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American President Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris They were with the former president. Donald Trump and his 2024 partner J.D. Vance on Wednesday to mark the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City, where hijacked planes crashed and nearly 3,000 people died.

There was no performance planned at the ceremony. Planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Relatives began to read the names of the deceased.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Trump, her Republican rival, appeared together the morning after an eventful debate in Philadelphia, just eight weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Harris and Trump shook hands and talked just before lining up for the memorial service.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who stood between Biden and Trump, was also present at the event.

After New York, Biden and Harris planned to fly to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers on United Flight 93 managed to defeat the hijackers and the plane crashed in a field, preventing another target from being hit. They would then return to the Washington area to visit a monument at the Pentagon, which was also damaged 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 our darkest hours, we find light. And in the face of fear, we come together to defend our country and help each other,” Biden said in his morning statement.

Trump, who also plans to visit the memorial in Pennsylvania, told Fox News on Wednesday: “It was a very, very sad and terrible day. “Nothing like this has ever happened.”

Biden earlier issued a proclamation honoring those killed in the attacks, as well as the hundreds of thousands of Americans who volunteered for military service in their wake.

“We owe a debt to these patriots of the 9/11 generation that we can never fully repay,” Biden said, citing the deployment of forces to Afghanistan, Iraq and other war zones, as well as the capture and killing of nine 9/11 masterminds, Osama bin Laden and his deputy.

U.S. congressional leaders on Tuesday posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing on Aug. 26, 2021, at Kabul airport during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Reuters