While speaking in Anchorage Alaska on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks, President Biden claimed that he visited ground zero one day after the attacks.
In what has become a theme with the Biden Administration, the president seemingly related the 9/11 attacks to modern political issues, telling U.S. servicemembers that “terrorism – including political and ideological violence – is the opposite of all we stand for as a nation.”
“We must not succumb to the poisonous politics of difference and division, must never allow ourselves to be pulled apart attending manufactured grievances, we must continue to stand united,” he said. “We all have an obligation, a duty, a responsibility to defend, to preserve, to protect our democracy.”
The president went on to claim that he visited ground zero in Manhattan, New York just one day after the attacks. “Never forget, never forget, we never forget. Each of us, each of those precious lives stolen too soon, when evil attacked,” Biden said. Ground zero in New York – I remember standing there the next day, looking at the building, and I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell. It looked so devastating because of the way you – from where you could stand.”
Biden — who was serving in the U.S. Senate at the time — was not in New York on September 12, 2001, as the Senate met in Washington D.C. to condemn the attacks.
“This man isn’t actually Forrest Gump, but he wants you to think he is,” wrote one X user while linking to then Senator Biden’s remarks.
Monday marked the first 9/11 remembrance ceremony at ground zero in New York that was not attended by a U.S. President. Biden, who just returned from the G20 summit in India and a subsequent trip to Vietnam, sent Vice President Harris to represent the White House instead.
Biden claimed that his decision to address U.S. troops in Anchorage was made to honor those who volunteered to serve after the 9/11 attacks.