Hillary Clinton Agrees To Not Campaign Or Run Ads On 9/11
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, will not campaign or run ads on Sept. 11.
A campaign official has confirmed that Clinton will refrain from stumping on the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
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The New York-based nonprofit, 9/11 Day, sent letters this week to presidential candidates, asking them to stop their public political activities that day. It wants to instead focus on service and remembrance.
In addition, 9/11 Day is urging people running for Congress to refrain from campaigning.
In 2012, the organization made a similar request; both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama complied.
The nonprofit's president and co-founder, David Paine, said a one-day campaign moratorium would help revive the spirit of national unity and empathy that followed the attacks.
"We would like to rekindle that spirit of unity and togetherness that marked the mood after the attacks,'' said David Paine, the nonprofit's president and co-founder. "Instead, we now have a more intense degree of divisive rhetoric.''
Please support 9/11 families' call for a political "moment of silence" for 9/11 this year (the 15th anniversary). https://t.co/yOAev0FJPz
— 9/11 Day (@911day) August 18, 2016
The mother of a 9/11 victim has also started a petition asking Clinton, Trump, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, and other candidates for political office to suspend their campaigns for the day.
"Instead of running campaign ads and posting 'tweets,' I ask each of them, and other candidates running for office, to observe a 'political moment of silence' for the day, pledging instead to dedicate time on 9/11 to helping others, and engaging in private moments of reflection and prayer, in the spirit of national unity and remembrance, and in observance of the federally recognized September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance," wrote Alice Hoagland, mother of Mark Bingham, who was killed in the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A spokeswoman for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. WCBS 880 also reached out to the Johnson and Stein campaigns and did not immediately hear back.
The organization encourages everyone to dedicate their time on Sept. 11 to helping others, whether privately or as part of organized charity and service.
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