US President Donald Trump and other authorities paid tribute to dead right-wing activist Charlie Kirk on Thursday, as the country commemorated the 24th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Kirk was a “giant of his generation” and a “champion of liberty,” Trump said at the start of his remarks at a 9/11 ceremony at the Pentagon, which was one of the targets of the Al-Qaeda attacks that launched two decades of deadly conflict.
The US president stated that Kirk would be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared at the same occasion that “like those on 9/11, you will never be forgotten.”
Kirk, a staunch ally of Trump, was shot in the neck while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Vice President JD Vance delayed a trip to New York for 9/11 commemorations in order to meet Kirk’s mourning family in Utah.
Memorial events for 9/11 were conducted at Ground Zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center’s twin buildings were destroyed in coordinated attacks that also involved a plane colliding with the Pentagon.
Another plane, Flight 93, crashed into Pennsylvania farmland after passengers overran the hijacker and gained control of the aircraft.
Several mayoral contenders attended commemorations in New York, providing a small respite from the intense contest to become the city’s next leader.
Former governor and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo chastised his Democratic opponent Zohran Mamdani for granting an interview to a left-wing streamer who declared in 2019 that the United States deserved 9/11, claiming it demonstrated that he is unqualified to be mayor.
Mamdani’s team responded, saying that “to suggest that Zohran Mamdani—who is poised to become New York’s first Muslim mayor—somehow supported 9/11” is “vile” and “dangerous.”
Mamdani leads the race by 22 points, according to the most recent polls from The New York Times and Siena.
On Thursday, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams linked Kirk’s assassination to 9/11, saying, “It’s the same hate that drove two planes into the World Trade Center that drove a bullet through the neck of Charlie Kirk.”
“That assassination cut at the heart of what we are as Americans,” Adams said.
“If we don’t pause for a moment on 9/11 to state that we’re better than that as Americans, we’re better than that as human beings, then we’re going to find ourselves in a dark place.”
At 8:46 a.m. (1246 GMT), when hijacked Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, New York observed a moment of silence throughout the city.
Places of worship throughout the city then rang their bells to reflect the impact, as families of the dead read the names of those slain at Ground Zero.
The official death toll was 2,977, which included passengers and crew from the four hijacked flights, fatalities of the twin buildings, firefighters, and Pentagon workers. The death toll excludes the 19 Al-Qaeda hijackers.
