CNN
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will mark the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Wednesday and will each visit three sites of the terrorist attacks.
Harris will accompany Biden, who arrived in New York on Tuesday afternoon, to a memorial event at Ground Zero in Manhattan on Wednesday morning. The two will then travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 memorial, according to a White House schedule.
Later in the afternoon, both will travel to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, for another wreath-laying ceremony.
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, are also expected to appear at Ground Zero. Trump will also travel to Shanksville on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with his plans. It is unclear whether the two parties will cross paths.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, will also attend an event to commemorate the anniversary, but his office did not disclose where the event will take place.
It will be hours before Trump and Harris’ first face-to-face meeting at the presidential debate on Tuesday night.
While candidates in active campaigns in recent years have traditionally avoided politics on the anniversary of the attacks, this campaign cycle is characterized by its toxicity and it remains to be seen how and if the individual campaigners will engage in politics on Wednesday.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners on September 11, 2001. Two planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania after passengers tried to thwart the hijacking.
Last year, Biden marked the 22nd anniversary with a ceremony with American soldiers in Alaska. During that ceremony, the president falsely claimed he visited Ground Zero “the next day” after the attacks. In fact, he was there nine days later.
The President visited the Pentagon for the 2022 anniversary. In 2021, he and First Lady Jill Biden also traveled to each of the three sites of the terrorist attack. They were joined at the memorial ceremony in New York by former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
