President Joe Biden falsely claimed he visited Ground Zero in New York City the day after the World Trade Centers were hit and collapsed, marking the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorist attacks on the United States.
During remarks at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, Biden gave a speech to American troops in which he claimed to have been at Ground Zero in New York City on September 12, 2001.
“Ground Zero, New York. I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building,” Biden said. “I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell; it looked so devastated because of…where you could stand.”
In reality, though, Biden was in the U.S. Senate alongside his colleagues on September 12, 2001, and gave a ten-minute floor speech regarding the terrorist attacks. Biden’s first known visit to Ground Zero was on September 20, 2001, when he joined a delegation of senators on a tour of the attack’s aftermath.
“Some have said, yesterday and today, that all has changed for America,” Biden said during his floor speech in 2001. “I know what they mean by that … but I pray that is not true … the one thing we cannot allow to change are the values upon which this country is built, for if that were to occur, then they would be able to declare victory.”
Biden also voted that day, along with all other senators, to approve a resolution officially condemning the terrorist attacks. Other then-senators who gave speeches included Hillary Clinton, Rick Santorum, Arlen Specter, and Barbara Boxer, among others.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden is the first president to commemorate 9/11 in Alaska rather than in New York City, Virginia, or Pennsylvania, where the attacks occurred.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.