New York:

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump shook hands Wednesday at New York’s 9/11 memorial to mark the anniversary of the attacks, briefly putting politics aside hours after they clashed in a fiery presidential debate.

The solemn display of unity was a stark contrast to the evening before, when the Democratic vice president forced the rattled Republican former president onto the defensive in a bruising televised encounter.

Any sense of harmony from the commemoration of the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks is likely to be short-lived, with the US election still on a knife-edge with less than eight weeks to go, despite polls showing a crushing debate win for Harris.

The 78-year-old Trump came out swinging even before the ceremony, claiming — without evidence — in an interview with Fox News that the ABC News debate in Philadelphia was “rigged” against him.

“It was a rigged deal, as I assumed it would be, because when you looked at the fact that they were correcting everything and not correcting with her,” he complained — referring to pushback from the moderators to some of his brazenly false statements.

The debate was watched by 57.5 million Americans, according to preliminary figures from ratings agency Nielsen — more than the 51.3 million who watched the catastrophic performance in June that forced President Joe Biden out of the race.

Trump appeared to be in two minds about the Harris campaign’s call for a second debate. He initially said on social media “why would I do a rematch?” but later said he’d be ready for two more.

– ‘Stand in solidarity’ –

The rivals kept their animosity hidden at the Ground Zero memorial, however, in an extraordinary encounter that also included the outgoing president.

Biden, 81, looked on as Harris and Trump shared their second handshake in the space of a few hours — having had their first ever such greeting at the start of the debate, in an unexpected move initiated by Harris.

Wearing commemorative blue ribbons, they all then watched as the names of the almost 3,000 victims of the attacks on the Twin Towers were read out.

“We stand in solidarity with their families and loved ones. We also honor the extraordinary heroism on display that fateful day by ordinary Americans helping their fellow Americans,” Harris said in a statement.

She and Biden headed later to the site in Pennsylvania where a hijacked plane crashed on 9/11, with Trump following later.

During his visit, Biden briefly donned a red “Trump 2024” cap given to him by a Trump-supporting firefighter. The image went viral but the White House said it was a gesture of “unity.”

Biden and Harris later visited the site where another jet was flown into the Pentagon outside Washington in 2001.

– ‘Good job’ –

The solemn atmosphere could not have been more different to Wednesday night’s debate.

Both candidates declared victory but it was former prosecutor Harris who landed blows on issues including abortion, and repeatedly managed to bait convicted felon Trump into angry remarks on past grievances.

Trump also boosted a debunked claim about migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Ohio, earning a correction from the ABC moderator.

A CNN snap poll said Harris performed better than Trump by 63 percent to 37, while a YouGov poll said Harris laid out a clearer plan by 43 to 32 percent.

US media and commentators broadly agreed Harris had come out on top — but that it may not move the dial much in a deeply polarized and entrenched electorate.

“I thought Kamala did a good job… and kind of gave us hope,” Tanya James, a retired teacher from Texas, said Wednesday outside the White House.

Ikaika Juliano, a musician from Florida, thought however that the Democratic contender “is fake.”

Harris meanwhile got a boost with pop megastar Taylor Swift offering her backing minutes after the debate. Trump said Swift would “probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.”

But the race remains neck and neck going into the final stretch.

Harris heads Thursday to North Carolina and Trump is due onstage in Arizona, two of the half-dozen swing states expected to decide the election.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A 33-year-old man was arrested in New York City on Monday after he jumped into a reflecting pool at the 9/11 Memorial, the New York Post reported. The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. when a Port Authority cop spotted the man leaping into one of the two-tiered reflecting pools at the memorial.

In a video of the incident that has gone viral, the man was seen lying in the 18-inch deep water in the pool’s central basin after walking slowly towards it. He then slowly moved closer to the center and slid head-first into the pool. The man injured his leg and back in the incident and was taken to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Here’s the video:

An Inadequate Jumped into the 9/11 Memorial Pool in #NewYork

A not entirely balanced 33-year-old #Manhattan resident decided to cool off and swim in the pool, which was built on the site of the #WorldTradeCenter towers destroyed in 2001.

Follow Me For More Update pic.twitter.com/P8JdpTuPCC

— __kaput__ (@__kaput__) October 11, 2023

The water was turned off immediately after the incident, and chains were erected around the pool to deter anyone else from jumping in.

“We saw the firefighters and emergency personnel come down the escalator as we were into the memorial. They said everything’s fine, but they were coming in and going to a, like, back room, and we figured that down there was where they could access,” tourist Lisa Bellow told CBS News. 

The man identified as Jeffrey Hernandez was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and trespassing after the terrifying jump, a New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the Port Authority described him as an “apparently emotionally disturbed person,” as per NBC News. He will also be getting a mental evaluation and criminal charges might include trespassing. The motivation behind the man’s actions is still unknown at this time.

Notably, the pool is one of two at the memorial, both in the footprints of the Twin Towers that fell during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. According to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum website, each pool descends 30 feet into a basin and drops 20 more feet into a “central void.” 

The Memorial was completed and opened on September 11, 2011, ten years after the attacks that destroyed the original towers.