All posts tagged "911"

Republican North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley landed himself in the doghouse on Friday by commemorating the September 11 attacks with a very unfortunate, mishandled graphic.

Whatley, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, took to X to post "September 11th showed us the very worst of evil and the very best of America. 25 years later, we remember the lives taken, the first responders who rushed into danger, and a nation that came together in the face of tragedy. God bless America." However, the graphic accompanying this post said, "WE WILL NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 1, 2001."

After a short period, Whatley took down the post and issued a corrected one — but not before commentators on social media got their hands on the original....

A CNN panel reacted with a mix of disbelief and disgust to newly surfaced text messages showing FBI Director Kash Patel trying, and failing, to marshal the bureau's press shop against an anonymous internet troll.

The exchange, reported Thursday after journalist Seth Hettena spotted it in an FBI records release, showed Patel pressing his communications team to fire back at an account that had mocked him with a slur, replying with the FBI's "record year" stats. A top spokesman refused, warning it "would look bad on you." Patel pushed anyway, insisting it was about the post's view count.

On CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," the panel struggled Friday to make sense of it....

President Donald Trump is again rewriting his 9/11 history with claims that he worked "long and hard" on recovery, a story debunked for years.

Days ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Trump told Fox News host Trey Gowdy that he rushed downtown after the towers fell and joined the effort with his own construction crews. Progressive political commentator David Pakman fact-checked the account on a Monday episode of his podcast and called it a lie that Trump "seemingly cannot get away from because he needs it to fuel his massive ego."

In the interview with Gowdy, Trump described watching the attacks unfold from an apartment and insisted he knew it was a plane rather than a "boiler" or a "missile." Trump then claimed he sent workers to the site the following day....

President Donald Trump reportedly plans to skip a 9/11 commemoration in Manhattan after he was barred from delivering a speech, per insiders.

A New York Times report published on Thursday and co-written by Maggie Haberman revealed that Trump is not planning to attend a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. The reporting is based on information from four anonymous insiders.

Trump's team has conducted advance visits to the site where the ceremony is set to take place after the president initially signaled that he planned to attend Ground Zero on September 11, two anonymous insiders told The Times. ...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a jaw-dropping claim about prisoners in Guantanamo Bay that has left onlookers shocked.

Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, also known as Gitmo, holds prisoners accused of terrorism, including the jihadists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. While speaking outside Guantanamo Bay, Hegseth told reporters, "These Gitmo detainees should have been executed in my mind personally a long time ago."

On Bluesky, commentators shared their dismay at hearing the comments. Joe Stieb, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote, "It's staggering to think what these people would have done if they had been in power on 911," and "How does one make Dick Cheney look humane?"...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was taken down a peg over his promotion of a long-debunked 9/11 conspiracy theory that he espoused on a far-right podcast Wednesday.

Johnson appeared on The Benny Show to discuss his desire for hearings on 9/11, specifically the destruction of Building Seven, which collapsed hours after terrorists flew jumbo jets into the Twin Towers. Johnson promoted the theory that the attack itself didn't cause Building Seven to collapse.

"There are a host of questions that I want, and I will be asking, quite honestly, now that my eyes have been opened up," Johnson told The Benny Show's podcast. ...