GOP New York Rep. Claudia Tenney on Monday blasted President Joe Biden for skipping attendance at 9/11 memorial observances in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., or Arlington, Va., on the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history.
In an interview on Newsmax's "Wake Up America," Tenney tore into Biden's planned 9/11 speech at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, as he returns from a G-20 summit in India.
"I just think it's disgraceful that he is not honoring what happened there, especially in light of what's going on with the migrant situation in New York City," Tenney said. "We're not remembering what happened and why we need to secure our nation," she added. "We want orderly migration, but we have to make sure people coming here live up to the promise that is America."
Tenney charged the Biden administration is "denying the reality of what happened to this country" and "the amazing comeback that Americans had after that day … how we became united … came back from this horrible situation."
"Maybe people don't agree with Afghanistan, Iraq. I certainly had my questions about what happened there" in the wars waged after the terror attacks, she said. "But the American people came back. There is a sense of unity when a horrible tragedy occurs, and he's denying all of us that ability to come together, which is something we need to do."
Tenney said the annual observance is difficult and "makes me really teary-eyed to think about what happened that day and how grave the situation is today and that we're not remembering that, we're not protecting ourselves and the future of our country.
"Our children, our grandchildren are really on the line," she continued. "And I just wish more people would recognize that we love migration and good people coming to our country that believed in the beacon of hope that we promised. But we also have to remember … that there are bad people out there. It's just the way it is. And they want to destroy us."
Vice President Kamala Harris was at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan Monday to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror strikes.
First lady Jill Biden was set to visit the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va., to lay a wreath. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff was at Shanksville and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough was to take part in a 9/11 National Day of Service event at a VA cemetery in Baltimore.
In his first year as president, Biden visited all three memorial locations. In 2022, he marked the occasion at the Pentagon.
He's not the first president who didn't attend observances at any of the three sites. In 2015, President Barack Obama participated in a moment of silence on the White House lawn, and in 2005, President George W. Bush marked the anniversary on the White House lawn.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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