CNN
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President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance appear to be trying to put political animosity behind them for a moment as the nation commemorates the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and remembers the tragedy.
The four were in New York on Wednesday for a commemorative event at Ground Zero in Manhattan. Trump and Harris shook hands before the solemn commemoration, just hours after meeting in person for the first time at Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Harris turned to Trump and both held out their hands. Vance and Harris did not appear to exchange words.
Harris and Biden then traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Flight 93 memorial, where Biden placed his hand on the wreath as a small group of people with him bowed their heads. The president and vice president also stopped by their hometown Shanksville Volunteer Fire Station, which was a key site of a gathering for family members in 2001.
Biden and Harris toured a display of crosses made from plane wreckage, with Biden making the sign of the cross before entering the venue to meet with some of the families of those affected that day.
Inside the fire station, Biden briefly donned a Trump hat in a show of bipartisan unity.
A White House spokesman said the president spoke about the unity the country had shown after the attacks and that we need to get back to that. The president handed the hat to a man wearing a Trump hat, who then briefly put it on for Biden, the spokesman said. Photos showed Biden wearing the hat and flashing a broad smile.
In years past, candidates actively campaigning have avoided talking politics on the anniversary of the attacks, but this time the venom of the campaign is so pronounced that fleeting, everyday acts of bipartisanship like shaking hands or tipping hats have taken on added significance.
Biden and Harris then visited the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, for another wreath-laying ceremony.
Trump will also travel separately to Shanksville later Wednesday, according to a source familiar with his plans.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is also scheduled to attend an event marking the anniversary, though the governor’s office has not said where the event will be held.
On September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, killing approximately 3,000 people. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed into a rural Pennsylvania field after passengers tried to stop the hijackings.
Last year, President Biden held a ceremony in Alaska for US military personnel to mark the 22nd anniversary, during which he falsely claimed he visited Ground Zero “the day after” the attacks, when in fact he did so nine days later.
The president visited the Pentagon on the anniversary in 2022. In 2021, the president and first lady Jill Biden visited each of the three sites of the terrorist attacks. Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama also attended the memorial in New York.
How has the candidate dealt with 9/11 in the past?
Wednesday’s events mark the sixth election cycle in which presidential candidates have weathered a solemn anniversary amid a heated campaign.
Over the years, the day has been both a chance for unity and a glimpse into deep divisions. Mr Trump, a native New Yorker with a history of making false claims about terrorist attacks, is running for three consecutive terms as the Republican nominee.
Four years ago, then-candidate Biden and President Trump attended the Ground Zero memorial and avoided seeing each other, then traveled to Shanksville, but again avoided meeting.
Instead, Biden greeted then-Vice President Mike Pence with a COVID-era elbow bump.
In 2016, Trump and Hillary Clinton both attended an event at Ground Zero marking the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Clinton abruptly left the event feeling unwell and unsteady, prompting Trump to later question her health. She was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Then-President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney did not meet in person in 2012. Instead, Obama attended an event at the site of the terrorist attack and Romney campaigned in Nevada. Still, Romney refrained from criticizing his opponent, saying “there is a time and a place for criticism, but today is not it.”
All of this is a far cry from 2008, when President Obama and Senator John McCain laid wreaths together at Ground Zero and marked the solemn anniversary, setting aside bitter campaigning, at least for a few hours.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Kit Maher and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.