Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton all gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago.
Three presidents and their wives stood shoulder to shoulder, sharing a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the nation’s worst terrorist attack with a show of unity at the national September 11 memorial on Saturday.
Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton all gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago. Each of them wore blue ribbons and placed their hands on their hearts as the procession marched a flag through the memorial, which was witnessed by hundreds of Americans who gathered for remembrance, some of loved ones lost in the attacks. Took pictures.
Before the event began, a jet took off in a terrifying echo of attacks, drawing a gaze skyward from Biden. For most of the ceremony he stood with his arms crossed and bowed his head listening while the names of the victims were being read. At one point, the president wiped tears from his eye.
Biden was a senator when the hijackers took command of four planes and carried out the attack. He is now celebrating the anniversary of 9/11 for the first time as Commander in Chief.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Amhoff attend a memorial for the passengers and crew of United Flight 93
The president was paying tribute on Saturday at the three sites where the planes crashed, but left it to others to make speeches.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in memory of the heroes who shot down a hijacked plane that was headed for the US Capitol. Harris praised his courage and the resilience of the American people, and spoke of the unity that Americans experienced in the days following the attacks,
Read also | 9/11 terrorists failed to shake faith in democracy: UK PM Boris Johnson
Former President Bill Clinton, left, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attend celebrations to celebrate the 11th anniversary of the September 20 terrorist attacks
“In times of outright panic, we turned to each other,” she said. “If we work hard to work together as Americans, if we remain united in purpose, we will be ready for everything that lies ahead.”
The White House released a taped address late Friday in which Biden also spoke of a “true sense of national unity” that emerged after the attacks, “seen in heroism everywhere – in places expected and unexpected.”
“For me this is the central lesson of September 11th,” he said. “Unity is our greatest strength.”
Biden arrived in New York on Friday night as the skyline was illuminated by the “Tribute in Light” where the towers once stood.
After the morning ceremony in New York City, Biden will tour the field near Shanksville where the plane dropped from the sky and then head to the Pentagon, where the world’s most powerful military suffered an unimaginable blow to his home.
Biden’s task, like his predecessors before him, was to mark this moment with a mixture of grief and resolve. A man who has suffered immense personal tragedy, Biden speaks of loss with power.
He voiced the pain that comes with memories of 9/11 in his video message, saying, “No matter how much time has passed, this commemoration brings everything back from the pain as if you just got the news a few seconds ago. “
Robert Gibbs, who served as Obama’s press secretary, said for Biden, “This is a moment for the people to see him not as the Democratic President, but as the President of the United States of America.”
“The American people are somewhat conflicted about what they have seen from Afghanistan over the past few weeks,” Gibbs said. “For Biden, this is the moment to try to reset some of that. Remind people what it is to be a Commander-in-Chief and what it means to be the leader of the country in a moment of such importance. “
An American flag is unfurled at the Pentagon in Washington on Saturday
On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, Biden now bears the responsibility borne by his predecessors to prevent future tragedy, and to do so against fresh fears of a surge in terror following the United States’ hasty exit from Afghanistan. The country from which the September 11 attacks were plotted.
Biden is the fourth president to console the nation on the anniversary of that dark day, which has shaped the most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions made by chief executives in the past two decades.
The terrorist attack defined the presidency of George W. Bush, who was reading a book to Florida schoolchildren when the plane crashed into the World Trade Center. He kept that day out of Washington for security reasons – a decision spent by then-Sen. Biden urged them to reconsider, the current president has written — and then delivered a brief, paused speech from the White House that night to a terrified nation.
The following year, Bush chose Ellis Island as his first anniversary address to bear the Statue of Liberty on his shoulder, as he swore, “What our enemies have started, we will finish.”
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were even deadlier when Obama visited the Pentagon in 2009 on his first September 11 visit to office. “No words can ease your heartache,” he said.
“We miss the beauty and meaning of his life,” he said. “No time passes, no dark sky can diminish the meaning of that moment.”
By the time Obama spoke on the 10th anniversary, the mastermind of the attack, Osama bin Laden, had been killed in a May 2011 Navy SEAL raid. Though the nation remained embroiled overseas, and remained alert to terror threats, the anniversary became more about healing.
President Donald Trump pledged to get America out of Afghanistan, but his words during his first September 11th anniversary celebration in 2017 were a vivid warning to terrorists, “telling these brutal killers that someone beyond our reach was in danger.” There is no dark corner, no sanctuary. Our understanding, and nowhere to hide on this vast earth.”
On Saturday, as Biden was visiting all three sites, Bush was to pay his respects in Shanksville. Trump planned at least one stop in Manhattan and was to give ringside commentary on a boxing match at a casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Read also | Taliban flag hoists over Afghanistan’s Rashtrapati Bhavan on the anniversary of 9/11 attacks
.