Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton do not plan to attend a Ground Zero memorial ceremony for the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Sunday.
Although the Republican and Democratic nominees are both New Yorkers, the World Trade Center site’s spokesman said neither candidate has indicated plans to attend the commemorative ceremony in their hometown.
“We have not heard from either presidential candidate, nor the president of the United States, that they will be attending,” Michael Frazier, spokesman for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Museum officials said they did not formally invite either candidate or Obama to the event.
In years past, Oval Office candidates have taken time off from the campaign trail to remember the thousands killed in the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania field crashes. In 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain made a joint appearance at the site in Manhattan.
In 2012, during Obama’s re-election run, he visited the Pentagon on Sept. 11, while Mitt Romney met with first responders in Illinois and Nevada. During President George W. Bush’s re-election run in 2004, he attended a remembrance service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington and focused on official White House business, while rival John Kerry praised victims in a weekly address.
Both Clinton and Trump will suspend their television ads on Sunday. Trump’s team said he “will not be campaigning” all day, while a Clinton spokesman did not indicate how she will spend her day.
Clinton last attended the event in 2011 as secretary of state.
