Presidential candidates attend 9/11 memorial

Former President Donald Trump and vice presidential running mate Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, attended a 9/11 memorial service on Wednesday at ground zero, alongside President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Wednesday marked 23 years since hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pa. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The candidates’ memorial appearance came the morning after the first presidential debate between Trump and Harris. The pair shook hands before lining up for the memorial. Harris and Biden stood to the right of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with Trump and Vance to the left. Biden and Harris also plan to lay a wreath at the memorial to Flight 93 in Shanksville, before flying back to Washington to lay another wreath at the Pentagon memorial. Trump also planned to visit the Shanksville memorial.

What did the New York Memorial include? Victims of 9/11 were honored by family members reading their names aloud and giving brief remarks in tribute. The event was planned to run all morning and conclude in the early afternoon. The program was scheduled around six separate moments of silence throughout the morning. Pauses honored when each tower was hit, when each tower collapsed, when Flight 93 crashed, and when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

Dig deeper: Listen to Jenny Rough’s report on The World and Everything In It about college students observing 9/11.