President Biden on Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, falsely claimed that he visited Ground Zero the day after the tragedy, when in fact he was in the Senate voting on a resolution.
“Never forget,” Biden said to U.S. troops on a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. “Never forget. We never forget. Each of those precious lives stolen too soon when evil attacked. Ground Zero New York. I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. It felt like I was looking through the gates of hell. It looked so devastating from where you could stand.”
However, on September 12, 2001, Biden was in the Senate chamber, which was holding a session to consider a resolution condemning the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to C-SPAN records. They unanimously voted in favor of the resolution, 100–0.
Biden even delivered a speech to his colleagues, saying, “My heart and my sympathy go out to our colleagues from New York and Virginia in particular, but all those who have had their fellow citizens and their constituents victimized by this act. This is a time to mourn but not to despair, a time for resolve but not remorse, a time for sober investigation and not recrimination, and a time to unite, not to debate.”
Days later, 98 senators including Biden voted in favor of authorizing a resolution to approve “all necessary and appropriate force” to target the perpetrators of the attacks, according to NY1 News.
A picture, according to the news outlet, shows Biden praying with first responders at the site of the World Trade Center in New York on September 20, 2001, over a week after he claimed Monday to be there.
The president came under fire Monday for not visiting New York, Washington, D.C., or Pennsylvania — the three locations of the plane crashes of September 11, 2001 — unlike most of his predecessors. Some lawmakers blasted Biden for not making an appearance at least at Ground Zero Monday.
“I’m here with thousands of other people at the site of Ground Zero, the place where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center once stood,” Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard said in a video at the NYC monument. “But you know who hasn’t been here today and will not be here today? Joe Biden. And the question is, why not?”
“Perhaps it’s because he wants the American people to move past or forget about this attack,” she said. “Perhaps it’s because his administration wants to divert our attention away from this and instead focus on new bigger and more lucrative wars. Politically advantageous wars like the one against parents who just want to have a say in our kids’ education.”