The stage had been stripped bare and the flower arrangements removed by the time Joe Biden arrived at the Flight 93 memorial, three hours after President Trump had addressed a Sept. 11 ceremony on the very spot.
The Democratic nominee laid a wreath with his wife, Jill, beneath the name of one of the crew members of the doomed flight and then chatted quietly with the victim’s relatives.
“It never goes away,” he said to Cheryl and Camal Homer, “Does it?”
The two candidates for president made pilgrimages on Friday to the marble Wall of Names at the crash site where 40 passengers and crew died in a rural Pennsylvania field. But they did it in their own styles, offering different visions of how a president can relate to the nation.
In the morning, Trump addressed some 200 relatives and officials with a message of American exceptionalism and bravery in a speech that showcased decisive action against terrorist leaders.
In contrast, Biden had already told reporters that he would not be making news on the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks (even as he made headlines by announcing that his campaign was suspending advertising for the day).
And when he arrived at the memorial near Shanksville, he spent 10 minutes talking quietly with the family of First Officer Leroy Homer, one of the pilots who died as crew and passengers tried to wrest back control of the plane from al Qaeda suicide hijackers.
A few snatches of conversation were audible from a distance as he dispensed Bidenisms. “If my Dad was here now,” he said, as he embarked on an anecdote that elicited giggles from his audience.
There were no prepared remarks, no ceremony.
Although politics was off the schedule for the day, it was difficult not to see two different electoral pitches, two different modes of leadership on display. It is the choice facing voters who must decide who they want to lead them out of a pandemic.
One offers empathy and understanding, who, when confronted by grief, talks about his experience of loss. The other offers solutions borne by willpower and brute force.
Biden had quietly consoled families at a morning commemoration at ground zero, offering words of comfort to Amanda Barreto, who lost her godmother and aunt in the attacks, and handing a rose to a 90-year-old mother who had lost her son.
Yet in Shanksville, Biden, like Trump, also offered a message of fortitude when asked how new generations could honor the 9/11 dead.
“Bravery resides in all of us,” he said his mother had once told him. “The question is how people respond. It’s incredible.”
And like Trump, he paid tribute to the servicemen and servicewomen who joined the armed forces in the wake of such terrible attacks.
“After 9/11, there were literally millions of that generation who signed up knowing they were going to put on desert boots and go to Iraq and Afghanistan. My son was one of those,” he said.
The National Park Service originally planned a brief ceremony to mark the anniversary while protecting attendees from COVID-19. But when Biden and then Trump announced plans to visit, it updated the schedule to include remarks from the president and the secretary of the interior.
Trump spoke from a stage in front of flags — United States, Germany, Japan, and New Zealand, representing the nationalities of the dead — for 15 minutes.
“The heroes of Flight 93 are an everlasting reminder that no matter the danger, no matter the threat, no matter the odds, America will always rise up, stand tall, and fight back,” he said, before also laying a wreath.
The flags had been removed, the seating cleared, and the general public had been allowed back on to the site before Biden’s motorcade arrived.
