In a bizarre turn of events, US President Joe Biden was seen sporting a 'Trump 2024' hat during the 9/11 memorial event in Pennsylvania. The 81-year-old Democrat made the daring move as he attended the commemorative event at the Pennsylvania site where Flight 93 crashed during the terrorist attack in the United States on September 9, 2001.
As part of a gimmick, Biden wore the ‘Trump 2024’ hat during a visit to the Shanksville Fire Station in Pennsylvania while interacting with firefighters. Videos and images of the President wearing the hat quickly went viral on social media, with commentators pointing out Biden's apparent unawareness. Some also highlighted that it came after Trump and Harris engaged in a fiery presidential debate, where the former President told her, "Biden hates you".
"Joe Biden just put on a Trump 2024 campaign cap. This is not a joke… he really did," said one social media user. Another individual wrote, "Biden put a "Trump 2024" hat on today at an event where a group was playfully joking with him about his age and senility." Some even pointed out Trump’s recent joke about sending a MAGA hat to Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Trump campaign's War Room also reacted to the scene, quipping that Biden had put the cap on because "Kamala did so bad in last night's debate." It also wrote "Thanks for the support, Joe!" on another post.
However, the White House came out in defence of the President. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, "At the Shanksville Fire Station, @POTUS spoke about the country's bipartisan unity after 9/11 and said we needed to get back to that. As a gesture, he gave a hat to a Trump supporter who then said that in the same spirit, POTUS should put on his Trump cap. He briefly wore it."
Biden, Harris, Trump and his running mate stood alongside each other on Wednesday to observe the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks at the New York City site where hijacked planes crashed and killed nearly 3,000 people. No remarks were scheduled at the ceremony at the ground zero site where planes brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers. Harris and Trump shook hands and spoke just before lining up for the commemoration.
This came a day after Trump and Harris engaged in a furious 90-minute debate, where they clashed on issues like abortion, immigration, foreign policy, economy, healthcare and others. Majority of observers said Harris outperformed Trump, who let her get under his skin on several issues and appeared defensive, unprepared, and obsessed with the past.
During the debate, Trump again joked about sending one of his trademark red ‘Make America Great Again’ hats to the Democratic nominee. “Everything that she believed three years ago and four years ago is out the window. She’s going to my philosophy now,” Trump said. “In fact, I was going to send her a ‘MAGA’ hat."
According to a CNN poll, 63 per cent of debate watchers said Harris put in a better performance while 37 per cent said the same of Trump. Many agree that Harris’ performance, in which she called Trump a "disgrace" and referred to his remarks as the "same old, tired playbook: a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling", was the complete opposite of President Joe Biden's in June.
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