It’s been 22 years since our horrible day on September 11, 2001. The weirdest development this year was Team Biden deciding that the president couldn’t make it to New York City or the Pentagon for 9/11, that he was going to commemorate this in Alaska, because he was traveling back from Vietnam. He didn’t have to visit Vietnam. He could have left the G-20 meeting and made it back to the continental United States, but they chose this.
As usual, there was no so-called mainstream media criticism of this, about the optics. We can guess why this might happen, to avoid elongated discussion of the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, or to avoid how the Biden Justice Department was considering a plea deal for the alleged mastermind of 9/11. It’s just bizarre that there hasn’t been a trial of these alleged 9/11 plotters, let alone an actual death penalty for Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, even under Donald Trump.
On that nightmarish day in 2001, I was a White House correspondent for World magazine, and was driving in to Capitol Hill to cover a confirmation hearing when I saw a large plume of black smoke coming from the vicinity of the Pentagon. I drove straight to the scene and began interviewing evacuated Pentagon employees. Even during that chaos, we were warned another plane was still in the air — Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania instead of a target in DC.
There was great national unity for a few weeks — until President Bush sent forces to Afghanistan, and soon the networks were reporting allegations of American atrocities in war. Anti-American tones returned, and very critical coverage of the Bush-Cheney War on Terror became routine.
We also discuss former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki comparing unborn babies to broccoli and lumps of coal. Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.