Rivals Harris, Trump Shake Hands at Solemn Ground Zero Ceremony
(Bloomberg) -- Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris attended a ceremony at Ground Zero in Manhattan on Wednesday, as the two presidential candidates locked in a bitter fight for the White House converged at the solemn site to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
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The rivals shook hands before the commemoration as they stood with President Joe Biden and other dignitaries at the front of the event.
The ceremonies come a day after Trump and Harris clashed on stage in Philadelphia in their only scheduled debate so far of the cycle, a showdown in which most analysts said Harris put Trump on his back foot. Both will also mark the anniversary at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania memorial. In addition, Harris and Biden will go to the Pentagon.
This year’s 9/11 observances come as the war in Afghanistan has returned as a flashpoint in US politics, with Trump and Harris sparring over the longest war in US history. The two have traded dueling claims about mishandling the war and support for US troops, seeking to convince voters they are the steady choice for commander-in-chief and raise questions about their opponent’s judgment.
The fight over the conflict, which ended three years ago in a chaotic and deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan, mirrors many of the broader themes in their campaigns.
Trump has highlighted the deaths of 13 US service members in a suicide bomb attack as American troops exited in a bid to tie Vice President Harris to one of the most devastating moments of Biden’s tenure. Harris has countered by enlisting former Trump officials-turned-critics to assail his decisions in office and lay accountability for the tragic withdrawal on a deal he struck with the Taliban in 2020, casting the former president’s term as one beset by tumult.
For Harris, Afghanistan exemplifies one of her toughest political challenges — distancing herself from unpopular policies of the Biden administration. Harris has urged voters to turn the page on the last decade, even as she touts the administration’s achievements and tries to assure the public she will address concerns over its handling of the economy and immigration.
Trump regularly assails the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal, calling it a “humiliation” and saying he will seek the resignations of all officials involved if elected. In particular, Trump allies have focused on Harris’ remarks from an April 2021 interview — before the bomb attack — where she agreed she was the last person in the room when Biden made decisions and indicated she was comfortable with the withdrawal plans.
Marking the attack this year, Harris said she mourned the service members killed and defended the administration’s record, saying they had “demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists” without deploying troops to combat zones.
Harris’ campaign has pushed back on Trump’s attacks with ads and statements noting that national security officials who served with him, including former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton, have assailed him as a threat to democracy. The campaign also promoted support for Harris from ten retired senior military officials and an endorsement from a Gold Star father.
House Republicans have also accused the Biden administration of lying to Americans and sacrificing the safety of US soldiers during the withdrawal in a report released just two days before the debate that sought to implicate Harris in the debacle.
The nearly 350-page document referred to the “Biden-Harris administration” more than 230 times. No Democrats signed the report.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby lambasted the report Monday, pointing to Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban, but not the Afghan government, that set an initial timetable — which Biden modified — for troop withdrawals.
“President Biden for his part faced a stark choice when he came to office: abide by the flawed agreement and end America’s longest war or blow up the deal, extend the war and see a much smaller contingent of American troops back in combat,” Kirby said.
“He chose the former and he was able to buy additional time to prepare for that withdrawal,” he added. “We as a nation are safer for it.”
No event has defined the contentious clash over the war more than Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery to mark the Abbey Gate bombing. His team was confronted by a cemetery staff member who the US Army said was “abruptly pushed aside” when she sought to prevent filming at Section 60, where recent war dead are buried. The Army cited laws that “clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”
Trump has said he was there at the invitation of fallen service members’ relatives, who have said they gave permission for photographs. Harris and Trump’s critics have seized on the incident as an example of him disrespecting US troops.
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