‘The View’ Looks Back at 9/11 Attacks With Emotional Tribute

The hosts of The View marked the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a segment to help younger viewers understand the impact of the terrorist attacks.

Joy Behar started Friday’s discussion by reminding the audience that 2,977 people were killed when the United States came under attack, but she noted “young Americans don’t feel connected to the impact that the attacks had on the country.”

She then asked her co-hosts what they remembered about that tragic day.

Alyssa Farah Griffin became emotional as she recalled her personal connection to the attacks. She said she was in junior high school and living in California at the time.

Her mother had taken an annual trip to New Jersey to visit close friends and planned to go to the opening of the New York Stock Exchange that day.

“My mom, however, is habitually late, so she was actually still in Hoboken when the Twin Towers were hit,” she said. “But as you guys will remember, cell phones were not going through, you couldn’t get in touch with loved ones, and I didn’t know for hours if my mom was alive.”

She began to fight back tears and apologized.

“I remember, sorry, I’m getting emotional thinking about it,” she continued. “I remember my older sister came to my middle school, and when I saw her arrive, I thought ‘She’s going to tell me mom’s dead.’ Thank God, she was fine.”

Farah Griffin said she is now bothered by the fact that some young people have turned the horrific attacks into memes.

“We literally watched almost 3,000 Americans die on live television,” she said.

Former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin described what it was like in the Washington, D.C. area.

“One of the planes did hit the Pentagon and I could smell, in the air, just the fumes and I could see the fire and it was so tragic,” she said.

Sara Haines noted more people, including first responders, later died after developing 9/11-related illnesses.

That prompted Ana Navarro to tell the audience that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently made thousands of pages of city records about the aftermath of the attacks available to the public.

“It wasn’t until this week that Mayor Mamdani released, made public, the study showing how toxic the air was… how could it be 25 years for there to be transparency when it comes to all of the people who worked at Ground Zero,” she said later in the discussion.

Remembrance ceremonies are being held across the country to honor those who were killed or injured in the attacks, as well as the people who later died from related illnesses.

You can watch the full discussion here.