9/11 Families United President Terry Strada spoke out against Bryson DeChambeau of LIV Golf on Friday following comments he made during an interview this week apparently suggesting that those affected by the terror attacks find a path to «forgiveness.»
In an interview with CNN about the historic merger of the pga Tour, Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the DP World Tour, DeChambeau was asked about Families United’s initial 9/11 statement accusing commissioner Jay Monahan and the Tour of becoming «paid Saudi accomplices» and his response to them .
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States watches his shot from the fourth tee during the first round of the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club on May 18, 2023 in Rochester, New York. (Andres Redington/Getty Images)
«Well, I think we’ll never be able to pay the families back for exactly what happened a little over 20 years ago, and what happened is definitely horrible,» said the 2020 US Open Champion began, adding that «we’re in a place now where it’s time to start trying to work together to make things better together as a whole.»
9/11 UNITED FAMILIES PRESIDENT SAYS PGA TOUR’S JAY MONAHAN USED ‘OUR PAIN AND SUFFERING TO HARM LIV GOLF’
«I have deep sympathy, I don’t know exactly what they feel. I can never know what they feel, but I have great respect for their position and what they believe,» he continued.
«I don’t want something like this to happen again either. I think as we move forward, we need to find a path to peace, especially, and forgiveness, especially if we’re trying to fix the world and make it a better place. I think this is what they’re trying to achieve — LIV is trying to achieve, PIF is trying to achieve, we’re all trying to achieve is a better world for everyone and a way to bring great entertainment to everyone around the world.»
Bryson DeChambeau looks at his club after teeing off on the fourth hole during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational-Chicago tournament on Sunday, September 18, 2022, in Sugar Hill, Illinois. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
But Strada, whose husband was killed during the 9/11 attacks, responded in an emailed statement to Fox News Digital.
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«Bryson is completely ignorant of the Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks, willfully ignores it, or aligns himself with what his wealthy paymasters in the Kingdom have ordered him to do… spit out his talking points.
«The biggest question he misses is how we are supposed to ‘forgive’ an autocratic government that for more than 20 years has fought transparency and accountability every step of the way and still refuses to take no responsibility. In Bryson’s view, families and 9/11 survivors should just look the other way and forget? All families suffered immeasurable pain and loss when our loved ones were brutally murdered on 9/11, including my youngest son who was a few days old when his father and my husband were assassinated in the World Trade Center.
«Unlike Bryson, his other LIV teammates and now the PGA Tour, we will never forget and will continue to fight for accountability and transparency when it comes to the Saudi government’s involvement in 9/11.»
Terry Strada (C), who lost her husband, Tom Strada, stands with others who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, listens during a news conference on the 9/11 Disclosure Act on Capitol Hill on August 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
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The PGA Tour announced Tuesday, after more than a year of division, that it would merge PIF’s golf-related businesses, which include LIV Golf, with those of the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour into a «new, collectively owned, for-profit» and will also include a «capital investment» from the PIF.
In an appearance on «US newsroomOn Tuesday, Strada accused Monahan of using her stories «to smear LIV Golf.»
«He used our stories, our pain and our suffering to smear LIV Golf a year ago, and now he’s doing this complete 180 and he’s decided he’s going to give them this bigger platform for their sports washing entity, which he’s said in the past year many times that that is exactly what LIV Golf is».