Biden, Trump, Kamala Harris appear together at 9/11 ceremony in New York

With presidential candidates looking on, some 9/11 victims’ relatives appealed to them on Wednesday for accountability as the US marked an anniversary laced with election-season politics.

In a remarkable tableau, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stood together at ground zero just hours after Trump and Harris faced off in their first-ever debate. Trump and Biden — the successor whose inauguration Trump skipped — shook hands, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to facilitate a handshake between Harris and Trump.

Then the campaign rivals stood only a few feet (meters) apart, Biden and Bloomberg between them, as the hours-long reading of victims’ names began. At Trump’s side was his running mate, Senator JD Vance.

The image was one of putting politics aside at this year’s solemn commemoration of the hijacked-plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001. But some victims’ relatives, after reading out names, delivered political messages of their own.

“We are pleading for your help, but you ignore us”, Allison Walsh-DiMarzio said, directly challenging Trump and Harris to press Saudi Arabia about any official involvement in the attacks. Most of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, but the kingdom denies it was behind their plot.

“Which one of you will have the courage to be our hero? We deserve better”, Walsh-DiMarzio said. She’s a daughter of 9/11 victim Barbara P Walsh, an administrative assistant.

Joanne Barbara was one of multiple readers who spoke out against a now-revoked plea deal that military prosecutors struck with alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two fellow defendants.

“It has been 23 years, and the families deserve justice and accountability”, said the widow of Assistant Fire Chief Gerard A Barbara.

Biden, on his last September 11 in office, and Harris paid respects on Wednesday at all three 9/11 attack sites: ground zero, the Pentagon and a rural part of Pennsylvania.

The president, vice president — and, separately, Trump — laid wreaths on Wednesday afternoon at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Biden and Harris spoke with victims’ relatives and visited the local fire department; Trump and Vance went to a New York City firehouse earlier in the day.

The Flight 93 memorial stands where one of the hijacked planes crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. Trump described the site as an “incredible place” in brief remarks from afar to reporters.

The attacks killed 2,977 people and left thousands of bereaved relatives and scarred survivors. The planes took down the World Trade Center’s twin towers and carved a gash in the Pentagon, the US military headquarters, where Biden and Harris laid a red, white and blue wreath on Wednesday afternoon.

While many Americans may not observe 9/11 anniversaries anymore, “the men and women of the Department of Defense remember”, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier in the day.

The attacks altered US foreign policy, domestic security practices and the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to foreign extremists.

Effects rippled around the world. Victims came from more than 90 different countries, and the US responded to the attacks with a “Global War on Terrorism”. US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops.

Communities around the country hold events on the anniversary, which Congress has titled both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Thousands of Americans commemorate it with volunteer work — among them Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He packed meals in St. Paul for people in need.

During early anniversaries at ground zero, presidents and other officeholders read poems, parts of the Declaration of Independence and other texts.

But the National September 11 Memorial and Museum decided in 2012 to limit the ceremony to relatives reading victims’ names.

If politicians “care about what’s actually going on, great. Be here”, said Korryn Bishop, who attended on Wednesday to remember her cousin John F McDowell Jr, who worked in finance. “If they’re just here for political clout, that upsets me”.

Brandon Jones was glad politicians weren’t on the podium.

“This should be a site for coming together to find feasible solutions and peace. This should not be a place to score political points to get brownie points to round up your base”, said Jones. He’s a cousin of victim Jon Richard Grabowski, an insurance firm technology executive.

In 2008, then-senators and presidential campaign rivals John McCain and Barack Obama jointly paid their respects at ground zero.

Eight years later, the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, abruptly left the trade center ceremony, stumbled while awaiting her motorcade and later disclosed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia. The episode stirred fresh attention to her health, which her Republican opponent — Trump, who was also at that observance — had been questioning for months.

Over the years, some victims’ relatives have used the forum to exhort leaders to prioritise national security, acknowledge the casualties of the war on terror, complain that officials are politicising 9/11 and even criticise individual officeholders. Others bemoan Americans’ divisions or decry violence.

“It’s my prayer that this wicked act called terrorism will never occur again”, Jacob Afuakwah said on Wednesday. He lost his brother, Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah, a restaurant worker.

But many family members stick to tributes and personal reflections. Increasingly, they come from children and young adults born after the attacks killed one of their relatives.

Thirteen-year-old twins Brady and Emily Henry read names to honour their uncle, firefighter Joseph Patrick Henry.

“We promise to continue telling your stories”, Emily Henry said, “and we’ll never let anyone forget all those lost on September 11”.