Gov. Ron DeSantis among politicians marking 9/11 terrorist attacks at Ground Zero – NBC 6 South Florida

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vice President Kamala Harris and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani joined New York politicians and mourners in a 9/11 memorial ceremony at Ground Zero on Monday.

The bipartisan group of politicians was not scheduled to speak at the ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The solemn ceremony in Lower Manhattan instead focused on the hours-long reading of the names of the dead.

The hijacked plane attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives and upended American foreign policy and national security, also created a sense of national unity across the political spectrum that is rarely found in U.S. politics today.

Monday’s ceremony brought the political opponents onto the same hallowed ground, although they did not appear to interact with each other. Harris, who arrived with Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, passed not far from where DeSantis and his wife stood.

Harris was joined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, New York Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Not far away was Giuliani, once hailed as the “Mayor of America” ​​for his leadership of New York City after the attacks but in recent years has been linked to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election campaign to make up for election.

Ground Zero was long off-limits to politics on 9/11, and for many years Republicans and Democrats stood side by side to listen to the bells ring and the victims’ names to be read

Trump, a former New Yorker, did not attend Monday’s ceremony but instead released a short video statement in which he spoke about the attacks and honored first responders.

Biden was scheduled to mark Memorial Day at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, as he returned to Washington from a trip to India and Vietnam.