Families of 9/11 victims Tuesday ripped President Biden and ex-President Trump for failing to end “this national nightmare” and take on the Saudis for their alleged involvement in the terror attacks.
The grieving relatives — part of the 9/11 Justice organization — slammed Biden and his GOP rival for failing to mention during their debate last week the existence of chilling new footage that showed a suspected Saudi spy filming US landmarks as the attacks were being plotted.
“We’re no longer looking to be coddled or comforted. We stand here pissed off,” Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, said at a press conference in Lower Manhattan.
“It’s 23 years later, and our government has failed to bring us accountability, closure and justice. Our government fails to talk tough on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
The 1999-era clip in question, which only surfaced publicly last month, captured Omar al-Bayoumi — an accused Saudi intelligence operative with close ties to two of the 9/11 hijackers — giving a tour of landmarks in Washington, DC, including the US Capitol building and the Washington Monument.
The video, which aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and was then unsealed in federal court, was shot just months before al Qaeda officials decided what targets to strike during the terror attacks.
While the US government has maintained that al Qaeda acted alone Sept. 11, the victims’ families believe the footage proves the terror group had help — specifically from the Saudis.
“There was a debate, if you want to call it a debate, less than a week ago, where the two candidates for president knew about the existence of this video and neither one of them had the courage to stand with the 9/11 families and address this issue,” Eagleson said.
“There’s no issue today in United States politics that members of the left and right can agree on except this. It’s unconscionable that the two candidates for president of the United States are refusing to address this issue — they’d rather bury their heads in the sand than come out and stand with these 9/11 family members,” he continued.
“It’s been 23 years, and we’re no longer looking for words of comfort. We’re looking for justice, and we’re looking for a champion who’s going to put America first. We’re sick of it.”
Retired FBI Agent Richard Lambert, who is now a consultant on a lawsuit filed by the families of 9/11 victims seeking to hold the Saudis responsible in the terror attack, previously said the footage could have helped al Qaeda decide some of its targets.
Investigators have long-believed that United Airlines Flt. 93, which went down in a Pennsylvania field, was supposed to crash into the US Capitol before passengers revolted against the hijackers.
While the Saudi government and al-Bayoumi have both claimed the clip was just a tourist tape, the 9/11 families insist it is the “smoking gun evidence” need to hold the kingdom accountable.
“We’re calling on our president, former President Donald Trump and all of our leaders and representatives in Washington to stand together, do something and finally end this cat-and-mouse game,” said Dennis McGinley, whose brother Danny was killed when the Twin Towers went down.
“This national nightmare that we’ve been living for the last 23 years, bring it to an end, we’ve been through enough.”
McGinley recalled the day his brother — a married 40-year-old stock trader with five children under age 10 — was on the 89th floor of the South Tower when the attackers struck, flying planes into both the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and bringing them down, killing most of the 3,000 people lost that day.
“I called him, got him on the phone, and said, ‘What happened? I’m hearing a Cessna flew into the building,’ ” McGinley said.
“He said, ‘No, it was a jet airliner, it’s not my building, I’m safe. But the poor people next door …’ And he broke down crying watching what was happening next door. He was praying for them.
“I said, ‘Why don’t you get out of there?’ and he said, ‘No, they told us our building is safe and to stay.’ And moments later, the second plane hit. I never spoke to him again, and we never recovered him, either,” McGinley said.