Wednesday’s 9/11 anniversary ceremony will take place against the backdrop of another heated presidential election, with both candidates expected to attend.
Mourners will descend on Lower Manhattan Wednesday morning — as they have every Sept. 11 for 23 years — for the annual commemoration and reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 9/11 terror attacks.
For the sixth time since that day, the solemn ceremony will come in the midst of a high-stakes U.S. presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, as well as President Joe Biden, will attend the ceremony at Ground Zero, according to the White House. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is also expected to make an appearance at the 9/11 Memorial and a Manhattan fire house, though his schedule has not been confirmed.
Should the candidates cross paths in New York, it will be the second time in two days, coming after Tuesday night’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. But if anyone is expecting the political fireworks from the debate stage to bleed into the 9/11 commemoration, past election-year Ground Zero ceremonies suggest the event will be relatively free of drama given the implied — and mostly followed — rule that the memorial is not the place to campaign.
Still, this year’s ceremony is taking place against the backdrop of a highly competitive and heated presidential race that has seen Harris and Trump spar over issues of national security.
Attending the 9/11 commemoration when it falls during an election year provides opportunities for presidential candidates to show themselves as “visible and statesman like in showing their respect” to those killed during the attack, Robert Y. Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University, told Newsweek.
It also places them “front and center” on issues of national security and terrorism, he said.
While polls show terrorism is not top of voters’ minds this year in an election largely focused on the economy and immigration, Republicans have been working to keep national security matters in focus.
