The two presidential nominees stood near each other at the event in lower Manhattan, with President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg standing between Harris and Trump. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Trump's vice presidential nominee, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also attended the ceremony.

During the ceremony, a woman who lost her husband in the 2001 terrorist attacks criticized Biden for saying to reporters Tuesday that he would be "doing 9/11" on Wednesday as part of his attendance at the day's memorial events. The woman called it "quite a flippant remark" — one of the only outright political statements heard during the ceremony.