Trump, Biden make rival appearances on 9/11 anniv

PRESIDENT DONALD Trump on Thursday denied lying to Americans about the severity of the Coronavirus after a bombshell new book by journalist Bob Woodward revealed that he deliberately downplayed the crisis.

New York, Sept. 11: President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden held dueling commemorations on Friday for the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, a bid to appear as leaders in a deeply divided national moment.

On the 19th anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks the former vice president Biden — who has stepped up his campaign after keeping a low profile in light of the pandemic — began the day in Manhattan for an annual event honoring the nearly 3,000 people who died in the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Trump did not attend the ceremony in his native New York, instead sending Mike Pence as a White House representative. Biden and the vice president tapped elbows and chatted briefly.

Neither would give official remarks, as the Ground Zero ceremony's speeches — pre-recorded this year due to Coronavirus measures — are generally reserved for family members of victims.

But Biden's mere presence attracted attention at an event broadcast live on main US television networks and punctuated by minutes of silence, the first one at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), the time the first plane hit one of the Twin Towers.

The Republican president meanwhile travelled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania some 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the west of New York, where an airliner crashed after the passengers tried to wrest control from the AlQaeda hijackers. —