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- Joe Biden and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence start the day in New York City at the 9/11 memorial museum at Ground Zero.
- Biden and President Donald Trump both visit the Shanksville, Pennsylvania memorial site.
- Kamala Harris speaks at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony in Fairfax, Virginia.
- Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi presides over a moment of silence at the US Capitol building.
Here are the latest updates:
Friday, September 11
14:29 ET – Biden greets families of victims of Flight 93 at 9/11 memorial
Biden laid a wreath of white flowers at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial marking the names of passengers and crew who died when hijacked Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001.
He met with three families and, joined by his wife, spoke about his own losses, though most of his private comments were not audible to media travelling with the candidate. The grief of losing a loved one to tragedy “never goes away”, he said.
A couple hundred spectators ringed the memorial and stood on the grass. There were a number of news reporters that stayed over from President Trump’s earlier visit. Before leaving the memorial site, Biden answered questions from the public about September 11.
14:10 ET – Trump threatens to put down any election night riots: TV interview
President Trump told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro in a taped television interview set to air on Saturday night that he would direct federal law enforcement to “very quickly” put down protests in the streets should he win re-election.
“We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that,” Trump said in an advance audio clip of the interview aired on the show Fox and Friends.
“We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want. Look, it’s called ‘insurrection’. We just send in and we do it very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that because there’s no reason for it. But if we had to do that, we’d put it down within minutes – within minutes,” Trump told Pirro.
PART TWO: This morning, I joined @FoxandFriends to remember 9/11 and to honor all victims that we lost this day 19 years ago. Take a look. pic.twitter.com/QXDqrusnCB
— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) September 11, 2020
13:30 ET – President Trump announces Bahrain to join UAE in recognising Israel
After returning from a September 11 memorial ceremony in Pennsylvnia, Trump met with top aides in the Oval Office and tweeted that Bahrain will join the UAE in normalising relations with Israel.
Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal – the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020
In a joint statement, the US, Bahrain and Israel said the agreement was reached after Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Friday.
13:03 ET – Biden pays respects to 9/11 dead in NYC, Pennsylvania
Joe Biden visited the Flight 93 memorial park in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honour the lives of 33 passengers and seven crew members who died in the plane crash. At an earlier ceremony in New York City, Biden commented on the depth of grief and pain family members and survivors feel.
“It takes a lot of courage for someone that lost someone to come back today,” Biden told an Associated Press reporter travelling with him.
“I know from experience, losing my wife, my daughter, my son, you relive it, the moment as if it’s happening. It’s hard. It’s a wonderful memorial, but it’s hard. It just brings you back to the moment it happened, no matter how long, how much time passes. So I admire the families who come.”
Joe Biden attends the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City [Amr Alfiky/Pool via Reuters]
12:45 ET – Trump campaign botches Facebook ad about Nobel Prize
The Trump campaign misspelled “Nobel” in a Facebook advertisement about President Trump’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The ad, claiming: “President Trump achieved Peace in the Middle East!” started running online on Thursday but was pulled early Friday. It cost a few hundred dollars and had a potential reach of 1 million users, according to Facebook.
Trump was nominated on Wednesday by a far-right, anti-immigrant member of the Norwegian Parliament for his work to negotiate a recognition agreement between the UAE and Israel.
Trump campaign ad on Facebook misspelling ‘Nobel’ was paid for by the Trump Make American Great Again Committee
12 ET – A rare moment of bipartisan warmth in politically polarised US
Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence greet each other during the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City [Amr Alfiky/Pool via Reuters]
11:30 ET – Trump administration seeks sweeping DNA collection from immigrants, US sponsors
The Trump administration on Friday proposed an expansion of its collection of DNA and biometric data from immigrants to include US citizen sponsors, the Reuters news agency reported.
The proposal vastly expands the biometric information that the Department of Homeland Security would collect beyond genetic material to include eye scans, voice prints, and palm prints, according to a notice in the Federal Register by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The plan is the latest move by President Trump, who won office with his anti-immigrant rhetoric, to make good on his campaign promises to remake the US’s immigration system as he seeks re-election in November.
10:50 ET – Moment of silence observed by lawmakers at the US Capitol
Members of the US House of Representatives observed a moment of silence on the steps of the US Capitol at 8:46 am ET, the time the first hijacked airplane – American Airlines Flight 11 – crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi carried a small bouquet of red roses and stood at social distance with other lawmakers, all wearing masks because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today, and every September 11, we come together as a nation to remember the fallen and gain inspiration from the resilience and patriotism that Americans showed at one of our darkest hours,” Pelosi said in a statement issued by her office.
10:45 ET – Google adjusting election-related searches
As tech giants grapple with the spread of political disinformation, Google announced they’re changing what shows up as suggestions in election-related searches.
“We expanded our autocomplete policies related to elections, and we will remove predictions that could be interpreted as claims for or against any candidate or political party,” Google’s Vice President of Search Pandu Nayak announced in a blog post.
10:25 ET – President Trump delivers memorial remarks at site of Flight 93 crash
President Donald Trump is speaking at the site of the crash for United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The president gave tribute to victims of the September 11 attacks.
“On that September morning when America was under attack, the battle turned in the skies above this field,” Trump said at a ceremony in which names of 40 passengers and crew killed in the crash were solemnly read out loud.
“They took a vote. And then they acted together. They charged the cockpit, they confronted pure evil and in their last act on this earth they save our capitol,” Trump said.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial, remembering those killed when the hijacked passenger jet crashed into an open field on September 11, 2001, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. [Jonathan Ernst/Reuters]
10:03 ET – Moment of silence observed at 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony for crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Participants in the national September 11 Remembrance Ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City observed a moment of silence at the approximate time of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump is in Pennsylvania and preparing to speak at the site of the crash, now a national park, to honour the 40 passengers and crew who lost their lives. The plane crashed after four hijackers flying toward Washington, DC, were overcome by passengers who tried to regain control.
09:30 ET – Biden backs Trump’s push to draw down troops from Iraq and Afghanistan
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said he supports President Donald Trump’s push to withdraw US troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, though not completely.
“These ‘forever wars’ have to end. I support drawing down the troops,” Biden told the newspaper Stars and Stripes. “But here’s the problem, we still have to worry about terrorism and [the Islamic State].”
“I think we need special ops capacity to coordinate with our allies,” Biden said, adding that a maximum of “1,500 to 2,000” should remain.
Members of the US military salute during the 19th annual September 11 observance ceremony at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on September 11, 2020. [Erin Scott/Reuters]
08:53 ET – Second ceremony, attended by Mike and Karen Pence, taking place
A second independent ceremony not affiliated with the official ceremony takes place at Zuccotti Park near the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, an event organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation attended by Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, and acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf.
Karen Pence read a passage from Ecclesiastes 3: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
The vice president followed her with a brief reading from the Bible. “For the families and loved ones and friends they left behind, I pray these ancient words will comfort your hearts, and ours”, he said before reciting Psalm 23, which begins with “The Lord is my shepherd”.
08:45 ET – Ground Zero ceremony begins
A military guard carries the flag that flew at Ground Zero around the site, Vice President Mike Pence stood not far from Joe and Jill Biden, who were next to Governor Andrew Cuomo, for the moment of silence at the site. Soon after, recordings of the names of the dead were played and a bell rang out for each one.
Everyone in the crowd appears to be masked, some are holding bouquets of flowers, many police, military and firefighters stand at attention.
08:10 ET – Joe Biden has landed at Newark Liberty Airport en route to Ground Zero
Before leaving for New York, Biden said he did not plan to make news, or hold any press conferences calling it “a solemn day”.
“I’m not going to talk about anything other than 9/11. We took all our advertising down. It’s a solemn day. That’s how we’re going to keep it.”
The 9/11 commemoration ceremony Biden and his wife will attend will be different from previous years with the names of those killed not being read out live, but pre-recorded because of coronavirus restrictions.
Participants are required to wear face coverings and practice social distancing on the Memorial plaza where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the US elections. This is William Roberts.
Read all the updates from yesterday (September 10) here.
