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NEW YORK (AP) – Three presidents and their wives stood somberly side by side at the National 9/11 Memorial, sharing a moment of silence to mark the anniversary of the country’s worst terrorist attack with a show of unity.
Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton all gathered at the site where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades ago. They each wore blue ribbons and held their hands over their hearts as a procession paraded a flag through the memorial, watched by hundreds of Americans gathered in remembrance, some carrying photos of loved ones lost in the attacks.
Before the event began, a jet plane flew overhead in a strange echo of the attacks, drawing Biden’s gaze to the sky. For much of the ceremony, he stood with his arms crossed and his head bowed, listening as the names of the victims were read. At one point, the president wiped a tear from his eye.
Biden was a senator when the hijackers requisitioned four planes and carried out the attack. Today, he marks the anniversary of September 11 for the first time as Commander-in-Chief.
The president will spend Saturday paying tribute to the three sites where the planes crashed, but he left the speech to others.
Vice President Kamala Harris was scheduled to speak at the National Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., In commemoration of the heroes who shot down a hijacked plane en route to the United States Capitol. According to prepared remarks, Harris planned to praise their courage and resilience of the American people, and speak of the unity Americans experienced in the days following the attacks, calling unity “essential to our prosperity. shared, to our national security and to our standing in the world.
On Friday night, the White House released a recorded speech in which Biden also spoke of the “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 11,” he said. “Unity is our greatest strength. “
Biden arrived in New York City on Friday evening as the skyline was illuminated by the “Tribute to Light,” hauntingly marking where the towers once stood.
After the morning ceremony in New York City, Biden will travel to the field near Shanksville where the plane fell from the sky, and then head to the Pentagon, where the world’s most powerful military suffered an unthinkable blow to their home. she.
Biden’s task, like that of his predecessors before him, was to mark the moment with a mixture of heartbreak and determination. A man who has suffered immense personal tragedy, Biden speaks of loss with power.
He expressed the pain that accompanies memories of September 11 in his video message, saying, “No matter how long ago these commemorations bring everything back painfully like you just heard the news a few seconds ago. . “
Robert Gibbs, who served as Obama’s press secretary, said for Biden: “Now is the time for people to see him not as Democratic president, but as president of the United States of America.”
“The American people are somewhat at odds over what they have seen in Afghanistan in recent weeks,” Gibbs said. “For Biden, it’s a time to try and reset some of that. Remind people what it is to be Commander-in-Chief and what it means to be the leader of the country at such an important time. “
On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, Biden is now assuming the responsibility assumed by his predecessors to prevent future tragedies, and must do so against new fears of a rise in terror following the hasty exit of the United States of America. Afghanistan, country from which the Sept 11 attacks were planned.
Biden is the fourth president to console the nation on the anniversary of this dark day, which shaped many of the most important domestic and foreign policy decisions made by business leaders over the past two decades .
The terrorist attack defined the presidency of George W. Bush, who was reading a book to schoolchildren in Florida when planes crashed into the World Trade Center. He spent that day being kept out of Washington for security reasons – a decision the then senator did. Biden urged him to reconsider, the current president wrote – and then gave a short, hesitant speech that night from the White House to a terrified nation.
The following year, Bush chose Ellis Island as the location to deliver his first anniversary speech, the Statue of Liberty over his shoulder as he swore, “What our enemies have started, we will finish.”
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were still deadly when Obama visited the Pentagon to mark his first term on September 11 in 2009.
“No words can ease the pain in your heart,” he said.
“We remember the beauty and the meaning of their lives,” he said. “No passage of time, no dark sky can tarnish the meaning of this moment.”
By the time Obama spoke on the 10th anniversary, the mastermind of the Osama bin Laden attack was dead, killed in a Navy SEAL raid in May 2011. Although the nation remained entangled abroad and vigilant against terrorist threats, the anniversary has become more about healing.
President Donald Trump pledged to bring the United States out of Afghanistan, but his words at his first 9/11 anniversary ceremony in 2017 were a clear warning to terrorists, telling “these savage killers that” there is no dark corner beyond our reach, no sanctuary beyond our grasp, and nowhere to hide in this great great land.
As Biden made his way to the three locations on Saturday, Bush was due to pay homage to Shanksville. Trump had planned at least one stopover in Manhattan and was scheduled to comment at ringside during a boxing match at a casino in Hollywood, Florida.
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Jaffe reported from Washington.
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