Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend the New York ceremony on Sept. 11 commemorating the 25th anniversary of the most lethal terrorist attacks in U.S. history, filling out the group of former presidents to attend the event.
Mr. Biden and Jill Biden, the former first lady, will be at the event at the World Trade Center site, the former president’s spokesman, T.J. Ducklo, confirmed on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum declined to comment.
That sets Mr. Biden apart from his successor. White House officials had initially been preparing for President Trump to be in New York City, his hometown, that day to honor the roughly 3,000 people who were killed when two hijacked commercial planes slammed into the twin towers.
But Mr. Trump decided to skip the ceremony in Lower Manhattan, in part because speeches are not permitted at the event, according to multiple people with knowledge of the discussions. The anniversary of the attacks falls in between a Republican midterm convention that the president and his aides are throwing in Texas, and a golf tournament at the president’s club in Doonbeg, Ireland. One person briefed on the matter said that traveling overseas is easier if Mr. Trump departs from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland than from a commercial airport in New York or New Jersey.
Mr. Trump has also faced ongoing threats from Iran amid the war he and Israel began against the country earlier this year, and it was unclear whether security concerns might have factored into the decision.
Though the National September 11 Memorial and Museum had allowed politicians to recite poems and significant American texts, like the Gettysburg Address, the museum since 2012 has prohibited politicians from making remarks. Mr. Trump is expected to instead appear at the Pentagon, which was also struck by a hijacked jetliner on Sept. 11, 2001. The president delivered an address there on Sept. 11 last year.
The New York Times first reported that Mr. Trump would skip the New York ceremony. The White House did not challenge the article when approached for comment. A day later, on Aug. 28, Mr. Trump and his communications director in social media posts claimed the reporting was false. “I would love not to speak, because I’m speaking all the time, and this is a day to remember the victims, and their beautiful family members,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Biden and Dr. Biden will join the three other living former presidents at the New York event. Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush, the former first lady, are expected to attend; Mr. Bush was about eight months into his first term when the terrorist attacks took place.
Former President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are also expected to attend the ceremony, during which family members of those killed in the attacks will recite the names of the dead, over the course of hours. Mrs. Clinton was a senator from New York when the attacks took place.
