Donald Trump skipped joining Biden at the 9/11 memorial ceremony

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NEW YORK: Former US President Donald Trump was absent from official 9/11 memorial ceremonies in New York City and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton all attended a solemn ceremony Saturday morning at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City where the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed two decades ago, reported by the Xinhua news agency. Biden traveled next to the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville to attend a crown -laying ceremony. Earlier, former President George W. Bush and Vice President Kamala Harris both spoke at the memorial. Trump, instead of appearing at the ceremonies, traveled several blocks from his Trump Tower building in Manhattan to the 17th police precinct and to the nearby New York City fire station. During an unannounced stop at a Shanksville fire department, Biden praised Bush for encouraging American unity in his speech. He also defended his administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan in a brief statement to the press pool. Biden’s last stop on the day was the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, where he attended a wreath-laying ceremony with first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Biden did not deliver formal statements on Saturday but released a video statement on Friday acknowledging the lives lost in the deadliest attack in U.S. history and calling for national unity. On September 11, 2001, the attacks were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by the Al Qaeda terror group. Four commercial planes were hijacked by 19 al-Qaida terrorists. The first aircraft to hit its target was American Airlines Flight 11. It was flown to the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan. Seventeen minutes later, the South Tower of the World Trade Center was hit by United Airlines Flight 175. The same 110-storey tower collapsed within an hour and 42 minutes, leading to the collapse of other World Trade structures. Center and damaged the surrounding buildings. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed on the west side of the Pentagon causing a slight collapse of the side of the building. The fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93 flown in the direction of Washington, DC, was the only one that did not reach its intended target, instead crashing into a farm near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. It was later discovered that the target of Flight 93 was either the White House or the Capitol. A total of 2,996 people were killed in the attacks, the deadliest in human history, with more than 25,000 others.

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