Trump, Biden take break from campaign to commemorate 9/11 anniversary

[rooster59]

Trump, Biden take break from campaign to commemorate 9/11 anniversary

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jeff Mason

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are accompanied by U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt as they attend a ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial, remembering those killed when hijacked Flight 93 crashed into an open field on September 11, 2001, in Stoystown, Pennsylvania, September 11, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

NEW YORK/SHANKSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden separately commemorated the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Friday, taking a pause from campaigning to honor the almost 3,000 victims killed in the single-most deadliest assault on U.S. soil.

 

Biden participated in a solemn morning memorial ceremony in New York, where al Qaeda operatives destroyed the World Trade Center with two hijacked jets. Trump began the day in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers crashed a hijacked plane believed to have been headed to the U.S. Capitol or White House.

 

Biden and Vice President Mike Pence, both masked, bumped elbows in greeting at the New York ceremony, one of the many ways the anniversary ceremony has been changed by the coronavirus pandemic. Pence read a biblical verse while Biden made no remarks.

 

About 200 people including Governor Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer attended that ceremony, where family members in pre-recorded videos read the names of the more than 2,600 people killed when two hijacked jets slammed into the Twin Towers. A third hit the Pentagon.

 

A similar memorial ceremony was held at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, where people sat socially distanced on folding chairs near the site that Flight 93 went down.

 

"The only thing that stood between the enemy and a deadly strike at the heart of American democracy was the courage and resolve of 40 men and women – the amazing passengers and crew of Flight 93," Trump told the crowd. "America will never relent in pursuing terrorists that threaten our people."

 

He noted the U.S. killings of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 and of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in January, but made no mention of the 2011 killing of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden under President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden.

 

Trump, his wife Melania, and family members of one of the flight attendants on Flight 93 took part in a wreath laying ceremony in front of the wall of names of those that were killed. Earlier, all 40 names of the passengers and crew members were read aloud, followed by the ringing of bells of remembrance.

 

Biden arrived in Shanksville hours later, his path from the airport to the memorial site lined with houses sporting flags in support of Trump.

 

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 and the state is considered crucial if he is to be reelected to a second term.

 

But Biden, as Trump did, eschewed politics for the moment, speaking with three families of passengers on Flight 93. He later visited a local fire station, delivering baked goods and beer.

 

"One of the marks of being an American is understanding there's some things that are bigger and more important than yourself," he said at the memorial site with several hundred spectators watching from afar.

 

'WE'VE HAD A LOT OF PEOPLE DIE'

 

In New York City, the annual memorial ceremony took on a different look and feel amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 191,000 Americans.

 

The ruins of the shattered World Trade Center have since been replaced by a glittering $25 billion complex that includes three skyscrapers, a museum and the memorial with the goal that it would be again be an international hub of commerce.

 

But the pandemic has rendered it somewhat of a ghost town, adding an eerie quality to the commemoration of the attack, with office workers staying home and tourists avoiding the memorial site.

 

While the memorial was scaled back due to virus concerns, some of the same traditions were observed, such as the ringing of bells at the same time each of the towers was struck and then again at the hour they fell.

 

After organizers of the main commemoration announced they would play pre-recorded videos of family members detailing the names of the victims, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation committed to a live reading at a separate site near Ground Zero.

 

Another tradition, the twin beams of light honoring each of the Twin Towers, will go ahead Friday evening after earlier discussion of cancelling it to prevent crowds gathering.

 

Nicole Vilardo was at the Ground Zero ceremony to remember her father, Joseph Vilardo, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald and was 42 when he was killed.

 

"It was a little bit harder to get in this year," she said as her four-year old son and 20-month-old daughter squirmed in a stroller.

 

Vilardo works as a cancer surgeon at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, one of the worst hit at the height of the city's coronavirus outbreak in March and April. "We had a lot of people die," she said. The city has lost eight times as many people to the virus as to the 9/11 attacks.

 

"The thing that is similar is the resiliency of this city," she said, comparing the two crises. "New York is unstoppable. It’s going to come back. You wake up and New York is here. That was the feeling in 2001 and it’s the same today."

 

At St. Paul's Chapel, built in 1766 and a place of refuge for exhausted firefighters on 9/11, the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson ceremoniously rang the Bell of Hope at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit.

 

"We lost almost 24,000 of our fellow New Yorkers this year. I don't know about you, but for me that is a heartbreak and a loss that we will remember forever," Jackson said before ringing the bell, a gift from the city of London that has been rung on every anniversary since 2002.

 

Early in the day, at the memorial site, Biden spoke to 90-year-old Maria Fisher, who lost her son in the /11 attacks.

He told her he lost his son, Beau, as well, and lamented, "It never goes away, does it?"

 

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Daniel Trotta and Frank H. McGurty in New York and Jeff Mason in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, additional reporting by Daniel Trotta, Jonathan Allen, Doina Chiacu, John Whitesides, Joseph Ax and Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by James Oliphant; Editing by Scott Malone, Rosalba O'Brien and Diane Craft)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-12

 

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[Somtamnication]

I am sure Trump will credit himself with something, today. He never fails to amaze me.

 

On the deaths on 9/11 and the ever present health issues of the first responders 19 years on, you are all heroes and God bless.

[GeorgeCross]

staying holed up in your basement for 12 months with your fingers in your ears is not "campaigning"

 

 

 

[forehandplus]

5 minutes ago, Damual Travesty said:

God bless the families of all those who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks. God Bless New York City, God Bless America! Peace on Earth. Love. Happiness. Safe elections. Sound result that happens quickly with no violence.

The Trump administration doesn't seem to hold victims of 9/11 in the same regard as you do:

EXCLUSIVE: Trump administration secretly withheld millions from FDNY 9/11 health program

The Trump administration has secretly siphoned nearly $4 million away from a program that tracks and treats FDNY firefighters and medics suffering from 9/11 related illnesses, the Daily News has learned.

The Treasury Department mysteriously started withholding parts of payments — nearly four years ago — meant to cover medical services for firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics treated by the FDNY World Trade Center Health Program, documents obtained by The News reveal.

The payments were authorized and made by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which oversees the program. 

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-fdny-911-health-program-treasury-20200910-s7yam67j6vhmhbdzg6ordanfdm-story.html

[forehandplus]

8 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

I too sympathize with all the family who lost loved ones in this shocking action. Do you ever give though to all the Afghan families who lost family members when attacked by America in response when the actual perpetrators were Saudi Arabia, or was that too cosy a relationship? Do you sympathize with the Iraqi families who lost families through American "Shock and Awe" attacks by the Bush administration over proven false claims of "Weapons of Mass Destruction?" God Bless ALL Victims!

Well, since it was the Afghani government that hosted and sheltered Bin Laden and company, even after the 9/11 attack, there is clearly a legitimate legal case for waging war.  The problem was the Bush administration wanted to do it on the cheap which meant lots of bombing and few boots on the ground. Which is why Bin Laden escaped. 

[PatOngo]

3 minutes ago, forehandplus said:

Well, since it was the Afghani government that hosted and sheltered Bin Laden and company, even after the 9/11 attack, there is clearly a legitimate legal case for waging war.  The problem was the Bush administration wanted to do it on the cheap which meant lots of bombing and few boots on the ground. Which is why Bin Laden escaped. 

And the repercussions to Saudi Arabia? Increased arms sales! Increased Saudi oil exports!

[forehandplus]

5 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

And the repercussions to Saudi Arabia? Increased arms sales! Increased Saudi oil exports!

Wandering rather far afield from the topic now.

[PatOngo]

1 minute ago, forehandplus said:

Wandering rather far afield from the topic now.

Saudi Arabians were the perpetrators of 9/11, not off topic at all!

[Tug]

20 minutes ago, forehandplus said:

Well, since it was the Afghani government that hosted and sheltered Bin Laden and company, even after the 9/11 attack, there is clearly a legitimate legal case for waging war.  The problem was the Bush administration wanted to do it on the cheap which meant lots of bombing and few boots on the ground. Which is why Bin Laden escaped. 

Spot on imo to massive of an attack to turn the other cheek the people in charge of Afghanistan sheltered the terriosts Iraq on the other hand in hindsight was an epic blunder at the time I supported the Iraq war because I was emotionally keyed up I regret that now btw

[Sujo]

Was the golf course closed?

[Bender Rodriguez]

how many dumb soldiers died or injured over this fake war that had nothing to do with 9/11, the invasion of afghanistan & iraq that is

 

sure some became billionaires in the army contracts

[PatOngo]

4 hours ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

how many dumb soldiers died or injured over this fake war that had nothing to do with 9/11, the invasion of afghanistan & iraq that is

 

sure some became billionaires in the army contracts

The soldiers were'nt the dumb ones, the idiots who sent them there were the dumb ones.....the whole Bush administration! War criminals, all! Bush, Cheney, Rove Rumsfeld, Rice et al!      Who's the smart one here? ????

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by Scott
picture edited out

[earlinclaifornia]

10 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

I am sure Trump will credit himself with something, today. He never fails to amaze me.

 

On the deaths on 9/11 and the ever present health issues of the first responders 19 years on, you are all heroes and God bless.

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by earlinclaifornia

[Boon Mee]

8 hours ago, PatOngo said:

And the repercussions to Saudi Arabia? Increased arms sales! Increased Saudi oil exports!

A complete non starter. 

Look up stability in the ME. 

[earlinclaifornia]

9 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

staying holed up in your basement for 12 months with your fingers in your ears is not "campaigning"

 

 

 

I beg to differ. Letting trump self destruct each day is working well enough for a landslide

[PatOngo]

3 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

A complete non starter. 

Look up stability in the ME. 

Yes, Syria is thriving!

[Boon Mee]

9 minutes ago, earlinclaifornia said:

I beg to differ. Letting trump self destruct each day is working well enough for a landslide

Who is self destructing? ???? 

[Sujo]

58 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Who is self destructing? ???? 

Trump, its obvious

[forehandplus]

10 hours ago, GeorgeCross said:

staying holed up in your basement for 12 months with your fingers in your ears is not "campaigning"

 

 

 

I'm sure that somewhere in The Art of War by Sun Tzu there's some discourse on doing nothing when your enemy is destroying himself. So sometimes doing nothing is a form of campaigning.

[candide]

41 minutes ago, forehandplus said:

I'm sure that somewhere in The Art of War by Sun Tzu there's some discourse on doing nothing when your enemy is destroying himself. So sometimes doing nothing is a form of campaigning.

A relevant quote from Sun Tzu:

"If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest."

????

Edited September 12, 2020 by candide

[earlinclaifornia]

Just as I predicted, once Labor Day passed without any trump improvement, Republican Party is now turning to  Senate contributions and ignoring a known loser in trump. Trump facing perfect storm of fundraising hurdles

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-enters-campaign-home-stretch-210300730.html

[Isaan sailor]

Feel sorry for Joe.  Too old, And age has taken its toll-confused and frail.  Why did DNC choose him?

[candide]

2 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

Feel sorry for Joe.  Too old, And age has taken its toll-confused and frail.  Why did DNC choose him?

Taking into account all polls up to now, this is not a compliment for Trump, as he trails Biden by many points! ????

[forehandplus]

I think it should also be noted on this solemn occasion how then candidate Donald Trump falsely claimed that he saw crowds of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center.