In a speech commemorating the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, former President George W. Bush praised the heroic acts of United Flight 93’s passengers while condemning the “anger, fear and resentment” found in modern politics. Bush spoke at the Pennsylvania ceremony honoring the 40 Flight 93 passengers who overtook the terrorists who hijacked their plane, a reflection, he said, of American values. “The 33 passengers and seven crew of Flight 93 could have been any group of citizens selected by fate. In a sense, they stood in for us all,” he said. “The terrorists soon discovered that a random group of Americans is an exceptional group of people.”

Bush noted their immediate urge to work together to stop the group, a marked difference from today’s politics, he said. “On America’s day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab their neighbor’s hand and rally to the cause of one another,” Bush said. The Pennsylvania event also featured Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. President Joe Biden laid a wreath at the site after attending a ceremony at Ground Zero.