President Joe Biden bluntly said he would “celebrate 9/11” tomorrow, responding to reporters who asked him about his plans ahead of the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump with a head-shaking comment.
The gaffe-prone 81-year-old was making his way to Marine One on the White House lawn when he made the remarks just one day before the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
“I’m going to New York for my granddaughter’s birthday,” Biden began. “Then we’ll watch the debate, and tomorrow I’ll do 9/11.”
The President’s remarks about the September 11, 2001 attacks on America sparked horror among social media users, but also amusement at the unfortunate choice of words.
President Biden speaks to the press before departing the White House for New York in Washington DC on September 10, 2024
On social media platform X, one person commented: “Biden’s gaffes are endless. You’d think someone would have double-checked his scripts by now.”
Another posted: “Yup… he did,” and someone else added: “I have to be honest, until I just saw the ‘Tomorrow I’m doing 9/11’ clip, I had somehow forgotten that Joe Biden was even alive.”
An X-account linked to the Trump campaign shared the clip with the comment: “This is the humiliating cognitive decline that Kamala Harris COVERED UP.”
This is the latest in a long line of blunders by the commander-in-chief, who withdrew from his re-election race after a disastrous performance in the debate against Trump.
Just days before his shocking announcement, he had even referred to Vice President Harris as Donald Trump.
Other mishaps included bumping into flagpoles, falling off his bike, and calling people by the wrong names.
Biden will mark the anniversary of the attacks in New York City and then visit the Pentagon and the memorials in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Al-Qaeda conspirators took control of aircraft and attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.
The hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. on September 11 and explodes
Firefighters approach one of the World Trade Center towers before it collapsed
A fourth plane was en route to Washington but crashed in Shanksville after crew and passengers attempted to storm the cockpit.
The official number of victims of the attacks is 2,996, including 2,977 victims and 19 kidnappers.
Thousands more were injured, with New York bearing the brunt of the deaths – with an estimated 1,600 victims in the North Tower and another thousand in the South Tower.
Harris and Trump will face each other in person for the first time in what may be their only debate of the US presidential election.
The event offers Americans the most detailed look at an election campaign that has changed dramatically since the last debate in June.
After the last debate, Biden withdrew from the race, while Trump survived an assassination attempt.
Harris (seen here on Tuesday) and Trump will meet in person for the first time, possibly for their only debate of the U.S. presidential election.
After the last debate, Biden withdrew from the race, while Trump, seen here last week, survived an assassination attempt.
Harris is keen to show that she can represent the Democrats’ position against Trump better than Biden.
Trump, for his part, is trying to portray the vice president as an unworldly liberal while simultaneously winning over voters who are skeptical about his return to the White House.
The 78-year-old struggled to adjust to 59-year-old Harris, who is the first woman, black person and person of South Asian descent to hold the office of vice president.
The former president has resorted to racial and gender stereotypes, angering allies who expect Trump to focus on policy differences instead.
