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

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris will both mark the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at stops in New York City and Shanksville, Pa. 

The somber schedule is likely to be overshadowed by fallout from Tuesday night’s debate, among the most anticipated events of the 2024 election — especially after the last debate precipitated President Biden leaving the race. 

Biden and Harris will travel to Ground Zero in New York, to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, and then to the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., to mourn the victims of the attacks at all three sites.

“You will see the president and vice president next week together as they mourn the thousands of lives that were lost on that day and also the first responders who obviously put their lives on the line to protect Americans on that day,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week. 

Trump is also planning to visit the 9/11 Memorial on Wednesday, as well as a fire station in New York City, before traveling to Shanksville for a Flight 93 memorial, according to a campaign official. 

Presidential candidates have overlapped on 9/11 anniversaries during election years before. In 2016, Trump and then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton visited Ground Zero on the 15th anniversary of the attack. They arrived separately and did not appear to interact.

Last year, Harris joined a 9/11 remembrance event in New York City while Biden attended a memorial ceremony in Alaska on his way back from a trip to Asia, drawing conservative criticism. In 2021, Biden traveled to all three sites for the 20th anniversary of the attack. 

Trump released a video to mark the date last year, saying “no one who lived through the horror of the September 11 terrorist attacks can ever forget the agony and the anguish of that terrible day.”

However, the former president has a complicated history with the attacks. He has made dubious claims about his presence at Ground Zero in the days after the attacks, and has made unfounded accusations about Muslim Americans in New Jersey cheering as the World Trade Center came down. 

This year’s anniversary events come after Trump faced widespread backlash for bringing his campaign staff to an event at Arlington National 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 said that he was invited to the cemetery by the family of one of the dead service members, but the Army said his campaign violated laws against politicizing the military cemetery after reports that two of his campaign staffers pushed aside a cemetery official trying to enforce the rules. 

The former president has also angered many 9/11 families in recent years as his golf courses have played host to the LIV Golf tour, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The 9/11 families are waging an ongoing legal battle seeking to hold Saudi Arabia responsible for its alleged role in the 2001 attacks. Trump has largely ignored the criticism.

The group, 9/11 Justice,  released a statement Tuesday criticizing reports that PGA Tour officials, including Tiger Woods, are meeting Saudi representatives for talks on a potential merger with LIV Golf. 

The 9/11 Commission established by Congress said in 2004 that it uncovered “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” al Qaeda, and that remains the official position of the United States. 

However, the FBI has reportedly continued investigating allegations of logistical support that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent provided to hijackers.

And the allegations of Saudi involvement were back in the news this summer after a video was released showing Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi intelligence operative, giving a tour of landmarks in Washington, D.C., in 1999, around the same time al Qaeda was believed to be selecting targets for its attacks. 

The video included shots of entrances, exits and security checkpoints at the U.S. Capitol, which federal officials believe was the target of Flight 94 before passengers forced their way into the cockpit and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. 

“It is another very large brick in a massive wall of evidence that at this point indicates the Saudi government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks,” Richard Lambert, a retired FBI agent who led the initial 9/11 investigation in San Diego, told “60 Minutes,” which obtained the video. 

9/11 families and their representatives in Congress are also pushing to make 9/11 a federal holiday. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) introduced a bill last year that would close schools and other government buildings on Sept. 11 to honor those who died in the attacks. 

And with the World Trade Center Health Program anticipating a funding shortage in the coming years, a recurring issue, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) this summer reintroduced a bill that would ensure the program’s funding for the rest of its existence. 

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