President Biden spent Sept. 11 far from the sites of terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of 2,977 Americans 22 years ago, opting instead to send his second-in-command to Ground Zero on Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris stood between Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams at a ceremony honoring the victims of the 2001 attacks in Manhattan — as Biden returned from Asia and marked the tragedy later in the day at a military base in Alaska.

Harris smiled during a lively conversation with Hochul and stayed for about an hour before catching her return flight to Washington  — as victim names continued to be read aloud by their relatives at the National Sept. 11 Memorial Plaza.

The mayor and VP, by contrast, did not seem to engage in much chatter — after Adams has repeatedly blasted the White House’s handling of the migrant crisis that’s draining city resources.

Hochul and Harris were all smiles despite Biden’s recent snub of the Democratic governor, who wasn’t granted a meeting with him when she visited the White House on Aug. 30 to discuss the rising tide of border-crossers.

Biden, 80, left Vietnam Monday morning and didn’t make it to the sites where hijackers flew planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Virginia, or the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa.

The president instead delivered remarks to service members, first responders and their families at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which is typically used as a refueling stop for Air Force One on return journeys.

“I join you on this solemn day to renew our sacred vow: never forget,” Biden said.

The president went on to tout what he said was the lowest Al Qaeda risk to the US from Afghanistan since 9/11 — despite the jihadist-allied Taliban reconquering the country in August 2021 after nearly 20 years of US-led NATO forces battling the extremist group there.

“Today, our intelligence community has recently assessed in a declassified memo that Al Qaeda’s threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan has reached a historic low,” Biden said.

“While all this has changed over the last 22 years, the resolve of the American people has proved we never bow, we never bend, we never yield. Our longest war is over but our commitment to preventing another attack on the United States and our people on allies will never, never rest — never.”

While Harris went to Ground Zero, first lady Jill Biden was dispatched to the Pentagon remembrance, while Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, traveled to Shanksville. Harris had been announced as Biden’s substitute for the Lower Manhattan ceremony on Aug. 28.

Earlier Monday, Biden visited the John Sidney McCain III Memorial in Hanoi to honor the late US senator and Vietnam War veteran and exchanged a challenge coin with a US service member while he was there.

His staff also placed a 9/11 memorial installation on the North Portico of the executive mansion early Monday, but no ceremony is scheduled for the president as he returns to DC late this evening.

While they were in office, former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump generally held memorial services at one of the three crash sites.

In an exception, Obama addressed US troops from Fort Meade in Maryland in 2015 after leading a moment of silence on the White House lawn.

Harris, 58, joined the commemoration at the former World Trade Center site alongside Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and former Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Republican 2024 presidential candidates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also traveled to meet with relatives of 9/11 victims in New York.

“No one who lived through the horror of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks can ever forget the agony and the anguish of that terrible day. It was a terrible day,” GOP front-runner and former President Donald Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social account.

“We will say a prayer for each of the beautiful families left behind, whose pain is beyond comprehension,” he added, while honoring the memory of firefighters, police officers, Port Authority employees, military service members and first responders who “gave their lives in the line of duty.”

“God bless the memory of all of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks,” Trump, 77, concluded. “We will never, ever forget.”

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani also appeared on a podcast released Monday morning to recount his remembrances of the day and shared a statement through his spokesman.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s leadership on September 11th, 2001, saved lives and comforted the entire nation,” Ted Goodman said. “He reassured an anxious country and helped us find our way through unimaginable tragedy. Mayor Giuliani is focused on remembering those we lost, and honoring the courageous heroes who sacrifice their lives so that others may live.”

Biden traveled to India last Thursday for the G20 summit in New Delhi without Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, before stopping over in Hanoi.

“I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed,” he joked while answering questions from reporters, several of which he evaded before being played off by the sounds of jazz music.