Biden’s 9/11 Ground Zero Claim Put to the Test by Fact Checking

President Joe Biden is facing criticism and fact checks from mainstream media outlets for saying incorrectly that he was at Ground Zero the day after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks even though he was not. 

Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Several political leaders gathered in New York City to honor the Americans killed that day, including those who lost their lives when planes flew into the World Trade Center.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were among those in attendance at a ceremony at Ground Zero, the site where the World Trade Center once stood. 

Biden was in Anchorage, Alaska, on Monday after spending the last several days in Asia. He delivered remarks at a military base commemorating the attacks, vowing that Americans would “never forget” the tragedies that unfolded at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

“I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building and I felt like I was looking through the gates of Hell,” Biden said. 

The Congressional Record of the United States Senate, where Biden served as a senator from Delaware at the time, details that Biden was not in New York City on Sept. 12, 2001, but rather at the U.S. Capitol.

According to the Congressional Record, the Senate went into session at 10:01 a.m. and Biden called for a three-minute recess at 11:10 a.m. to greet the Prime Minister of Australia. After the recess concluded, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., spoke for 10 minutes, and Biden spoke immediately thereafter for another 10 minutes. The Congressional Record indicates that Biden remained in the chamber as other senators gave remarks about the 9/11 attacks.

Additionally, the 1:55 p.m. roll call vote for a “joint resolution expressing the sense of the Senate and House of Representatives regarding the terrorist attacks launched against the United States on September 11, 2001” reveals that Biden was present in the Senate as he voted with his 99 colleagues in favor of it.

The Senate remained in session until 7:20 p.m., although several recesses occurred throughout the day.

When confronted by CNN and other media outlets about this discrepancy, the White House pointed to a photo of Biden with Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., as evidence that the president did visit Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11. However, the image was dated Sept. 20, 2001, nine days after the terror attacks. 

The mistaken insistence that he was at Ground Zero the day after 9/11 comes as the 80-year-old Biden faces questions about the impact of his age on his mental fitness to serve as president amid his re-election campaign.

A Wall Street Journal poll of 1,500 registered voters conducted from Aug. 24-30 shows that 73% of Americans believe Biden is too old to run for president, while just 36% believe he is mentally up for the job of president. 

Rep. John James, R-Mich., has introduced a resolution proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring that “no person may be elected to a term as President, Vice President, Senator, or Representatives in Congress if at any time during the term the person will be 75 years of age or older.”

As a proposed constitutional amendment, his resolution would require the support of two-thirds of both houses of Congress to pass and three-fourths of the state legislatures. 

The fact that his resolution has zero co-sponsors as well as the short period of time between now and next year’s presidential election, makes it unlikely that it will pass in time to make Biden ineligible to run for president. If passed, the amendment would also preclude former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican candidate for president, from serving as well. 

Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who was in office during the terror attacks, appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” to discuss the 9/11 anniversary and described Biden’s absence from Ground Zero as “disappointing.” 

Nigel Farage, a former member of the European Parliament who served as the leader of the United Kingdom’s efforts to withdraw from the European Union, told Sky News that it was “astonishing and, in many ways, deeply ignorant” for Biden not to attend a 9/11 ceremony. 

For the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on Sept. 11, 2021, Biden visited all three 9/11 attack sites. 

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