NEW YORK (Reuters)—President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stood alongside former president Donald Trump and his 2024 running mate, J.D. Vance, on Wednesday to observe the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at the New York City site where hijacked planes crashed and killed nearly 3,000 people.
No remarks were scheduled at the ceremony at the ground zero site where planes brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers. Relatives began reading the names of those who died.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee and Harris, his Democratic rival, appeared together the morning after their debate in Philadelphia with just eight weeks left before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
Harris and Trump shook hands and spoke just before lining up for the commemoration.
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg also attended, standing between Biden and Trump.
After New York, Trump, Biden, and Harris all plan to fly to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed. Biden and Harris will head back to the Washington area to visit a memorial at the Pentagon, which was also hit in the attacks.
"On this day 23 years ago, terrorists believed they could break our will and bring us to our knees. They were wrong. They will always be wrong. In the darkest of hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together—to defend our country, and to help one another," Biden said in an early morning statement.
Trump told Fox News on Wednesday: "It was very, very sad, horrible day. There's never been anything like it."