President Joe Biden will take a moment to remember 9/11 at a quick stop in Alaska at a joint military base used to refuel Air Force One as he returns to Washington from a diplomatic visit to Vietnam over the weekend.
When most Americans think of 9/11, we think of death. We remember watching nearly 3,000 of our friends and family dying that day. We think of terror. We think of tragedy, of loss, of hopelessness.
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First responders and other emergency personnel continue to die from the toxic air that erupted in New York City that day.
And yet today, the President of the United States won’t be thinking much about it at all. In fact, he has reduced it to an afterthought.
The Daily Mail, citing a schedule released by the White House on Sunday, reports that Biden will be on the ground in Alaska “for less than two hours Monday as he marks the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks” at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
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The base is “typically Air Force One’s refueling stop,” they write, with stops typically lasting “around 90 minutes as the president’s plane is filled with gas.”
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1699934778340921515?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Biden Is The First President Not To Mark 9/11 At One Of The Attack Sites Or The White House
By remembering the tragedy of 9/11 at a refueling stopover in Alaska, President Biden becomes the first President failing to appear on the anniversary of that horrific day at either Ground Zero, the Pentagon, the crash site of United Flight 93, or the White House.
Imagine thinking a pit stop is an appropriate way to remember the worst terrorist attack ever to take place on American soil. Imagine rather than attending a funeral for a loved one, stopping to say a few words at the local gas station on your way to work.
https://twitter.com/JaniceDean/status/1700589467273171131?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
At a press briefing in August, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke of Biden’s plans for 9/11 as if they were an afterthought to the Vietnam trip.
“Look, the President wanted to make sure that he, as the President, did something to commemorate 9/11. And that’s what you’re seeing. That’s what you’re seeing the president do,” she told reporters.
Nice of him to do something. A 90-minute stop in Alaska, about as far as you can be from the World Trade Center site, seems woefully inadequate.
Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan accused Biden of hitting “an all-time low” by not attending 9/11 ceremonies at traditionally accepted locations.
“It’s beyond disgraceful,” she writes. “It’s a dereliction of duty and a heartless affront to the nearly 3,000 American civilians who died that day.”
It most certainly is.
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Made Time To Stop At Memorial To John McCain
While President Biden’s hectic schedule prevents him from doing anything more than a refueling stop in Alaska on 9/11, he did have time to visit one memorial site.
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His schedulers carved out time to visit the late Senator John McCain’s memorial in Hanoi, where his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1701212780047528218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Biden also had time earlier this year to hold an award ceremony at the White House for 14 “heroes” of the Capitol riot, giving each a “Presidential Citizens Medal.”
Families of the victims of 9/11 have often been critical of President Biden, even asking him not to attend memorial events in 2021.
Nearly 1,800 September 11 survivors, first responders, and victims’ family members asked Biden to skip the events over his failure at that time to release documents they believe show Saudi government officials had a role in the attacks.
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1423961389224366082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Documents declassified by the FBI that same month detailed new information about the support provided to two hijackers by U.S.-based Saudi nationals with diplomatic credentials.
The royal family has denied any involvement, though suspicions have remained.
A heavily redacted document released in 2021 details support such as travel assistance, lodging, and financing two of the hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Kahlid al Midhdar, received from a man who worked in the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles, Omar al Bayoumi.
https://twitter.com/JustTheNews/status/1437056841150865412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Even with that knowledge, President Biden visited Saudi Arabia last summer to plead with them to increase oil production to help lower gas prices.
Maybe while he’s waiting for the plane to be refueled today, he can ask if the cost of fuel has gone down since that visit.
Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre has assured 9/11 families that they “have certainly been on (President Biden’s) mind in recent days and they will continue to be on his mind.”
It’s hard to believe that anyone would buy that.
