While the campaign for the 2024 presidential election has already begun, everything is obviously political. After returning from the G20 summit in India and a state visit to Vietnam, Joe Biden commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks from a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. But if the conservative media and certain elected officials have denounced this decision, it is not the first time in history that an American president has not visited one of the attack sites.
“I join you on this solemn day to renew our sacred promise: Never forget, never forget, each of these precious lives was stolen too soon when evil struck,” Joe Biden said on the tarmac in front of the American military.
On Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris represented the White House along with New York Mayor Eric Adams and state Governor Kathy Hochul at Ground Zero, where the names of the 2,753 people who died in the Twin Towers were read one by one. “First Lady” Jill Biden attended a ceremony at the Pentagon, while “Second Gentleman” Doug Emhoff visited the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
DeSantis in New York
As for the Republican candidates, Ron DeSantis traveled to New York, as did entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who came a surprise third in the polls and recently flirted with a conspiracy on 9/11. Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social paying tribute to the victims.
For Joe Biden, the logistics with the G20 were complex. Fox News gave a voice to the angry families of the victims and believed that the American president’s stance was “the opposite” of his promise to “never forget” the attack that traumatized America. Florida Rep. Cory Mills accused Joe Biden of “snubbing” Americans again after he took his time traveling to Hawaii following the Maui fires.
However, Joe Biden is not the first president not to visit any of the sites of the September 11 attacks. In 2005, George W. Bush attended a White House ceremony, as did Obama in 2015, who then visited a military base in Maryland.