What to Watch as Biden and Trump Go to Shanksville for 9/11
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SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — The two presidential contenders put their acrimonious political sparring on hold on Friday to pay their respects to the Americans killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a pause in an extraordinarily polarizing race in which the candidates have offered drastically different visions on virtually every issue, including what it means to comfort a grieving nation.
President Trump offered somber remarks in Shanksville, Pa., honoring those who died on Flight 93, the plane that was hijacked and crashed into a field after passengers fought back. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, traveled to the New York before heading to Shanksville to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the attacks.
“Our sacred task, our righteous duty and our solemn pledge is to carry forward the noble legacy of the brave souls who gave their lives for us 19 years ago,” Mr. Trump said. At another point, he added, “The only thing that stood between the enemy and a deadly strike at the heart of American democracy was the courage and resolve of 40 men and women — the amazing passengers and crew of Flight 93.”
Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, attended the National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s commemoration ceremony in Lower Manhattan, standing with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York for much of the time. Later in the day, the Bidens were to travel to Shanksville, where a campaign statement said that they would “pay their respects to the victims of Flight 93.”
Mr. Biden promised reporters that he would not “talk about anything other than 9/11.”
“We took all our advertising down,” Mr. Biden, clad in a black mask, told reporters early Friday morning at the airport in Delaware. He said he had no intention of making news. “It’s a solemn day. That’s how we’re going to keep it.”
In New York, he gave flowers to a 90-year-old woman who said she had lost her son, as he sought to empathize about pain that, Mr. Biden suggested, “never goes away.”
“It takes a lot of courage for someone that lost someone to come back today,” Mr. Biden said at another point. “It’s a wonderful memorial, but it’s hard. It just brings you back to the moment it happened, no matter how long, how much time passes. So I admire the families who come.”
The appearances marked a sharp departure in tone from a week of intensifying hostilities between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, with Election Day less than two months away. The Democrat said he held the president responsible for the scale of the coronavirus deaths, following new revelations from a forthcoming book by the journalist Bob Woodward that Mr. Trump knowingly minimized the risks of the virus. Mr. Biden has also blasted the president over reports that Mr. Trump disparaged American soldiers killed in combat which Mr. Trump denied.
The president, for his part, kept up an onslaught of scathing and sometimes false claims about Mr. Biden over issues from trade to his approach to America’s suburbs. In rallies, tweets and press briefings he attacked the former vice president as a hostage of the Democratic left who would preside over a lawless nation.
As the Bidens went to New York, Mr. Trump and his wife, Melania, traveled to the memorial service in Shanksville in the morning. They observed a moment of silence while aboard Air Force One, then the president delivered remarks from a lectern set up in front of the wall of names commemorating the 40 passengers and crew who were killed on the flight.
“In their memory, we resolve to stand united as one American nation,” Mr. Trump, flanked by teleprompters, said in his speech. “To defend our freedoms, to uphold our values, to love our neighbors, to cherish our country, to care for our communities, to honor our heroes and to never, ever forget.”
But he also made a point to describe his own record on confronting terrorism.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, also attended the ceremony in New York, and he chatted with Mr. Biden after they both arrived. The Pences later attended another ceremony nearby, and they also stopped at a firehouse.
Mr. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, attended a remembrance ceremony in Fairfax, Va.
Mr. Biden, who has suffered a series of family tragedies, is perhaps at his best when comforting others grappling with grief, whether in a one-on-one conversation or while giving a eulogy, and amid the coronavirus crisis has made a point to frequently recognize the staggering death toll. Mr. Trump, a lover of large campaign rallies, is not known for those skills and has often glossed over the devastation of the virus.
In New York, Mr. Biden stopped to speak with a 90-year-old woman in a wheelchair who held a picture of her son, according to a pool report.
Referencing the death of his own son, Beau Biden, Mr. Biden, placing a hand to his chest, said, “It never goes away.”
The woman repeated the phrase.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump traveled on Friday against a backdrop of heated exchanges over honoring America’s war dead. Last week, The Atlantic reported that Mr. Trump had referred to American soldiers killed in combat during World War I as “losers” and “suckers,” among other instances of being dismissive of military service. Mr. Trump has denied the report, though he has openly mocked prisoners of war and Gold Star parents.
Mr. Biden has expressed outrage over the reported remarks, declaring them to be “disgusting,” “un-American” and “unpatriotic.” Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer, served in the Iraq war.
Mr. Biden has begun to travel more frequently, and Friday was another example of his stepped-up schedule of in-person appearances. He visited Pennsylvania and Michigan earlier in the week, and he is scheduled to travel to Florida, Pennsylvania and Minnesota next week.
The annual Sept. 11 ceremony at ground zero ended up being a heavily scrutinized moment in the last presidential race, as Hillary Clinton left abruptly and had to be helped into a van, a scene that was captured on video. Mrs. Clinton had received a diagnosis of pneumonia two days earlier, but her campaign did not disclose it until hours after she left the ceremony.
Annie Karni reported from Shanksville, Katie Glueck from New York and Thomas Kaplan from Connecticut.
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