President Joe Biden delivered remarks on Monday for the 22nd anniversary of 9/11 at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, on his way back to Washington from a trip to India and Vietnam.
In his speech at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in front of an audience of more than 1,000 service members, first responders and their families, Biden said the anniversary is a time to reflect and remember our sense of national unity.
“Now it shouldn’t take a national tragedy to remind us of the power of national unity. But that’s how we truly honor those we lost on 9/11," he said. “It’s more important than ever that we come together around the principle of American democracy, regardless of our political background. We must not succumb to the poisonous politics of difference and division.”
Biden's appearance in Alaska was a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, in an attack that reshaped American foreign policy and domestic fears.
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His remarks Monday mark the first time Biden has delivered a 9/11 anniversary speech as president at a site that was not hit in the attack. In 2022, Biden delivered remarks at the Pentagon. In 2021, he visited ground zero in New York, traveled to Shanksville and then went to the Pentagon.
More: Remembering 9/11
Other top officials of the Biden administration and their families were remembering 9/11 at the more traditional sites for administration commemorations. Earlier on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited New York City's September 11th Memorial. First Lady Jill Biden placed a wreath at the Pentagon memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff placed a wreath in Shanksville, Pennsylvania in honor of Flight 93.
The administration also said Monday it is giving $4 million from the 9/11 Memorial Act grant program to the National September 11 Memorial & Memorial Plaza in New York City.
