Biden, first lady will travel to all three sites of 9/11 attacks

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by visiting all three sites where the attacks occurred, according to an announcement from the White House.

The president and first lady will travel to New York City, where hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, leading to the death of 2,763 people.

They will also travel to Shanksville, Pa., where 40 passengers and crew on United Airlines Flight 93 died after thwarting a planned attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The couple will also travel to the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed after it was hijacked. That incident led to the death of 184 people — 125 of whom were in the Pentagon and 64 of whom were on the plane.

Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will travel to Shanksville for a separate event and then meet the first couple at the Pentagon.

Next Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the attack that led to nearly 3,000 deaths and sparked America’s 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.

The United States withdrew all of its troops on Aug. 31 following a month of chaos after the Taliban overran the Afghan government. The withdrawal came ahead of Biden’s original deadline of Sept. 11. 

The Taliban’s takeover sparked widespread criticism of the president’s decision to withdraw troops at a rapid pace.

Thousands of Afghans, American allies and U.S. citizens flooded the roads to the international airport in Kabul to escape the Taliban’s regime. 

The U.S. has evacuated more than 100,000 people from the area, but Afghan partners who helped the American military during the conflict remain. 

Near the end of the evacuation effort, a suicide bomber believed to be associated with ISIS-K detonated an explosive that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans. 

Biden signed an executive order on Friday directing the Justice Department and other agencies to release declassified information about the FBI’s investigation of the attack for the next six months. 

The issue of the documents had been ongoing for quite some time. Families of some of the victims urged Biden not to attend memorial events that day unless he released the documents.