Twenty years after 9/11, the changes the attacks brought to American life still reverberate across political and demographic lines.
A new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS finds that 57% of Americans say the attacks impacted the way they live their life today and 68% say the attacks had an impact on Americans' individual rights and freedoms.
While the share who say the attacks affected rights and freedoms has dropped in the last decade (an AP-NORC Poll conducted in 2011 found that 86% of Americans thought the attacks had affected individual rights and freedoms), the percentage who say 9/11 changed the way they live their lives today has held relatively steady over time.
Five years after the attacks, in 2006, an AP-Ipsos survey found a 50-50 split over whether 9/11 affected the way Americans live their lives. By 2011, 57% said their lives had been impacted by the attacks in an AP-NORC poll, and 63% felt that way two years later.
That a majority feels the attacks had some effect on the way Americans live their lives today holds across demographic and political divides, but there are some differences in the extent to which different groups feel their lives changed.
Older adults, who were 45 or older in 2001, are least likely to say the attacks had "a great deal" of impact on how they live their lives now (13% say so). Among those who were children, teenagers or not even born yet at the time of the attacks, 24% say 9/11 had a great deal of impact on their lives.
Overall, about 1 in 5 (20%) say September 11 had a great deal of impact on their life today, while 37% say it was just some impact.
The sense that the attacks affected individual rights and freedoms is also consistent across demographic divides, though Republicans (72%) are a bit more likely than Democrats (64%) to say that rights and freedoms were affected by the attacks.
Read more about the polls here.
VP Harris will honor Flight 93 and make an appeal for unity in Shanksville remarks
From CNN's Betsy Klein
Vice President Kamala Harris will honor the lives lost and heroism of United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday in her remarks at the observance event.
“What happened on Flight 93 tells us so much. About the courage of those on board, who gave everything. About the resolve of the first responders, who risked everything. About the resilience of the American people,” she will say, according to her prepared remarks.
“On this 20th anniversary, on this solemn day of remembrance, we must challenge ourselves to, yes, look back. For the sake of our children. For the sake of their children. And for that reason, we must also look forward. We must also look toward the future. Because in the end, that is what the 40 were fighting for: Their future. And ours," Harris will say, according to the remarks.
She will also make an appeal for national unity at a time of heightened political polarization.
“On the days that followed September 11th, 2001, we were all reminded that unity is possible in America. We were reminded, too, that unity is imperative in America. It is essential to our shared prosperity, our national security, and to our standing in the world,” Harris will say.
Harris is set to speak at 10:45 am ET.
Springsteen performs "I'll See You In My Dreams" after second moment of silence in Manhattan
New Jersey native Bruce Springsteen performed his song "I'll See You In My Dreams" after the second moment of silence was observed at the National September 11th Memorial in Manhattan.
Springsteen's 2002 album "The Rising" was a response to the attacks.
“The idea of those guys going up the stairs, up the stairs, ascending, ascending. I mean you could be ascending a smoky staircase, you could be in the afterlife, moving on,” he told "Nightline" when the album was released.
Names of 9/11 victims read by family members to honor them 20 years after attacks
Family members are reading the names of all the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the National September 11th Memorial in Lower Manhattan to honor them 20 years later.
Last year, the annual name-reading ceremony was altered to the Covid-19 pandemic, with prerecorded names played over speakers to avoid close contact.
Father of 9/11 victim remembers his daughter's "selfless act in the last moments of her life"
Mike Low, who lost his daughter on 9/11, spoke in lower Manhattan following the moment of silence about how the site where the World Trade Center once stood is now "a quiet place of memory."
Low's daughter, Sara, was a flight attendant on the first plane that struck the North Tower.
"At the first memorial ceremony, my wife Bobbie and I stood here with thousands of family members right in the midst of a gray and black world of destroyed buildings. Today, this is a quiet place of memory; the gleaming 9/11 museum holds a sacred repository for our loved ones' remains, and it is filled with bright stories of all of the sons and daughters, sibling, husbands and wives, grandparents and friends," Low said.
Low added: "As we carry these 20 years forward, I find ... continuing appreciation for all of those who rose to be more than ordinary people. And a father's pride in his daughter's selfless act in the last moments of her life, acting with heroic calm to help those in the air and those on the ground. A legacy from Sara that burns like an eternal flame."
Moment of silence observed to mark time when first plane hit WTC's North Tower
A moment of silence was observed at the National September 11th Memorial to mark the time, 8:46 a.m. ET, when the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, struck the World Trade Center's North Tower 20 years ago.
Other moments of silence will be observed at 9:03 a.m. ET, 9:37 a.m. ET and 9:59 a.m. ET.
Watch:
Biden attends 9/11 memorial service in lower Manhattan
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were joined by former President Barack Obama and Bill Clinton this morning in lower Manhattan for the commemoration ceremony at the National September 11th Memorial.
Biden will then travel to Queens before leaving for Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
"9/11 is still killing," Sept. 11 first responder and survivor advocate says
People are still dying because of Sept. 11-related health issues — and they continue to fight to get recognition — according to first responder and survivor advocate John Feal.
"We gave hope to a broken city 20 years ago, and we're paying for it with our lives. And the first 20 years were hard on us. The next 20 years are going to decimate the 9/11 responder community. And I pray that our federal government evolves us with, as we evolve for the worse," Feal told CNN.
Feal worked at the Ground Zero site for over five days and was injured there, he said. He never wore a mask or respirator because no one ever told workers to do so, he said.
"We worked, there we ate there, we slept, there we cried there, we went to the bathroom there. The absorption through the nose, mouth and skin; we were there 24/7, these men and women, uniformed and non-uniformed, never thought while they were searching and cleaning up lower Manhattan, that their city, state and local governments would lie to them," Feal said.
"9/11 is still killing," he said.
"And now, these men and women are paying the ultimate price, and while they left Ground Zero, part of them remained there, but then they went home and died, because they were lied to, and they were never properly taken care of. Nobody ever apologized to us," Feal added.
Some context: As of Aug. 2021, the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund has received claims from individuals in every US state, as well as Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and 31 foreign countries. More than 40,000 individuals have received awards totaling more than $8.95 billion in compensation.
Since its re-opening in 2011, the VCF has received more than 67,000 total eligibility claims.
"We had to fight and keep going back and forth to DC, to get health care, and then compensation, to the same people that lied to us. This is hard to wrap around 20 years later. You know, today, I'm going to remain vigilant and pay respect to those who lost a loved one. But tomorrow, we're back to advocating," Feal said.
Some families of 9/11 victims are still looking for answers in court 20 years later
From CNN's Zachary B. Wolf
The US government and its NATO allies invaded Afghanistan almost immediately after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, seeking accountability from al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for murdering nearly 3,000 people. It began what would become a two-decade military odyssey in nation-building that ended messily last month when Americans handed control of Afghanistan back to the Taliban.
But the family members of 9/11 victims are still pursuing accountability from another country — Saudi Arabia — as well as seeking more information hidden by the US government in US courts.
Secrecy has fueled theories. The kingdom has denied any involvement, and the US long ago decided that Saudi Arabia, its strategic partner in the Middle East, had no role in the attacks — though 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi citizens. So had bin Laden been, although he had been expelled from the kingdom and his citizenship revoked.
Suspicion of Saudi Arabia has persisted, however, and the dogged efforts of 9/11 families over the past two decades have forced the US, bit by bit, to share early leads that tied the hijackers to Saudi officials but were shrouded in secrecy and hidden from public view as classified information.
Persistence has yielded results. More details on those investigations could be forthcoming as a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia proceeds in court.
That lawsuit exists only because, after a years-long campaign by the 9/11 families, Congress passed a special law in 2016 allowing individuals to sue governments for terror attacks.
President Joe Biden has tried to keep a campaign promise to release FBI information related to 9/11 investigations by ordering a review of information at the bureau. A group of 9/11 families had asked him to stay away from Ground Zero unless the documents were released.
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