Joe Biden has come under fire after claiming to have visited the ruins of the World Trade Center on September 12, 2001, one day after the 9/11 attacks, despite there being no records of the then-senator being in New York at all that day.
The president made the claim on Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, while giving an address at a military base in Alaska.
Republicans are focusing heavily on apparent gaffes by Biden as many argue that the 80-year-old Democrat isn’t mentally fit for a second White House term. In October 2022, Biden incorrectly said he is the father of a man who “lost his life in Iraq.” This was an apparent reference to his eldest son, Beau Biden, who did serve in Iraq but died of brain cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, in 2015.
Speaking at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage on Monday, Biden said: “I join you on this solemn day to renew our sacred vow: never forget. Never forget. We never forget. Each of us, each of those precious lives stolen too soon when evil attacked. Ground Zero in New York, I remember standing there the next day, and looking at the building. And I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell. It looked so devastating because of the way from where you could stand.”
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While there is no record of Biden being at Ground Zero on September 12, 2001, he did give a speech that day to the Senate, during which he said the attackers had managed to unite the civilized world against them.
In his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics, Biden wrote that he headed back to the Capitol on September 12, 2001, but made no mention of visiting the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center in New York.
When contacted for comment by Newsweek, a White House spokesperson noted Biden did visit Ground Zero on September 20, 2001 as part of a Senate delegation, but didn’t comment on his claim to have been at the site on September 12.
On September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers from the Islamist extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners, flying one into each of the two World Trade Center towers and another into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers realized what was happening, and attempted to storm the cockpit. Just under 3,000 people were killed, the majority in the pair of World Trade Center towers which collapsed within an hour of being struck.
Biden has also been criticized for marking the grim milestone in Alaska, the first time the president hasn’t been at one of the attack sites or the White House on the 9/11 anniversary. He was returning from a G20 meeting in India, while first lady Jill Biden laid a wreath by the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.
Donald Trump, the former president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential election, spoke with local network WWOR within hours of the 9/11 attacks. He said the Trump Building, also known as 40 Wall Street, which he owned, was now the tallest building in downtown Manhattan after the World Trade Center had collapsed.
In a statement released on Monday, Trump said: “We remember the 2,977 precious souls who were savagely taken from us on that morning 22 years ago, leaving a void that can never be filled.”