9/11 Anniversary Brings Bitter Presidential Foes Together Downtown

Standing for the 9/11 23rd Anniversary ceremony, from left, Sen. Charles Schumer, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joseph Biden, 9/11 Memorial Chairman Michael Bloomberg, former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance. Presidential candidates Harris and Trump shook hands before the ceremony. Photo: Joe Woolhead 

It was a sequel to behold.

Just hours after the verbal fisticuffs of their presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump came downtown to the 9/11 Memorial to stand, mere feet apart, in solemn observance of the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Harris, with President Biden at her side, and Trump, flanked by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, stood silently amid a phalanx of VIPs and Secret Service during the traditional reading of the names of the victims. 

Assuming an air of peacemaker neutrality, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chairman of the 9/11 Museum (and ex-presidential candidate), greeted each of the four on their arrival and reportedly orchestrated the handshake between Harris and Trump. He stood between them during the ceremony. Harris and Biden exited the ceremony about a third of the way through the reading of the names, soon followed by Trump and Vance. 

“Never forget each of the 2,977 precious lives stolen from us when terrorists attacked our nation,” Biden, who stood with head bowed during much of the ceremony, said in a written statement. “Never forget their families who still bear the grief from that searing September morning. Never forget the heroic citizens and survivors who rushed to help their fellow Americans. And never forget that when faced with evil—and an enemy that sought to tear us apart, we endured.”