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Inside Politics

Soon: First Moment Of Silence For Victims Of 9/11-Related Illness. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 11, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:31:21]

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: For more than two decades now, America has marked September 11th with six moments of silence. Retracing that horrifying morning from the first plane striking to the last tower falling. But today for the first time, the nation will pause for a seventh time. That silence for those who breathed in the poison that lingered after September 11th and lost their lives in the months and years later to that exposure.

Sonia Agron and her husband are among the tens of thousands of Americans currently living with diseases linked to the toxic air that blanketed Lower Manhattan 25 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONIA AGRON, 9/11 RECOVERY WORKER: My husband and I both have illnesses. He survived cancer, but between the both of us, we have about six different illnesses. Autoimmune diseases, no cure. And we know how it's going to end. And the seventh bell is really going to hit us hard this year. Because one day it will be ringing for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I want to bring in CNN's Brynn Gingras and Gloria Pazmino, both on the ground for us in New York on this solemn day. Brynn, to you first, just you can hear it right there, this is going to be a very powerful moment for many people.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And I spoke to Sonia. And OK, so her husband, today's his birthday. He was here when those towers fell. He was a recovery. He was, I believe, a police officer. And he still to this day, 25 years later, cannot bring himself to come to this location.

And you know why? His wife says because he has guilt. Guilt that he didn't save more people that day. Can you imagine 25 years later still having that guilt while dying from an illness that you received for being here as a hero? I mean, just sit with that for a second. That's why that bell is so important.

Later, really just in minutes, when they're done reading the names of all the people who lost their lives 25 years ago, that is when we are going to hear that seventh bell. And it will be so significant and so emotional for so many people, John, because now more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than the people who died on the day itself.

And so we've been hearing stories about that, about the survivors that live with this every single day, but also, of course, the survivors of those who did lose loved ones. You know, listening to the names, sometimes you'll hear a name, and they'll say, you know, Grandpa, I know you didn't know me, but I feel like I knew you, and because I've heard so many stories about you.

Or they read one woman's name afterwards, they said, and her unborn child. I mean, the impact of just a name has on this day is so significant, and it does remind you of what happened here. But there are moments of hope.

You know, hopefully this country coming together, I've heard that too many times over while being down here, John. But, yes, it's been a rough, emotional day. I heard you actually talking to someone on your panel who said today feels very, very heavy, especially heavy --

KING: Yes.

GINGRAS: -- than maybe previous years. And I can tell you down here on the ground, outside these reflection pools, that has been said to me as well many times over.

KING: 25 -- that 25 feels heavy. I guess that's part of it. And Brynn, please stay with us.

Gloria, as Brynn just noted, it's a sad thing to say, but more people died from 9/11 than died on 9/11. And we learned a lot more about that this week, why this week, what warning signs there were this week, when the mayor decided to release new information about what New York officials knew at the time but kept from the public about the air quality 25 years ago. Tell us more.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, it's just a staggering sentence, right, to hear that more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than the amount of people who were killed that day.

[12:35:07]

So the suffering and the pain of 9/11 has extended for generations and for thousands of more people who had to battle disease as a result of them being down there, many of them down there to help in the aftermath of 9/11.

Now, we have known for years now that people were getting sick. We know about the Zadroga Act, which took so many years to pass, so this was not necessarily a secret. But what we did not know until this past Tuesday was that the city of New York at the time, under the Giuliani administration, actually had information in its possession that showed that the air quality and conditions near Ground Zero were not entirely safe. And Mayor Zohran Mamdani moved to release many of those documents this week. It was part of a lawsuit that a 9/11 health advocacy organization had against the city to publish those documents and make them public, and he settled that lawsuit, and as a result of that settlement, those documents are now public. And what we learned is that even as early as October, so less than a month after the attacks, they had data showing that the air quality was concerning, that there was toxicity in the air.

But as you remember, John, there was such a rush to reopen the area in Lower Manhattan to sort of have, you know, this united front that we were going to come back and that we were coming back. And then, of course, there were the thousands of people who ran down to the area to help in the immediate aftermath. Not just first responders, but just regular people who went to the pile with their bare hands to help remove rubble. So many of those people have been sick.

And I asked the mayor earlier this week, you know, does this mean that many more people are going to be able to come forward and perhaps apply and be entitled to the victim compensation funds? And the mayor told me it was not a matter of if, but that it was a definite, that he believes many more people will be able to come forward.

Remember, John, this was just not the World Trade Center, we're talking about Lower Manhattan, home to many different neighborhoods, home to schools, children who continue to go to school down there, people who work down there and worked after the attacks. So just the magnitude of the impact is significant and that the city all these years later is making this information public is remarkable.

I have to say we learned that the documents had actually been sitting in boxes, 68 boxes that were being housed in just a government office and had been, you know, lost to the pile of bureaucracy over the years. And now we can sift through those documents ourselves and see what was known at the time and who knew it.

KING: Gloria, stay with us. And as we wait for this seventh moment of silence in New York, I want to bring the conversation back to Washington for a second to you.

Lauren Fox, you cover this issue on Capitol Hill. For years we have seen first responders, other family members from New York, often with the help and assistance and the megaphone, if you will, of Jon Stewart, come to the Congress saying, please help us. Most of the time they've left frustrated. Where are we there?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, certainly this is something that they had been fighting for for years, and it's a continuous fight because there's always additional information that we're finding out about people who were affected by this, about toxins that people didn't even realize existed or were making people sick.

And I think there's always going to be this continuous fight for the formula, for how much people are getting, for how much different groups are getting. And I think that that is something, John, that we've seen over and over again. You know, on Capitol Hill, it feels like an easy answer, right? It feels like if someone answered the call to go down and help after 9/11, there should be assistance for those people, and yet it becomes an issue over and over again.

KING: And yet, and yet. It should be a pretty clear-cut issue, again, captures that this is an incredibly solemn moment, a historic day, but our politics in the 25 years since sometimes get complicated in ridiculous ways.

We're going to take a very quick break as we wait again for a very important and new moment, a seventh moment of silence at Ground Zero. We'll be right back.

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[12:44:17]

KING: Live pictures at Ground Zero. We're just moments away from an unprecedented moment for the first time, a seventh moment of silence on Ground Zero, to honor those who died in the months and years after because of the toxic air quality and other issues from 9/11.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is with us on the ground. And Brynn, you'll have to stop in just a minute, but help people understand how this unprecedented moment has added to the solemnity of this day.

GINGRAS: Yes, you know, John, they have fought, these families, these survivors have fought for this moment, this recognition, if you will, as part of this ceremony. Because, you know, I'm sure, John, if you think back to that day, you can tell an entire story about what -- where you were, what you remember.

[12:45:06]

Well, those people, they live with it every day. It's not just a memory. They are living with those illnesses and, in some cases, dying from those illnesses. And so, you know, being able to tell their story and to be recognized for what they are suffering from is so important, just as important, you know, in their opinion and they feel as the people who lost their lives.

And so that's why, you know, one woman, that woman Sonia that I spoke to, she says she's going to be very emotional when that bell tolls. And we are expecting that to happen anytime soon, just after they finish reading the names aloud, John.

KING: Let us listen in. Let us listen in and pay tribute. First, the final names of those killed on 9/11, and then a special tribute to those who died in the months and years after. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zhe Zeng.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marc Scott Zeplin.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jie Yao Justin Zhao.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yuguang Zheng. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ivelin Ziminski.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Joseph Zinzi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charles Alan Zion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Julie Lynne Zipper.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Salvatore J. Zisa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prokopios Paul Zois.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joseph J. Zuccala.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrew Steven Zucker.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Igor Zukelman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my brother John Fiorito. It's hard to believe it's been 25 years. When we grew up, we lived in the same room. And even after we had our own families, we were never apart for more than 25 days, never mind 25 years.

I know you are still smiling down on us from heaven and guiding our wonderful families. That is no more evident than how little John has grown up into a wonderful young man who you will be very proud of. We love you. We miss you. And may God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother, Sal Edward Tieri, Jr. Sal was amazing, a hero, managing director for Marsh and McLennan. He worked at the uptown office. On that horrific day, he was assigned to report to the Trade Center for a meeting for a colleague that could not attend.

Over 3,000 innocent victims were murdered on 9/11. And all these innocent victims were doing -- were going to work to provide for their respective loving families. So many families with small children waiting for their loved ones to come home, and they never did, including my dear brother's family with two little sons, Jonathan and Austin, age 7 and 5. Jonathan has since passed. He's with his father and my dear brother.

I searched for 10 days in this city, looking every -- in every hospital imaginable, looking for my brother who was my best friend and rock. He has been -- it has been a long, heart-wrenching 25 years since that catastrophic day.

Please, dignitaries who are listening and are in attendance today, we, the family members and U.S. citizens who voted you into office in our strongest, in our strongest possible voice, we are demanding, pleading, insisting that the federal and local government agencies with their respective lawmakers designate, orchestrate, and finally implement after a quarter of a century, heart-breaking years, mark this day, September 11th, as a day of atonement, recognition, remembrance, and reflection for all the souls lost.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: God bless my dear brother, Sal, and all the innocent victims with their respective families. Ultimately, God bless America, and remember, always united, we stand. Never forget. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

[12:50:14]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Richard L. Allen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scott Thomas Coleman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Steven D. Jacoby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ricknauth Jaggernauth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jake Dennis Jagoda.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lynne Irene Morris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: James A. Nelson.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: John M. Paolillo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Edward Joseph Papa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And my brother, Michael E. Tinley. Mike, we are so glad that you are calling Suzanne, our sister that morning, to let her know that you were in New York on business, otherwise, we would not have known that you were in the towers. You've missed out on your grandchildren. You have six little grandchildren between your two daughters.

Mike, we love you and miss you, and we'll see you someday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my father, Michael Massaroli. This is an unusual position, being the last one to go here, I've got to admit. I think the one parting thing I want to leave everyone with is that you do my dad's legacy and the legacy of all these victims no honor by using this tragedy to spread hate. We have seen a medley of people come up today, of all races, all religions, all creeds, and 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.

I want to thank everyone who's come. I want to thank all the dignitaries that are here and the families that have stayed until the end, because every one of these names matters. And yes, thank you all for coming.

(APPLAUSE)

(BELL RINGING)

(TRUMPET TRIBUTE TO 9/11 VICTIMS)

(SILENCE)

[12:55:56]

KING: The silence speaking volumes, their poignant moments as the ceremonies, the remembrance at Ground Zero wraps up on this 25th, 25th anniversary of the horror of 9/11, that final bell tolling, a new edition this year to pay tribute to the more victims who died from 9/11, from the toxic air, from other exposure, than died on 9/11.

Paying -- moving tributes from the families there calling for continued unity on this day. You see the pictures of the New York skyline.

We thank you for your time today on Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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