Democratic VP Candidate Joe Biden Recalls 9/11 Attacks on Anniversary

ABC News’ Matt Jaffe reports: On the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden put aside the partisan politics of the campaign trail to meet with a group of first responders and remember the tragic events of that day.

"Let’s pull together, let’s stay together," Biden said at American Legion Post 703 in Parma, Ohio.

In Parma, just outside of Cleveland, Biden recalled how he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center when his wife Jill called him as he rode the Amtrak train down to work on Capitol Hill.

“At that moment the whole world sort of froze," Biden said.

Biden, noting that he was the first senator or congressman to go to Afghanistan after 9/11, remembered his trip to Bagram Air Base, where the one single picture displayed in a hangar-turned-prison left a lasting impression on him.

“Remember immediately after 9/11 the picture you saw of that grizzled fireman, bent over, coming out of that dust and human debris with that look of determination on his face – well, our military guys did not have a picture of a political leader, did not have a picture of another military man or woman – they had a picture of a firefighter, a firefighter, and everywhere I went in Europe that picture was displayed because it was a symbol of America’s determination, of America getting up off its knees, of America dusting itself off and saying ‘okay, okay, we’re going to make this right.’"

"You firefighters — literally not figuratively – lifted America’s spirits and showed us determination. And everybody learned that, while other people were scrambling out of the building, your brothers and sisters were scrambling running upstairs to the 3rd, 5th, 20th, 50th, 70th floor to try to get people out."

“This is not about politics today,” Biden said, seated on a stage alongside five first responders. “This is about remembering our fallen heroes and remembering that there are a whole lot of people like the people I’m sitting with here today and many of you who will and are ready to God forbid respond to anything that would happen.”

Later Thursday, the Delaware lawmaker will attend a New York City service forum featuring presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain.

Biden highlighted his work as a lawmaker with first responders, noting that they saved the lives of his two sons in the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and daughter.

"Part of today is reminding Americans that every single day there are acts that are both ordinary and profound," Biden said in recalling the attacks. "You suit up, head out on that vehicle not knowing what you’re going to find. If, God forbid, anything remotely close to that happens, it’s going to be you guys trying to save all of us."

He urged Americans to never forget the sacrifices made that day.

“The nation that doesn’t remember those who have fallen, doesn’t commemorate what sacrifices they’ve made, is a nation that really doesn’t know its history," he said.

“I really don’t want us to forget the people who gave, gave the last measure of themselves, to save other people. I want people to remember," Biden said.