Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis commemorated the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by visiting the 9/11 memorial site in New York City on Monday morning.
"Twenty-two years ago, nineteen terrorists took 2,977 innocent lives in the deadliest attack against America in our history," stated DeSantis. "We will never forget."
At Ground Zero, the governor and first lady paid their respects, where two planes deliberately struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the innocent men and women who lost their lives on 9/11," remarked Casey DeSantis. "We will never forget."
The 9/11 attacks initiated a decades-long war on terror, including U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in Afghanistan concluded with a controversial withdrawal, criticized by many, including DeSantis and other Florida lawmakers.
In April of that year, President Joe Biden announced a complete troop withdrawal by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. This decision resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and the return of Afghanistan's government control to the Taliban.
"Thirteen brave service members were killed. Intelligence warnings that the Taliban would quickly take over were ignored," DeSantis commented on the second anniversary of the pullout. "Billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment were gifted to the Taliban."
On the domestic front, DeSantis expressed concerns about potential terrorist activity along the southern border in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
"I think that there is a good bet that somebody that's come across that [southern] border will commit an act of terrorism," DeSantis stated. "9/11 was, in part, an immigration issue. Many of these individuals should not have been in the country — they had overstayed visas and whatnot."
In addition to the attacks on the World Trade Center, the terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda used a commercial airplane to strike the Pentagon, while another plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people, marking the largest loss of life on American soil from a foreign attack in U.S. history.
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