The United States commemorates the 19th anniversary of 9/11 with the coronavirus killing about as many people every three days as were killed on that one awful day we all remember so clearly, with its then-unthinkable list of names of those lost. Donald Trump, who took a few minutes on 9/11 to brag, falsely, that he now had the tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and whose administration has been withholding millions of dollars from a program for Fire Department of New York (FDNY) firefighters and medics with 9/11-related health problems, sent Mike Pence to the ceremony.
Trump instead headed to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for the ceremony at the site of the Flight 93 crash. Former Vice President Joe Biden spent the morning at the New York City event before going to Shanksville, with his campaign having suspended advertising for the day.
However you remember 9/11, it was a day that changed the United States, from the lives lost that morning to the lives lost in endless war. This year, 9/11 is commemorated in a nation changed again by another tragedy—a largely preventable tragedy that happened on the watch of another Republican president. We now know that Donald Trump knew that this constant stream of death was coming, and we see every day how little he cares about it.
Whatever else you think about Joe Biden, he cares deeply for other people.