Biden and Harris will start their day with a visit to the New
York City site where planes brought down the World Trade
Center's twin towers.
Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, was due to
traveled to New York after debating her Republican rival, former
President Donald Trump, in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, with
just eight weeks left before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
No remarks are scheduled at the site, where relatives will read
the names of those who died.
Trump will also attend the New York City ceremony, along with
former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a source familiar with
the plans said.
Biden and Harris will then fly to Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
where passengers on United Flight 93 overcame the hijackers and
the plane crashed in a field, preventing another target from
being hit. Then they will head back to the Washington area to
visit the Pentagon memorial.
"We can only imagine the heartbreak and the pain that the 9/11
families and survivors have felt every day for the past 23 years
and we will always remember and honor those who were stolen from
us way too soon," White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre
told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
"We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that
an attack like this never happens again," she said.
Biden issued a proclamation honoring those who died as a result
of the attacks, as well as the hundreds of thousands of
Americans who volunteered for military service afterwards.
"We owe these patriots of the 9/11 Generation a debt of
gratitude that we can never fully repay," Biden said, citing
deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones, as well as
the capture and killing of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden
and his deputy.
U.S. congressional leaders on Tuesday posthumously awarded the
congressional gold medal to 13 of those service members who were
killed in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Kabul's airport
during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Michael Perry)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All
rights reserved.]
Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|