DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement on the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001:

“19 years ago, almost 3,000 people were brutally murdered and thousands more were injured in the deadliest terrorist attack in history. As the towers fell and the smoke rose, only one thing was certain: Our world would never be the same. On this anniversary, we remember not only the horrors of that fateful morning, but the heroes who got us through it: the first responders and ordinary citizens who braved fire and falling debris to get to those in peril; the passengers of Flight 93 – strangers to each other but united against evil – who spent the final minutes of their lives ensuring others would be spared from harm; the flight attendants, like Betty Ong, who stayed calm amid the chaos in order to alert authorities of the hijacking. Their actions saved untold lives, and their courage should inspire us all.

“Betty Ong’s final message to the dispatcher was short and simple: Pray for us. Today, nearly two decades later, we pray for the lives we lost in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We pray for their families and friends, their co-workers and communities. We pray for the survivors who still live with the scars of that morning – both visible and invisible, and for the heroes who signed up to serve our nation in uniform. We pray for them, we pay tribute to them, and we promise to never forget them. And in their honor, we hold fast to the values that were attacked, but not defeated, on that tragic day: liberty, justice, and equality for all.”