The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden will mark the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon by attending a memorial ceremony in Alaska.
Joe Biden’s 9/11 Anniversary Plan
The president will observe the solemn anniversary with U.S. servicemembers at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage as he returns from an overseas trip to the G20 summit in India.
Biden is scheduled to travel to India from September 7 to 10 to attend the summit with other world leaders, and that will be followed by a stop in Vietnam.
Biden had pledged to visit the former U.S. adversary turned partner, and while in Hanoi, the president will meet with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders “to discuss ways to further deepen cooperation between the United States and Vietnam,” the White House said, per The Hill.
The president will reportedly sign an agreement designating Vietnam as a ‘strategic partner,’ which could bring further cooperation in high-tech and other areas.
Is Joe Biden Making a 9/11 Anniversary Mistake? Not Exactly…
President Joe Biden traveled to all three sites in 2021 for the 20th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on the United States and then attended the Pentagon ceremony last year.
The White House has announced that Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will participate in the annual observance at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan; while First Lady Jill Biden will lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.
Some media outlets have attempted to spring the story by suggesting that Joe Biden is simply skipping the event.
American Insider reported, “Since [2002], every president has attended the annual observances in New York City, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Some of these ceremonies are not very far outside Washington, D.C.,” and added, “It appears that Biden believes it’s best to break with tradition and refuse to visit the annual 9/11 observances.”
But, to be honest, there is more to the story and we would look at it differently as important context is missing. The Associated Press noted that this is not the first time a president has chosen not to attend an annual observance at any of the three sites.
In 2005, days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans, President George W. Bush marked the anniversary on the White House lawn; while a decade later President Barack Obama participated in a moment of silence on the White House lawn before going to Fort Meade in Maryland to recognize the military’s work protecting the country.
It is also worth noting that President Biden doesn’t control the dates of the G20 summit, and even without the stopover in Alaska, it would be virtually impossible for the president to return in time to attend any of the events.
No Death Penalty for the Plotters
It is also worth noting that Republican lawmakers were more focused on a potential Pentagon plea deal with the architects of the 9/11 attacks rather than the fact that President Biden won’t be able to attend a memorial event.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) sent a letter Monday to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin calling a potential plea deal that would see the plotters and co-conspirators avoid the death penalty as “completely unacceptable.”
“Make no mistake, any outcome short of the death penalty for the September 11th plotters would be completely unacceptable,” the letter stated. “These families have already been robbed of their loved ones, they should not also be robbed of the full measure of justice in this case. The September 11th plotters are mass murderers, deserving of the ultimate punishment. Indeed, if there are persons walking the face of the Earth who are deserving of the death penalty, it is these five men.”
Earlier this month, the victims’ families of the 9/11 attacks received a letter from the Pentagon that informed them that the federal government was considering a plea deal for the “principal architect” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators, in which they could avoid the death penalty.
Nearly 3,000 people died when terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center’s “twin towers” in New York City and the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. Another hijacked plane believed to be headed for the U.S. Capitol crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers confronted the hijackers. All 44 people on board were also killed.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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