Does Joe Biden Remember 9/11?

By Noah Rothman

Monday, September 11, 2023

 

Joe Biden’s unsettling lapses are doubtlessly coming with increasing frequency now. The latest occurred in Alaska, where the president and his administration have prioritized promoting a domestic policy initiative over commemorating the anniversary of the September 11 attacks at one of the sites the terrorists targeted. There, Biden said the following:

Biden set the stage: “Ground Zero in New York,” he said, pausing briefly before taking us along on his personal journey. “I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell, it looked so devastating,” the president continued.

 

On September 12, 2001, Joe Biden joined his fellow senators at the Capitol to debate a joint resolution condemning the terrorist attacks. From there, then–New York senator Hillary Clinton, who also participated in that debate, flew to New York City and visited “Ground Zero,” alongside Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Biden did not join his colleague. Rather, that evening, the Delaware senator joined Charlie Rose via satellite from Washington, D.C., for a broader conversation about the terrorist threat. The validity of Biden’s recollections about the view to which he was privy notwithstanding, it’s unlikely that he formed these impressions when he said he did.

 

Biden’s instinct to personalize American tragedies in his effort to relate to them has become a rote feature of his public remarks. Whether he is engaging in fabulism or inventing memories from his past is a subject of debate. But September 11 isn’t exactly a recent event, and the president should probably be able to summon at least a handful of genuine personal memories from that formative event. That is, if he is still capable of that kind of recall.