Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. While most politicians are keeping partisanship out of it—even, uncharacteristically, Donald Trump—Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene took the time to slam President Joe Biden in her tribute.
“Today, we remember the lives taken from us by the hands of Islamic terrorism 22 years ago. Americans are still dying and suffering from the toxic chemicals and dust they endured after the buildings fell. Let us also not forget the betrayal of everyone who died that fateful day by the Biden Administration who handed over weapons and ceded the territory we held in the Middle East to the Taliban, who works with Al-Qaeda, the very enemy we sought to defeat after decades of fighting and lost American lives,” Greene wrote on X, alongside a photo of firefighters lowering a flag to half-mast.
Greene’s comment makes reference to the pullout of American forces in Afghanistan in 2021. Though Biden announced that the full withdrawal would happen by September 11, 2021—the 20th anniversary of 9/11—it was completed on August 30 of that year.
Though the withdrawal happened in Biden’s administration, the deal was brokered with the Taliban by former President Trump, and the Biden administration placed the blame on him in a 2023 report from the National Security Council, the Associated Press reported. Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s moves, according to the report. The report said that at the start of Biden’s term, “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”
It’s not as simple as merely blaming Trump, however. Trump’s deal included a clause that would have allowed the U.S. to back out of the deal in the event that peace talks failed, according to the AP—which they did.
“If he thought the deal was bad, he could have renegotiated. He had plenty of opportunity to do that if he so desired,” Chris Miller, former acting defense secretary at the end of the Trump administration told the AP. Biden countered by saying that had he gone back on the agreement, he would have had to send more troops to Afghanistan, which ran counter to Biden and Trump’s shared goal of pulling out of the country.
“The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season,” Biden said at the time.
While Greene’s tribute to those lost in the September 11 attacks was partisan, tributes from her fellow Republicans stayed neutral.
“In the weeks that followed, we weren’t black or white; gay or straight; Democrat or Republican. We were all American. In the face of tragedy, we found unity. In the face of despair, we found renewed hope. Even as we pray that no calamity like it ever happens again, we can still long to be reunited once again as one nation under God,” Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X.
Even Trump kept things nonpartisan in a video posted to his social media platform, Truth Social.
“No one who lived through the horror of the September 11 terrorist attacks can ever forget the agony and the anguish of that terrible day. It was a terrible day. The images of dark plumes of smoke billowing over Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania—it was a beautiful field—are seared into our minds forever, we will never forget.
“Today on the solemn anniversary of those monstrous attacks, we remember the 2,977 precious souls who were savagely taken from us on that morning 22 years ago. Leaving a void that can never be filled—can never be filled. No matter what happens, it can never be filled. We will say a prayer for each of the beautiful families left behind whose pain is beyond comprehension. What they’ve gone through is not even believable.
“We honor the firefighters, the great New York PD—police department—what great people they are. They are so great. And the Port Authority officers, the Virginia, DC and Pentagon police and the military service members and other first responders—actually, all over the country—they acted with supreme heroism and they went to the site of the most heinous crime. They would leave other states far away and go to the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, they go to Pennsylvania. When many cases gave their lives in the line of duty. God bless the memory of all of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks, we will never ever forget. Never forget you, we love you. God bless their families and God bless America. Thank you,” Trump said.