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| © Evan Vucci / AP US President Donald Trump |
New York Daily News
The solemn morning marking the 17th anniversary of one of America’s darkest days was greeted with a series of angry tweets and double fist pump from President Trump.
Critics condemned Trump Tuesday for a “lack of respect” and an “inability to feel empathy for another person’s loss” as he was photographed acknowledging supporters with a triumphant double fist pump as he arrived to a 9/11 memorial service in Pennsylvania.
The President, joined by First Lady Melania Trump, took part in a somber remembrance in Shanksville, Pa., honoring the victims who were on board Flight 93 that fateful day.
A group of supporters met Trump as he arrived in Pennsylvania, prompting the President to smile before raising both fists and clenching his jaw in a celebratory gesture.
The double fist pump drew scorn from critics.
“He can’t even take 9/11 off from being a colossal schmuck...” tweeted Andrew Lassner, the executive producer of the “Ellen Show.”
Actress Elizabeth West was appalled by the act.
“Can you imagine having so little sense of decorum, sensitivity, self-awareness, that your first instinct upon arriving for an incredibly solemn ceremony, is to act as if you're at one of your rallies?” she wrote.
Trump was also photographed giving a thumbs up as he toured the memorial to the 40 Flight 93 victims. The passengers and crew were killed when the plane crashed into a field as they were attempting to fight off the hijackers who had commandeered the aircraft. In all, nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked a total of four commercial planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field.
In his speech, Trump remembered the "band of brave patriots” on Flight 93 who resisted hijackers and sent a message that the nation would “never, ever submit to tyranny.”
He said the site marks the “moment when America fought back,” and said the Sept. 11 anniversary recalls the day “a band of brave patriots turned the tide on our nation's enemies and joined the immortal ranks of American heroes.”
Hours earlier, the President started the day much like any other, tweeting angrily about the ongoing Russia probe and other topics as mourners gathered to commemorate the worst terror attack on American soil.
He also sent out a series of tweets marking the date, praising for his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was New York's mayor at the time of the attack and tweeted quotes from Fox News about the Russia probe and the Department of Justice.
While on his way to the memorial service, Trump was criticized for the tone of one of his tweet, which read, “17 years since September 11th!”
“This is not an exclamation point day. This is not a fist pump day. He sullies the solemnity of this day. History will not be kind to him. But WE will #NeverForget those who lost their lives and those who gave so much to help so many on that day, and the days that came after,” responded Stephanie Tittle.
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