Joe Biden: Remembering 9/11 ‘Not About the Past, It Is About the Future’ of Democracy

President Joe Biden spoke at a memorial for the lives lost on 9/11 on Sunday, urging Americans to look toward the future and act to defend Democracy.

“Because on this day it is not about the past, it is about the future,” he said. “We have an obligation, a duty, a responsibility, to defend preserve and protect our democracy.”

The president spoke about the lessons of 9/11 during a ceremony at the Pentagon memorial, where he returned to a common theme of his presidency about democracy in America being under attack.

He said the terrorists on 9/11 tried to “bury” American democracy, “in the burning fire and smoking ash” but that it ultimately prevailed.

Biden urged Americans to “stand together and defend with all our hearts that which makes us unique in this world, our democracy” asserting that the terrorists on 9/11 “most hoped to destroy” it.