Ron DeSantis attended a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at ground zero in New York City on Monday, appearing with more than a dozen people who lost family on Sep. 11
The group, many of whom are members of the grassroots organization 9/11 Justice, which represents other 9/11 families who accuse Saudi Arabia's government of involvement in the attacks -- which the kingdom denies -- led DeSantis and his wife, Casey, to the ceremony, where the couple stood in the back of a crowd while speakers read the names of each victim.The governor, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, spent roughly three hours at ground zero.
McGinley and many of the others who hosted DeSantis on Monday had already met them in May, when the couple invited the families to the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee over Memorial Day.“He had brought us to Florida and gave us over an hour of his time," Eagleson said. "We wanted to bring him to a special spot for us.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrives ahead of the ceremony marking the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, in New York City, Sept. 11, 2023.“While over the last three years some progress has been made, a selection of documents and answers remain unclear,” DeSantis said.
The same families who hosted DeSantis on Monday say they feel former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican primary race, spurned them several years ago when they say he promised to declassify 9/11-related documents only to do “a complete about-face,” according to Eagleson.in court filings in 2020 that the documents were state secrets.