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Nation Marks 25 Years Since 9/11 Terror Attacks; Trump Honors 9/11 Victims At Pentagon Ceremony; 9/11 Families Still Seeking Answers On Saudi Arabia's Alleged Role; Trump & Vance Cap Off Two-Day Republican Midterm Convention In Dallas. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 11, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So that would be pretty incredible.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": That would be incredible. All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for that. And again, be sure to join Elizabeth and Variety's Ramin Setoodeh for their live red carpet coverage of TV's biggest night. You can stream it on Monday starting at 5 p.m. with your CNN All Access subscription.

And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

Remembering 9/11, 25 years later, today somber events across the nation are pausing to reflect on the terror attacks that forever changed America. This hour's ceremony is underway in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

All 40 passengers and crew members on United Flight 93 were killed despite their heroic decision to storm the cockpit, which likely saved so many lives, stopping the terrorists from reaching their next intended target, which is thought to have been the Capitol.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And at the Pentagon at 9:37 this morning, a moment of silence was held to mark the exact time that American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Western facade, killing 184 people. And then in New York, at Ground Zero, for the first time this year, a seventh moment of silence was held to honor those who have died from 9/11 health-related issues.

Those victims were honored just moments after the last family member, Michael Massaroli Jr., read that last name of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day. Massaroli saying this after he honored his late father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MASSAROLI JR., SON OF 9/11 VICTIM MICHAEL MASSAROLI: You do my dad's legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate. This tragedy is just that, it's a tragedy and it shouldn't be -- I've had to grow up and spend the past 25 years seeing people use it to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on people who don't look like them. And that's wrong and that does no honor to the victims here, and I want to use the little platform I have to ask for that to please stop.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House for us. So Kevin, we saw the president earlier today at the Pentagon. What was his message today?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and he was really putting the victims of the attack on the Pentagon very much at the center of his speech, those 184 people who lost their lives when the plane crashed into the Western front of that building a quarter century ago. There was the family of four who was traveling to Australia. There was the woman who was pregnant with her first child.

There were sixth graders on a field trip and the president really trying to put their memory front and center after listening to the names of all of those victims read aloud. But he also spoke a little bit about the passage of time in those 25 years. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 25 times, we have gathered at this hallowed place and at Ground Zero in New York, and a lonely field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In 25 years, a generation has passed since the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001. Yet time has not dimmed the honor of that day when our country came face to face with true evil.

With the events of that morning, 2,977 beautiful souls were ripped from our world and many more died in the weeks and years after.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So you hear the president referenced the many who died in the years after, I think an allusion to the two wars that ensued after 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it was interesting in the president's speech. He added the own war that he began in Iran and sort of linked it together with the events after 9/11. He said that the U.S. was now, quote, "working to ensure the world's number one sponsor of terror. The Islamic Republic of Iran will never, ever have a nuclear weapon."

And you heard similar remarks from the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, linking the conflict in Iran to this now long history, 25- year history of responding to the events on 9/11. The president is not at Ground Zero today. The four living predecessors of his office were there.

He has insisted that that was not because he would not be permitted to deliver a speech at Ground Zero. That's not part of the traditional remembrance ceremonies down there. He obviously did deliver a speech at the Pentagon. The president has gone to Ground Zero in the past, but not during this term in office. The president, of course, is a native New Yorker. He has spoken repeatedly about his own experiences on that day.

Some of his remembrances have been called into dispute, but there's no question that this was a time and an event that had a real impact on him, both as a New Yorker, as a builder in Manhattan, and as a future president, in a lot of ways, in the way that it formed sort of everyone's political views in the quarter century since it happened.

[14:05:17]

The president, in his speech today, really did try and recall some of that idea of fortified resolve that occurred in the wake after 9/11. He said that we were all New Yorkers that day. We were all New Yorkers. We were all family.

KEILAR: All right, Kevin Liptak, thank you for that report from the White House.

Twenty-five years later, there are still so many families who are seeking answers on what they allege is Saudi Arabia's role in the attacks. I'm joined now by Brett Eagleson. He lost his father in the September 11th attacks. He is the president of 9/11 Justice, and he's one of the many family members suing Saudi Arabia in a civil lawsuit over the deaths of their loved ones.

I do want to be clear here, Brett, that while 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, the government has consistently denied any involvement in the attacks. I know, obviously, the families see things very differently here. You want to see these FBI files on Omar al- Bayoumi, who's a Saudi national who helped two of the hijackers after they moved to San Diego before the attack.

What do you and other families believe are in those files, and why do you think the government has not released them?

BRETT EAGLESON, FATHER BRUCE EAGLESON DIED IN WORLD TRADE CENTER: Yeah, so let's just set the record straight. These are no longer allegations. The U.S. government has kept buried these files for 25 years. Just if I could ask everyone to put themselves in the mindset and the mind frame, if we can, for the people who are alive during the time, just go back to September 22, 2001, 10 days after 9/11. The world, the United States, was on fire.

We were looking for anybody and everybody who had any information on these terrorists. We were turning over every rock. We had SEAL Team 6 flown all over the world. We were looking for any types of information whatsoever. And only imagine, 10 days after 9/11, our own FBI had seized documents from the United Kingdom from a raid on Omar al- Bayoumi's flat in Birmingham, England. Omar al-Bayoumi, our own FBI says, was a Saudi intelligence asset.

And in his possession, he had a videotape hosting the hijackers in the months before the 9/11 attacks. He was introducing the hijackers to a party, saying, these are two special people. They are here on a spiritual mission. In addition, he has a plane sketch and an algorithm. Our own FBI says that's an algorithm of how to descend a plane at a certain rate to hit a target on the horizon. We could go on and on and on and on.

But the reality is, is that the United States government had these documents in their possession 10 days after 9/11. The 9/11 Commission never had them. And I think what you're referring to is the U.S. government has officially denied it. It's that they point to the 9/11 Commission. And we're trying to browbeat this into the media, reporters, the world. The 9/11 Commission had none of this information.

All of this information came through our lawsuit, through the discovery process, and not from the U.S. government, from the British government. So it is unconscionable to think, 25 years later, you can feel it. You can feel it in our voices. You can look at the Memorial today. The entire crowd erupted in massive applause when the family members were calling upon the president sitting there to do something, do something about this.

You say that you care, do something.

KEILAR: Brett, I want to play part of that moment. And yet, I just want to be clear, it is complicated for people who haven't followed this. al-Bayoumi was in England when 9/11 happened. The British arrested him. He was eventually sent to Saudi Arabia. The files were sent to the FBI from Britain. You mentioned this, these files were mentioned today.

There was a -- or this plea for help from the government was mentioned today multiple times from a couple of family members. Here's one of those moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY STRADA, WIDOW OF 9/11 VICTIM TOM STRADA: And my husband, Tom Strada, you are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?

(APPLAUSE)

STRADA: Yes, we finally made it into a court and have proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones. But for 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:10:00]

KEILAR: So I wonder what you want from the Trump administration given how close its relationship has been to the Saudis. I wonder if you have concerns about that interfering with getting to the truth when you look at things like the $2 billion in the fund run by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia that has invested with the president's son-in- law.

EAGLESON: Yeah, and that's a great point. And what Terry said today is the feeling and the emotion of these families, our families, we've had for 25 years, so it feels so cathartic when she's able to speak that. And I've been watching these memorials for 25 -- 24 years, and I've never seen them erupt in applause like that. So, you can tell that the sentiment of the families, what we want is we want justice.

And to your point, you know, the Trump administration has really missed an incredible opportunity here to do the right thing and bring closure. This is a president who prided himself on putting Americans first. This is a president who prides himself as a dealmaker.

He wants to go on Mount Rushmore. He wants to -- he's from New York City, for crying out loud. He himself, in 2016, I wish we could roll the tapes, but he called in to Fox & Friends when he was then campaigning, and he said live on air, Saudi Arabia knocked down the towers.

Now, I've followed President Trump a lot. I've never seen him to shy away from taking credit when he's actually right about something. So it's this really weird dynamic in that he, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has this investment from the Saudi Sovereign Foreign Wealth Fund.

President Trump hosted LIV Golf at a lot of his golf courses. He's developing hotels in Riyadh. However, I think this is a really important nuance here. MBS, the current crown ruler of Saudi Arabia, the ruler who has a relationship with Donald Trump, was 15-years-old on 9/11. Him and I are the same age, believe it or not, and MBS had, Mohammed bin Salman, had less than 0 percent to do with actually, you know, orchestrating 9/11. He had no idea.

So the person that Trump is engaged with and has the cozy relationship with, that's not the Saudi Arabia that we're going after. And Saudi Arabia, sure, they are a strategic ally. Do we need them? It's better to be friends with them and work with them than not.

But the important point here is the missed opportunity and the fact that we cannot allow history to be whitewashed for the sins of Saudi Arabia's past.

KEILAR: Brett --

EAGLESON: Bring all those accountable that were supporting those hijackers and helping those hijackers. Bring them to justice. Make Saudi Arabia admit culpability. And you would think the president of the United States would be salivating at the opportunity to do that. And he has ignored our calls.

We begged him for a meeting. 2,000 of us signed a letter to meet with him in the months before 9/11. And we've just been met with crickets from this administration. And we can't understand why. So the sentiment that you saw today at Ground Zero, that is sentiment that has spanned from administration to administration. And it feels really good to finally get this out there.

KEILAR: Brett, I do want to ask you, because I think the sad thing about this is that the people and families get lost in all of this as you deal with this and you're searching for this. I was reading about your dad, Bruce, an amazing guy. And it's been 25 years since you lost him. How are you remembering him today?

EAGLESON: My dad was truly a remarkable person. He was an exemplary leader in all senses of the word. He stayed behind in true Bruce fashion. And he had every opportunity to get out of those towers. But he wanted to be in there, helping people. He wanted to be doing what he was able to do to get his coworkers out.

He was going back up, ascending the stairs to the 17th floor in the South Tower to make sure nobody needed help and nobody was stuck. And in doing so, he gave his life. You know, he lost his life. And that's really bittersweet part of all this is you want to be proud of him. But at the same time, the selfish side of me is like, why couldn't you just get out of that? Why couldn't you just walk away? So that's been really hard to contend with over the years.

But, you know, bringing this full circle is you're so right. These families are owed more. We shouldn't have to be talking about this on 9/11. We shouldn't have to be using the Memorial as a platform to get the message out. Like we should be talking about my dad's stories and Terry's husband's stories and thousands of other stories. That's what the day should be about.

And it's a shame that our government has made us fight this long for these answers and President Trump has the opportunity to bring us this closure, but they fail. They fail to do it. And I just wish, I hope and pray that we can stop having to fight this fight and we could live in peace and we can have closure and it is able to happen. We just need to keep talking about it and we need to keep the pressure up.

KEILAR: Brett, you've lost so many years with your dad.

[14:15:00]

I am glad that we can remember him for the amazing guy that he was today. And thank you for speaking with us. Brett Eagleson, thank you.

EAGLESON: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:00]

KEILAR: A call to action and a potential preview of 2028, Republicans making an urgent plea to voters in the final night of their first-ever Midterm Convention. President Trump rallying his supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot this November, clearly a lot riding on the final years of his presidency with this election.

JIMENEZ: But Republicans also got a glimpse at a potential future leader of their party, Vice President J.D. Vance, receiving enthusiastic support during his keynote address, but reminding Republicans not to look too far ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD CHEERING)

CROWD: J.D. 48! J.D. 48! J.D. 48!

J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Can we please -- we got to take care of business this November, then we'll worry about what comes next.

This November is so much more than red team versus blue team. It's so much more than having good politicians in Washington. It's about sending a message to the Democratic Party that if you send your crazies, we're going to send you packing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: With us now, former Senior Spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, Adrienne Elrod, and former Director of Communications for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republican Strategist, Mark Bednar. He's now a Principal at Monument Advocacy.

So, Mark, let me just start with you because, look, we're going to talk midterms in a second, but obviously, whenever you see Vice President Vance up there like that, you think 2028. And I wonder what you made of -- I don't know if you want to call it an audition to lead the Republican Party in that space, but of his performance when, in contrast, someone like Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he's not there for something like this.

MARK BEDNAR, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, HOUSE SPEAKER KEVIN MCCARTHY: Well, I thought it was super interesting. So as a fellow conservative Catholic Midwestern millennial like J.D., I can attest that was the best speech he's ever given.

So not only, you know, we know him generally as Republicans in the public. You know, he's pugnacious. He's a defender of President Trump and the agenda. And he definitely did that there. But also to invoke kind of the future of the country through the prism of his kids, I thought was super interesting, super compelling. And the fact that he is able to say that the foundation of this country is not guaranteed, that's really, you know, that gets to the heart of kind of his ethos.

And to be able to parlay that into an urgency for Republican voters for the midterms here, that's a really big deal. And so I just thought pitch perfect on all accounts.

KEILAR: Adrienne, what did you think? He did have a message as well for Democrats. ADRIENNE ELROD, FORMER SENIOR SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Yeah, I mean, Brianna, here's the bottom line. I saw a very unenthusiastic crowd when I watched parts of this mini convention that Republicans have. The only time that I did see some enthusiasm was around J.D. Vance's speech, which tells me a couple of things.

Number one, I think even among some of Trump's hardcore MAGA base, there's Trump fatigue going on. Number two, it does feel like I mean, again, we're not I'm not completely in the predictions game here. And I'm certainly not a member of the Republican Party.

But it does feel like J.D. Vance is likely going to be the front runner in this primary, at least he'll be going into whatever primary may take place as the front runner. But look, the bottom line is this, Brianna, we're also going into a very important midterm cycle for both parties. And Republicans have basically nothing to deliver, they've done nothing for the American people.

So I think J.D. Vance went out there, gave some lip service, got some people excited. But at the end of the day, Republicans have passed nothing. They don't have an agenda to run on. The American people cannot afford their groceries, cannot afford their gas prices. Tariffs are killing American families. And so is the affordability crisis.

So Republicans don't have a lot to run on. They can try to say what they want to say right now to Jen (ph) at the base. But if they don't have a record to deliver in the next six weeks, which they won't, they're going to have a really hard time trying to make the case to voters going into 2027 for 2028.

JIMENEZ: Well, Adrienne, let me ask about Democrats for a second because, look, as part of what we heard from the vice president saying in terms of the midterms, urging undecided voters not to give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here and there.

Congressman Mike Lawler also trying to appeal to voters who are concerned about the rise of socialism and extremism on the left, as he characterized it. So but I guess, the question in that is, do Democrats risk losing Independents' and Moderates' support when you have some of the candidates that have emerged from the fringes? And I just wonder how the party you believe should go about making sure those Independents stay with the Democratic Party.

ELROD: Well, right now, Democrats are winning over independents handily. I mean, it depends on what poll you're looking at, what Senate race, what House race you're looking at. But the significant majority of Democrats on the ballot up and down the ticket right now across the country are winning with Independents. So that's the bottom line.

But look, here's also the bottom line. This is not a surprise at all. These are the same fear tactics that Republicans have used time and time again when they don't have a record to run on. They start talking about the transgender issue. They start labeling Democrats as crazies.

[14:25:00]

The good news is the American people, the voter out there is smarter than this. And they're looking at their pocketbooks. They are looking at high prices. They're trying to figure out how to afford their lives, how to feed their families, how to take care of their kids. And they're looking at Trump and saying, Trump and Republicans have done nothing. If anything, prices are higher than they were in 2024.

So, you know, that's where things stand. And I think people are kind of tired of these same old playbook fear tactics that Republicans use every --

KEILAR: Mark, I wonder, Vance on -- at this moment that the U.S. is in with the Iran War, because he could be such an effective messenger. I mean, he certainly was going into the election on the, look, he's someone who was part of a war that lasted so long, right? Sort of the men and women who were sent to war that was mishandled by civilian leadership and policy, right?

And yet here, he finds himself part of an administration that's at least in a much longer than planned war. So is it tough to have him there as a reminder about Trump and about Republicans who were sort of along for the ride here and not doing a whole lot about it as this waxes on?

BEDNAR: I think what's been really remarkable, especially about him, like it's been -- there's been a lot of reporting that he has, you know, been behind the scenes, skeptical of different parts of the war. But when in public, you know, he's a fervent defender of President Trump.

And of course, Republican members of Congress, Senators, candidates everywhere, they will say two things immediately for, you know, bringing down prices, win the war, whatever that means, and also drill baby drill. So those are, of course, that's a gross oversimplification, but there's a path forward with that.

What we hear from Democrats, though, is nothing in terms of how do we actually lower gas prices, no criticism of Gavin Newsom having the highest gas taxes in the country, no drill baby drill version of their own.

So while it is important for Republicans to kind of point out the crazies as, you know, it was illustrated at the convention, also to put forward a positive message, that's still going to be seen and needs to happen before the midterms.

KEILAR: Mark Bednar, Adrienne Elrod, thank you so much to both of you for the conversation.

And ahead on "CNN News Central," Inflation Nation, a new report on inflation could set the stage for the Federal Reserve to do the one thing that the White House doesn't want it to do. We'll have that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)