeda, and that is still the official place of the USA. 

Nevertheless, the FBI has reportedly continued investigating allegations of logistical help {that a} Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent offered to hijackers.

And the allegations of Saudi involvement have been again within the information this summer time after a video was launched displaying Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence operative, giving a tour of landmarks in Washington, D.C., in 1999, across the similar time al Qaeda was believed to be deciding on targets for its assaults. 

The video included pictures of entrances, exits and safety checkpoints on the U.S. Capitol, which federal officers imagine was the goal of Flight 94 earlier than passengers compelled their manner into the cockpit and the airplane crashed in Pennsylvania. 

“It’s one other very giant brick in an enormous wall of proof that at this level signifies the Saudi authorities was complicit within the 9/11 assaults,” Richard Lambert, a retired FBI agent who led the preliminary 9/11 investigation in San Diego, instructed “60 Minutes,” which obtained the video. 

9/11 households and their representatives in Congress are additionally pushing to make 9/11 a federal vacation. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y) introduced a bill last year that may shut faculties and different authorities buildings on Sept. 11 to honor those that died within the assaults. 

And with the World Commerce Heart Well being Program anticipating a funding scarcity within the coming years, a recurring concern, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) this summer time reintroduced a bill that may guarantee this system’s funding for the remainder of its existence. 

Neither Lawler’s nor Gillibrand’s payments have made it out of committee.