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announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom, with robyn curnow. exactly 21 years ago, no one could believe that commercial airliners could become weapons of war but that s exactly what happened in the horrific attacks of 9/11, changed the course of history. in the coming hours, americans and indeed people around the world will pause to remember the enormous loss that day and reflect on what happened since. in new york, the epicenter of the attacks, the missing twin towers are now replaced in the manhattan skyline by beams of white light. this year s anniversary also coincides with the u.s. ending its 20-year war in afghanistan that followed those attacks. earlier, president biden reminded americans of the resolve that emerged in the aftermath. we also saw something all too rare, a true sense of national unity. unity and resilience, the capacity to recover and repair, in the face of trauma, unity in service, the 9/11 generation stepping up to serve and ....
tonight president biden s message to the republican governors criticizing his sweeping new vaccine mandates and threatening to sue to block them, and i quote, have at it. and as the delta variant spreads like wildfire, tonight big developments on mask mandates in schools in two states where the virus is surging. plus california s recall election hasn t even happened yet, and right-wing media is already spreading lies about the state s democratic governor, gavin newsom s potential to beat back the recall. also ahead, my interview with a prominent professor and commentator on race, telling me what he got wrong about the state of race in america after living through the trump era. you don t want to miss that interview. i want to bring in cnn global affairs analyst susan glasser, and national correspondent philip bump. one day i will see you in person in studio, hopefully soon. and the reason why i haven t seen you is because of this. so, susan, president biden has a ....
everyone. thank you so much for joining me. i m fredericka whitfield. today marking 20 years since september 11th, 2001. 2,977 people died on that day in the deadliest terror attack in history. in ceremonies at all three attack sites this morning, victims names were read aloud. in new york, people came together to mark this solemn day. children placing flowers for loved ones. they never got to meet. men and women in tight embrace, mourning those they lost. and three presidents and first ladies were on hand for the memorial in lower manhattan. tolling bells followed by moments of silence marked to the minute when the planes hit the two towers and when each of them fell. at the pentagon, an american flag was draped down the side of the building before the names were read there. jay joseph ferguson. amelia v. fields. and in shanksville, pennsylvania, the president and first lady laying a wreath in the memory of the everyday heroes who took down flight 93 and stopped i ....
the field in shanksville, pennsylvania, where flight 93 crashed. passengers and crew made the historic decision that day 20 years ago to take on the hijackers so they couldn t reach intended destinations. before leaving pennsylvania, biden made a surprise stop at the shanksville, pennsylvania volunteer fire department. it was there he made comments to reporters defending the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. if you told anybody we were going to spend 300 million bucks a day for 20 years to try to unite the country after we got bin laden, after al qaeda was wiped out there, can al qaeda come back? yeah. but guess what, it is already back other places. what s the strategy? any place al qaeda is, we re going to invade and have troops stay there? come on. we have reporters at all of the sites. polo sandoval is at ground zero. let s begin with paula reed in shanksville, pennsylvania. i want to begin with president biden defending the withdrawal during his visit to a shan ....
forever when terrorists took the lives of almost 3,000 people. the country took pause to honor those we lost. gary jay frank. sheila patricia barnes. for some it still feels like yesterday, whether they watched it all unfold on tv or from the dust-filled streets of new york. some are too young to know what life was like before 9/11, yet they still lost just as much. my uncle firefighter, christopher mazell. i know you re with us every day watching over us, and even though i never met you in person, i miss you a lot. mom always tells us about the crazy, fun things you did, and i m sure if you were here, i would probably be doing them with you. generations refined and still healing. 20 years ago today. polo sandoval is where many of the events were held. polo, it s been an interesting day. it certainly has. preside we didn t hear from the president at this site. it was all about what happened 20 years ago. a flag unfurled 20 years ago signaled a day of tribu ....