According to the White House, Biden will visit ground zero in New York City as well as the Pentagon and the memorial outside Shanksville (PA), where United Flight 93 was shot down. First lady Jill Biden will accompany him.
The White House announced that Kamala Harris, Vice President, will travel to Shanksville in Pennsylvania for an event separate from joining the president at Pentagon. Harris will travel together with Doug Emhoff, her spouse.
Biden’s plan is very similar to that of President Barack Obama in 2011, when he visited New York City on the 10th anniversary. Obama’s visit coincided with the unveiling of a memorial on the spot where the World Trade Center towers used to stand.
Next Saturday’s anniversary falls less than two weeks after the end of the nearly two-decade-long U.S. war in Afghanistan. To retaliate against al-Qaida plotters, and Taliban who provided them with safe haven, the war was started weeks after 9/11.
Biden has found support from the public for ending the conflict but has faced sharp criticism, even from allies, for the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops and allied Afghans during the final two weeks of August.
Biden on Friday directed the declassification of certain documents related to the Sept. 11 attacks in a gesture toward victims’ families who have long sought the records in hopes of implicating the Saudi government.
After relatives of 9/11 survivors, first responders and survivors said that they were against Biden’s participation at the memorial events, the conflict between the government officials and families over whether classified information could be made publicly came to light last month.
