


Ex-New York Gov. George Pataki ripped President Biden as a “disgrace” Thursday over his decision to commemorate 9/11 in Alaska — instead of any of the actual sites targeted in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Rather than participating in any observances at 9/11 memorial sites in New York City, Virginia or Pennsylvania, the 80-year-old president will join service members and their families at a military base in Anchorage, the White House confirmed this week.
“The fact that he is not doing anything to commemorate that horrible day is a disgrace,” Pataki, 77, said in an interview with WABC radio.
The Republican quipped Biden was trying to avoid the Big Apple because “he’s afraid someone is going to ask him about the migrants.”
Last year, Biden took part in a Sept. 11 wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon and visited all three sites in 2021.
Biden’s pit stop in Alaska will come as the president makes his way back to Washington after attending the G-20 summit in India and a trip to Vietnam.
The former governor railed against Biden for prioritizing the Asia trip over the 22nd anniversary of the terror attacks, insisting the commander-in-chief was grandstanding on other issues, such as climate change, to “run away from the problems in this country.”


“How much CO2 emissions is Air Force One and the entire entourage that has to follow the president going to be emitting when he goes to Vietnam to talk abut climate change in a way where no one will listen to him,” Pataki said.
“China is not listening to him, India is not listening to him, Indonesia isn’t listening to him.”
In a blistering attack, Pataki continued: “I think he is clueless to what’s happening in Washington, what’s happening in the world and he is obsessed on being the world leader on climate. I don’t know what he is doing other than driving up energy costs … and destroying our own energy industry so we have to import energy from elsewhere.

“It’s just ridiculous. He is a failed leader.”
While Biden makes his appearance at the 9/11 observance at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage later this month, first lady Jill Biden will lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, according to the White House.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will attend the annual observance at the national 9/11 memorial in Lower Manhattan.

Biden’s absence from the three sites isn’t the first time a president hasn’t attended any of the annual observances.
In 2015, President Barack Obama participated in a moment of silence on the White House lawn before traveling to Fort Meade in Maryland to recognize the military’s work protecting the country.
President George W. Bush marked the anniversary on the White House lawn in 2005.
It wasn’t immediately clear which official will participate in the Pennsylvania observance.
With Post wires