September 3, 2025 • 40 mins
Andrew Card served more than five years as White House Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush. Less than eight months into Bush's first term, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners. Two were flown into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Another was used to crash into the Pentagon. The fourth plane was headed to Washington, but was forced down in a Pennsylvania field by the heroic passengers of United Flight 93.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Mr. Card takes us moment by moment as he learned the disasters in New York City were actually deliberate acts of terrorism by Islamic extremists, told the president the news in a Florida elementary school classroom, gave orders to get Air Force One ready to depart early, and figured out where they were going next.
He also takes us inside the intense debate he had with the president about whether to return to Washington and the first decisions Bush had to make, including whether to shoot down airliners refusing to obey air traffic commands.
Card also discusses President Bush's speech after returning to the White House, his impromptu message to Ground Zero recovery workers on a bullhorn, his emotional meeting with first responders and families of those lost on 9/11 and much more.
We'll also hear why Bush asked Card to take one high-ranking national security official "to the woodshed" and the shocking thing British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Card after Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress. And we'll learn how both Bush and Card were scolded after Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden captured "dead or alive."
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Mr. Card takes us moment by moment as he learned the disasters in New York City were actually deliberate acts of terrorism by Islamic extremists, told the president the news in a Florida elementary school classroom, gave orders to get Air Force One ready to depart early, and figured out where they were going next.
He also takes us inside the intense debate he had with the president about whether to return to Washington and the first decisions Bush had to make, including whether to shoot down airliners refusing to obey air traffic commands.
Card also discusses President Bush's speech after returning to the White House, his impromptu message to Ground Zero recovery workers on a bullhorn, his emotional meeting with first responders and families of those lost on 9/11 and much more.
We'll also hear why Bush asked Card to take one high-ranking national security official "to the woodshed" and the shocking thing British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Card after Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress. And we'll learn how both Bush and Card were scolded after Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden captured "dead or alive."
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Andrew Card, and while he did attend
the Merchant Marine Academy for a year, he joins us
today to give his first hand perspective on the nine
to eleven terrorist attacks and the days immediately following. Mister
Card served as chief of staff to President George W.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Bush.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Andy Card says the chief of staff has three main roles.
The care and feeding of the President, as he puts it,
meaning that it's his job to make sure the president
is healthy, focused, and in a good frame of mind.
He also keeps the policy goals on track and helps
to promote the president's agenda. On September eleventh, two thousand
and one, Card was expecting an easy day. The president's
(00:55):
biggest public event was visiting a Florida elementary school to
promote his education as policy agenda. Kart explains how that
morning unfolded at the school.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
On the way to the limousines to get ready to
go over to the E. Booker School, I did hear
two people ask if they heard about a plane crash
in New York City. One was kyl Row, the other
one was Dan Bartlett, both White House staffers, and we
arrived at the school and the President went to a
secure phone and called his National security advisor, Contaliza Rice.
(01:26):
I did not hear that conversation because I went into
the classroom where the President was going to be to
make sure it was set up the right way. I
didn't want any misspelled words on a bulletin board and
have a potato moment. And I saw the teacher of
the school, second graders, and she was dressed to the
nines and her students were standing in line in perfect behavior.
(01:48):
I then saw Ari Fleischer, the Press Secretary, standing with
the press pool, and they were not on their best behavior,
and they were building around. And it was a great
contrast to see these young people, polite, standing at tension,
ready to go into the classroom, and the press pool
kind of milling around, chattering and chattering. And I then
went into the holding room before the President was going
(02:10):
to go into the classroom, and I'm with the principal
of the school and the President, and a Navy captain
by the name of deb Lower, who ended up becoming
an admiral in the Navy, was the acting National Security
Advisor on the trip, and she came up to the
president said, sir, it appears a small twin engine prop
plane crashed into one of the towers at the World
(02:31):
Trade Center in New York City. The President, the principal,
and I all had the same reaction. Oh, what a
horrible accident. The pilot must have had a heart attack
or something, and literally, that's what somebody said. The principal
then opened the door of the classroom and she and
the President walked into the classroom. The door shut, and
I'm standing there and Captain Lower came up to me
(02:52):
and said, sir, it appears it was not a small
to an engine prop plane. It was a commercial jetliner.
My mind flashed to the fear the passengers on the
plane must have had. They had to know it was
losing altitude. I guess my assumption took off from Liberty
Airport in Newark, JFK or LaGuardia. But that's where my
mind went, and I was ready to see how we
(03:14):
react to that when deb Lauer came up to me
and said, oh, my god, it was not a small
twin in prop plane. It was a commercial jet liner.
And then moments later she came up to me and said,
oh my god, another plane at the other tower. I
then stood at the door of the classroom and performed
a test that chiefs the staff have to perform a
(03:35):
lot every day. Does the President need to know? Easy
test to pass. Yes, the President needs to know. I
made a conscious decision what I would say to him.
I was going to pass on two facts and make
one editorial comment, and I wanted to do nothing to
invite a dialogue with the president. I presumed he was
sitting under a boom microphone. I knew he was sitting
(03:57):
in front of second graders and a press pool, and
I did not want to have a conversation with him.
I thought about what I would say. I opened the
door to the classroom, stepped in, and the president was
participating in a dialogue with the students. The principal or
the teacher of the students was saying, say good morning
to the president. Good morning, mister President, and the president.
(04:19):
This dialogue is going back and forth between the President
and the students. And Compton with ABC News sees me
come in kind of from backstage into the room and
she gestures and I gesture back, and she gestures back,
(04:40):
and then the teacher told the students to take out
their books. They were going to read a book with
the President. And as the students are reaching under their
desk to get their books, that's when I walked up
to the President, and I was pleased. He did not
turn around to me, but I leaned down and whispered
into his ear. A second plane hit the second tower.
(05:02):
America is under attack. And then I stood back from him,
hoping to discourage him from turning and talking and having
a conversation with me. He kind of glanced in my direction,
but never turned around to look at me.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Once he told President Bush about the second plane, Card
quickly gave orders to get more information and to get moving.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
By the way I went back into the holding room,
the first thing I said was, get a line open
to the FBI director, Bob Muller. He'd only been the
FBI director for ten days. Get a line open to
the Vice President. Get a line open to the situation
room back at the White House, And I said, Dan
Bartlett gets some remarks. We've got six hundred people in
the gymnasium, and the President can't say anything that is
(05:45):
not the truth. I don't want him saying anything that
we don't know to be the truth. The President then
walked into the Holling room. The first thing he said
was get the FBI director for me, bingo right here,
mister President. So told Mark Tillman, the pilot off Force one,
to get the crew back on there Force one, and
I talked to the Secret Service. I said, we're going
(06:07):
to have to get out of here, and we'll have
to do it pretty quickly. So the President was all
ready to do those things. I then ran around the
classroom into the room where the six hundred people were
from the community, and the President came out, and the
first thing he said was I'm going back to Washington,
(06:27):
d C. And I cringe because I said he does
not know we're going back to Washington, DC right now.
And I actually get a little angry at Dan Bartlett.
I thought he must have put it in the remarks,
so I ran around. The President finished his remarks, I
was leaving Rod Page, the Secretary of Education, there to
meet with the people in the audience, and I said
(06:47):
to Dan, why did you let him say we were
going back to Washington, D C. And he said I
didn't tell him that, He just said that. I said, well,
we don't know that we're going back to Washington, d C.
By then, were then put in the motorcade and we're
driving a very fast speed, and I'm with the President.
I'm calling back to the situation room back at the
White House. The President is calling the Pentagon and he's
(07:09):
frustrated that he can't get any answer. As he's calling
the Pentagon, and I'm hearing it looks like the Pentagon
has been hit. So that's what we find out. We
arrive at Sarasota Airfield and we get ready to fly out,
and the motorcade comes to a stop. The Secret Service
opens the door of the Beast, the limousine. We step out,
and I'm struck by a protocol. No, no, the engines
(07:32):
on Air Force one are already running. The normal protocol
is you don't start the engines till the president is
safely on the plane. So I said to myself, Mark Tillman,
the pilot must really want to get out of here.
We run up the gang plank, get on the plane.
The plane rolls down the frontway almost before the door
is shut, and almost before we've taken our seats on
(07:53):
the plane. And then we take it very steep incline
and fly up to about forty eight thousand feet flying
in a serpentine way, waiting for fighter jets to kept
up to us. And then what do we do. The
pilot wants to know where we're going to get together
with the two military aids on the trip who were invaluable,
(08:14):
I said, I want an airport with a runway B
fifty two runway. I wanted to be a very secure
facility within a forty five minute flight from where we
are right now. And they came back to me and
gave me some options. Box Steel, if was a base
in Louisiana, was already on an exercise where they were
at the highest alert just as an exercise. I knew Barksteel,
(08:37):
I knew there was had a B fifty two capable runway,
and so I said, we're going to Box Dailia for space.
Talked to the navigator, talked to the pilot, said do
not communicate with the FAA. We were going. We don't
know who's listening to us where we are. And so
we flew to Box Daili, a force space. As we're
coming into land, we could pick up the local TV
(09:01):
station and I was struck that the local TV station
had someone standing at the end of the runway saying,
if this one was about to land at barx DL
Airforce Space. I'm saying, how did they know that? I
learned later on that a reporter for a local news station,
it was actually a cameraman for a local TV station,
was driving by barks JLA Air Force Space, saw if
(09:22):
worse one starting to come in to land, jumped out
of his vehicle, set up a tripod, put his camera
on it, called the station. So that was anyway we
landed at barks DL Airforce Space, trimmed down the number
of people who were on IF was one. There were
a lot of hangaru ers, members of Congress staffers that
were at the event in Sarasota that didn't need to
(09:44):
go on where we were going. I made the decision
to go to off it if were space in Nebraska,
knowing that did great communications and great safety and we
could get more granularity to what was happening, and that's
what we flow. The President, you should know, was very
angry with me. He wanted to go back to Washington, DC,
(10:05):
and I kept telling him, I don't think you want
to make that decision right now. I understand you want
to be there, but I don't think you want to
make that decision right now. And he was pretty angry
with me, and he kept saying, I'm making the decision
right now, and I said, yeah, but I don't think
you really want to. I know, Mark Tilman, the pilot
would not go to Andrews there for a space or
joint Base Andrews if it wasn't safe to land there.
(10:27):
And he didn't know whether or not stinger missiles or
sitting in the grounds around the air base or not,
so he did not want to go there without having
a clear understanding that the plan would be safe.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Cart also explains the orders given at the White House
another reason he was cautious to return immediately to DC.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
When they evacuated the White House, they told all the
people at the White House to run away, and they
had gathering spots identified with the staff was supposed to
run to those spots and be accounted foreign in secure
locations around DC. And they told the young ladies to
take off your shoes, your high heeled shoes, and run.
(11:10):
So you can imagine that there was a lot of
fear on the ground in Washington, d C. Which contributed
to the reality that the Secret Service did not want
us to go back to d C until we knew
that the president could be well protected.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That's Andrew Card who served as chief of staff to
President George W. Bush on nine to eleven and for
more than half his presidency. Still ahead, Bush returns to
the White House and then visits Ground zero. I'm Greg
Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty seconds of Service.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
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Speaker 1 (12:40):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Andrew Card, who served as White House
Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush for more
than five years, including on nine to eleven and the
days that followed. We now pick up Card's story as
he explains the first decisions President Bush made in response
(13:01):
to the al Qaeda terrorist attacks.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
The first decision that I heard the President make was
make sure Putin doesn't think we're using this as a
reason to attack them. So Conduise Rice reached out to Putin,
and the President made sure that that had happened. Didn't
want to have them overreact or have an unintended consequence.
The next thing was making sure that the FAA did
(13:26):
their job, getting communication with every flight that was coming
into this country and making sure that they were following
the rules. The rules were you're going to tell us
where you are and we're telling you where you're going
to go, And so I made sure that those things
were in action. By the way, Jane Garvey, who was
the FAA administrator, was not a Republican. She was holdover
(13:50):
from when the President took office, and she did a
remarkable job. Dor Minetta, who was the Secretary of Transportation,
did a phenomenal job that day too, And Normanetta was
in the bunker in the White House with the Vice
President and the National Security team. So we kept in
close touch. Yes, we knew fighter jets had been deployed.
(14:12):
We also knew that there was a high alert on
making sure that any plane that was entering our airspace
could identify who they were and we could make sure
that they were not the problem and where would we
put them? And they landed at a lot of airports
that hadn't seen a lot of air traffic for a
long time, including Gander, Canada, and we owe a great
(14:33):
deal of gratitude to the Canadians were taking in so
many planes and housing people in the local community until
it was safe for them to come back to the
United States. So there were a lot of actions going on,
and yes, fighter jets were deployed, and you could hear
the roar of them on the TV screens that we saw.
(14:53):
We also could see them beside Air Force One as
we're flying around. Point out that probably most intriguing reality
to this. I remember the Vice President calling in to
the President asking if he would authorize our fighter jet
pilots to shoot down commercial jet liners that were not
(15:15):
complying with the FAA rules. And I heard the President
confirm it. Yes. I honestly believed Dick Cheney may have
given the order before the President actually gave it, but
I'd know the President confirmed it and agreed to it.
But I was struck. After the President hung up the
phone from his conversation with the Vice President's he leaned
forward in his chair and I was sitting opposite side
(15:37):
of his at the desk. He says, I can't imagine
receiving that order. I was an International Guard pilot, and
I cannot imagine receiving that order as a National Guard pilot.
And I thought, thank you for the empathy you have
that you recognize that this is a big deal. And
then we heard the plane had crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
(16:03):
and I admit some of us wondered did we shoot
it down? There was no indication that we had, but yes,
we asked the question, and we were comforted to know
that we didn't shoot it down. But people who deserve
to get the Medal of Warner, except they weren't wearing
a uniform so they couldn't qualify for it, were the
(16:24):
first heroes of the war in Terror, near the ones
who were the passengers on flight ninety three.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
After Card convinced a very reluctant President Bush to stay
away from Washington for much of the day, they did
return to the nation's capital that evening and Bush addressed
the American people and the world from the Oval Office.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
First of all, the President was eager to speak to
the American people and the world, so he was eager
to get back to the White House to be able
to do that. He did have two of his speechwriters
working on a speech. And when we arrived back at
the White House, I want to say was around seven
point thirty at night. We went into the Oval Office
and then into a dining room just off the Oval Office,
(17:06):
and there was a draft of a speech the President
read through, it made some edits people commented about it.
Other credits have made. Then the President said he was
ready to make delivery. It was a very short speech,
but it was very important for the American people and
the world to hear it. First of all, the President
assured the American people that he was going to do
(17:28):
everything in his power to make sure that there were
no more attacks and that the people who did this
would be held accountable. But he also said, right up
front to all you leaders around the world, you're either
with us or against us. He knew his allies would
be with us, but he knew enemies would be reluctant
(17:50):
to be with us. But he sent the signal it's
your choice to make the first country to weigh in
and saying we're with you. Momar Gadaffi, I'm with you,
I'm with you, I'm with you. Don't bum me. But
that had a conscience. I'm sure that the president of
Pakistan was saying, I want to be with you and
against you. No, it's one way or the other. So
(18:12):
the President's changed foreign policy, and I'm sure some folks
at the State Department were a little bit nervous when
he made that policy statement, but it became the policy
of America.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
That's Andrew Card, who served as chief of staff for
President George W. Bush for more than five years, including
on nine to eleven and the weeks that followed. When
we come back, Card's reflections on Bush preparing his administration
for war, consoling a stun nation, and rallying the nation
at ground zero. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
(18:46):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest is
Andrew Card, who served as chief of Staff for President
George W. Bush. We now shift to the remarkable day
of September fourteenth, two thousand and one, as Card walks
us through President Bush putting his cabinet on a war footing,
speaking to the nation at National Cathedral and heading to
(19:07):
Ground zero.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
He said to the cabinet, we are at war. While
we are at war, we have a job of governing
to do. And then he addressed each member of the
cabinet about their responsibilities. And it was a tort force
in terms of understanding what were the priorities for those
departments and how we had to meet those expectations. At
(19:31):
the same time, we were going to be getting ready
to go to war. It was a torter force. I
was very impressed with how he did this without notes,
without being told to do it. He then walked back
into the Oval Office and everybody left the cabinet meeting.
But then we went out and got piled up into
limousines and we go to the National Cathedral and we
(19:54):
arrived and almost every pew was filled, and there were
members of Congress, members of the Senate, there were governors,
there were military people, there were diplomats from the State Department.
There were representatives of almost every faith in America. And
we said prayers, sang hymns, heard some remarkable commentary from
(20:18):
the religious leaders of the country, and then the President
addressed us, and it was a remarkable address. The team
that helped him with that speech did a phenomenal job,
and I remember it was very teary, and remember the
other presidents were there. It gave definition and that could
have ended the day, and it would have been an
(20:40):
unbelievable day. But then we went to Andrews Air Force Base.
We got on Air Force one. It became Iforce one
as soon as the President got on it, and we
flew to Newark, New Jersey. We get off the plane
at Newark, New Jersey, were greeted by the Governor of
New York and the Mayor of New York City. We
pile into a helicopter. The helicopter takes off from Lake Heurst.
(21:05):
We fly across New Jersey out to the coast. We
fly up the coast and there she is and she
is beautiful, the Statue of Liberty and the torch was glistening.
She looked beautiful. But then you saw a pillar of
black smoke coming out of Manhattan. And everybody on the
(21:26):
helicopter is looking out the windows. Nobody's saying anything. As
the pilot circles that pillar of black smoke twice, and
you're looking down and you can see people with hard
hats on. And then we land down by Wall Street.
We get into suburbans drive through the streets of New York.
(21:49):
I've done that many times with presidents, and usually there's
all kinds of greetings, some single digit helloes and other
big waves. Almost nobody is on the streets of New
York until you get close to what we now call
ground zero, and there's a lot of people there, but
they were wearing hard hats and the present. I can
(22:09):
hear him telling the driver of the vehicle that he's in.
I want to stop and say hi, I want to
see them. I want to get out. And I can
hear the Secret Service chatter everybody nobody's gone through magnetometers.
They haven't, so they're reluctant to have them stop. He says,
I want to stop. He gets out, he's greeting the crowd,
and there were all kinds of emotions. There were people
(22:31):
chanting Usa Usa. There were people praying, there were people crying,
there were people smiling, and he's glad handing and pumping,
he's hugging, and it's just a remarkable reaction. We then
get down to what we now call ground zero, and
(22:54):
the crowd is chanting Usa Usa. I see people hanging
off of stanchions, chanting Usa USA. They have Canadian flags
on their uniform, are Japanese flags on their uniform, and
they're chanting Usa, Usa, Usa. And then there's a crushed
(23:14):
vehicle and turns out it's a fire engine that's been crushed.
And I asked if somebody could take a look to
see if the president could get up there, and Carl
Row found a firefighter, Bob Beckwith, and I saw an
agent get up on top of that vehicle and jump
up and down to see if it was secure. He
(23:36):
gives me the thumbs up, and I went to the president.
Would you be going to get up there? He said,
do you think it's appropriate? I said, if you think
it's appropriate, it's appropriate. If you don't think it's appropriate,
don't do it. And he said, I'll do it. We
needed a bullhorn. Cayl Row found an advanced person to
find a bullhorn. I don't know how they found it,
(23:57):
found a bullhorn, and the President got up there with
beck With. The crowd is chanting usay, usay, usay. It
happens to be at about the same moment that in Washington,
d c. Every member of the House and in the
Senate except for one, voted to authorize us going to
(24:18):
war at that same time. And then the President starts
to give his speech, and somebody yells out, we can't
hear you, we can't hear you, and the President says,
I can hear you. In the whole world will hear us?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You've likely seen those ground zero images and heard what
Bush said on the bullhorn before, but many Americans don't
know about what Bush did next.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
After he left Ground zero, we went into the Jacob
Javitt Center and the President went to if you've ever
been there in New York City, it's a big convention
hall and there's all these booths, blue drapes, pipe booths.
The President went to every single little unit and thanked
(25:07):
the people that were there, and they were the rescue
workers that came from all around America, every state in
the Union. They also came from I think about thirty
eight other countries. People came to help search the rubble
for people that had survived the attack. And the President
rallied everyone who took pictures with the search and rescue dogs,
(25:28):
patted them, he shook the hands, and took a picture
with the teams that were there to be the next
shift working at Round zero. And that took a lot
of time. It was well received, and he looked at
people right in the eye and said thank you, thank
you for being here. And after he did that, he
(25:49):
thought his day was done. And I said, We've still
got one more place to go, and it's where I said.
It's in the Jacob Javitsenter's just around the corner and
it actually had to drive to it, and there was
a much larger blue pipe and drape room. And the
limousine comes to a stop and the door opens up
and there's an advanced man there and the president. What's this.
(26:10):
He said, we've got some of the family members from
people who were lost at crownd zero, and we thought,
we've got a podium set up in a microphone. Who thought,
as you could come in and say some remarks to
them and offer your hope and love. And he said,
I'm not going to the podium, and he just walked
into the room. And he walked into the room before
(26:31):
the Secret Service walked into the room. Usually when a
president arrived, secret service agents walk in there, everybody knows
that they stand up and getting their best behavior. He
just charged ahead of the Secret Service and walked into
that room. And I remember many people were sitting down
shocked that he kind of walked in. And there was
a woman sitting by a pillar, and he went right
(26:56):
over to her and she stood up, and she was
probably a bout four foot eight inches tall, and he
gave her a hug and listened to her, and then
he said, we'll find him, and then he and he
went to every single person in the room. He did
not give a speech, he didn't stand behind the podium.
(27:17):
He went to every individual and he shared a prayer,
he shared a tear, he shared a hug, and he
shared confidence. And he was only scheduled to be there
for like twenty minutes. I think he stayed for forty
five to fifty minutes, so everybody in the room. As
he's getting ready to leave, the woman that he first
(27:40):
saw stood up, looked up at his eyes and said,
I want you to have this. And she held her
hand out, and the present put his hand out, and
she dropped a badge into the hand and held it.
This is my son's badge. Is George Howard. Don't ever
(28:03):
forget him. And the President has tears dreaming down his cheeks.
All of us are crying, and I'll never forget what
the president said to her. He said, missus Howard, and
that was not her name, but missus Howard, you don't
have to worry about me. I will never forget George Howard.
(28:26):
And with tears dreaming down his cheeks, he squeezed the
badge and he put it in his pocket and he
hugged George Howard's mother, and then he walked out and
I'm right behind him. I send the limousine right next
to the President. As we're getting ready to drive down
to Wall Street to get on the helicopter, the President
(28:50):
reaches into his pocket and pulls out the badge badge
Noumber ten twelve, and he squeezes it him down his cheeks.
He puts it back in his pocket. He doesn't say
anything else. We get to the helicopter and the President
jumps out of the limousine, the first one, and he
(29:12):
goes over and he thanks the firefighters and the policeman
that was securing the helicopter. He shakes their hands. The
staff has already rushed onto the helicopter. The President comes
on the door, shuts, he wipes tears from his eyes,
and he says, we have a mission. That's all he said.
(29:36):
And we lifted off and flew all the way to
Lakehurst in New Jersey, and nobody spoke on the helicopter.
It was a very strange flight, and we landed right
near Air Force one at Lakehurst, and I remember the
President getting out of the helicopter, but he does not
(29:58):
go to the seven forty seven. He goes to a
small jet, and I even getting a small jet with him,
and it's a pilot, a navigator, co pilot, flight attendant,
secret service agent, me and the president. And the President
(30:18):
is sitting down at a seat with a table. I'm
right opposite him at the same table in another seat,
and he slumps down in his chair. He's exhausted. He's
physically exhausted, mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted. I believe he'spiritually exhausted.
(30:39):
And I lean forward and I say, mister President, thank you.
And he goes what I said, thank you? He said,
what what are you talking about? I said, you're a
great president. He said, what what are you talking about?
I said, you are a great president. Did everything a
president can be expected to do, and you did it
(31:01):
in one day. You heard about the attack. You changed
the mission of a department of the government, the FBI,
so the mission now is to prevent the next attack.
You met with your cabinet, and you told the cabinet
that they had a job to do, and we were
(31:22):
going to do the job. He told me to convene
the war Council because we were going to go to war.
Then you went to the National Cathedral and you prayed,
You sang hymns, and you listened to the leaders of faith,
and then you addressed us. Then you went to the
(31:42):
ground zero, told the world they would hear us. You
then rallied the rescue workers, and then you comforted the victims,
and you did it in one day. Thank you, And
all he said to me was thank you. And we
(32:04):
landed near Camp David and went to Camp David. The
next morning he met with his national security team, the
so called War Council, and he talked about going to war.
And I remember one person talked about going to war
in a place that we hadn't talked about going to war, Iraq.
And the President said, I don't want to hear that.
(32:26):
This isn't about going to Iraq. This is all getting
the terrorists. And so I was tasked with taking this
other person to the woodshed to not bring that up.
Those were my most memorable days. September fourteenth. September fifteenth, less.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Than a week later, Bush addressed a joint session of
Congress about the terrorist attacks. Afterwards, Card was shocked by
what he was told by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And then in came Prime Minister Tony Blair and he
greets Laura Bush and then he says to me, oh Andy,
it's so good to see you. And I said, it's
good to see you too, mister Prime Minister. And he said,
you're a marked man to me, and I said, excuse me.
(33:16):
He said, you are a marked man. I said, what
are you talking about. He said, that picture of you
whispering in the President's here, that's target practice in every
terrorist training camp in the world. I will be candid
with you. I was shocked when he said that. We
then piled into limousines after the President came in, and
(33:38):
we went back to the White House, and the President
and Laura Bush and the Prime Minister went up to
the residence and I went back to my office. I
didn't turn the light on. I went in just to
pick up the documents that were on my desk and
get ready to go home. And I'm shocked because two
people are in my office, the head of the Secret
Service and the head of the Presidential Protection Detail, saying
(34:00):
we own you twenty four to seven starting right now.
Why what are you talking about? They heard what Tony
Blare said to me, Laura Bush's Secret serviceation told them,
and so I had Secret Service protection after that.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
When we come back more of Card's thoughts on the
aftermath of nine to eleven, I'm Greg Corumbus, and this
is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Our guest is Andrew Card, who served as chief of
staff for President George W. Bush for more than five years,
including nine to eleven and the days and weeks that followed.
(34:36):
But first I asked him how soon he and the
president knew that al Qaeda had perpetrated the attacks.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, when I was told that appears a second plane
hit the second tower, the first first initials I thought
of was ubl who Samobin Lauden. I knew about the
attack on the World Trade Center during the Clinton administration,
so I knew who Samobin Laden was. I knew what
was el Kita was, and so I thought before I
(35:02):
even whispered in his ear that it was al Qaida.
We kind of got the confirmation from the CIA representative
on the flight. I was one as we're flying around
when he checked back with George Tenant, and so the
President didn't want to say it until it was confirmed,
and the confirmation came from George Tenant, So that's when
(35:26):
we acknowledged that we knew who it was.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
In addition to the terrorist attacks, the US was faced
with the anthrax attacks, the Beltway sniper, and other real
and perceived threats, and trying to separate fact from fiction
was not easy.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
We had anthrax come, We had the driver in the
white car shooting people in Washington, DC area. We had
rumors that there's a target in San Francisco, La. Bad
guys are talking about it. We had somebody saying they've
somehow communicating over satellite dishes, and where are the satellite
(36:04):
dishes coming from? And all this kind. Yeah, we were paranoid,
and the anthrax letters was clearly a targeted opportunity that
somebody took, and we presumed it was the bad guys.
It turns out it was a domestic thing. It wasn't international,
it wasn't a terrorist organization. It was a really bad
actor who was premeditated, very premeditated act. And I remember
(36:28):
that the information that around that wasn't that reliable, and
the discussions with the FBI and the investigations, where it's
going and do they have it here? Did we find
it there. So there was a lot of uncertainty around
what that meant and even the search for the person
who was shooting people in Washington, DC. There was a
(36:49):
lot of misinformation and people reacting in strange ways. But
we were a paranoid nation at that time, and some
bad actors tried to take advantage of that paranoia. The
President did not. He was focused, and he took everything seriously,
and he motivated the FBI and the intelligence community to
(37:13):
really be in the best behavior. I wish I had
read some of the books that were written after this happened,
because I would have loved to have read him before
it happened. The Looming Tower comes to mind, which was
a remarkably good book, but I wish I could have
read it a month earlier.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Kart also recalled Bush saying he wanted Osama bin Laden
captured dead or alive. Card says Bush loved it. Card
wasn't so sure it was the right thing to say,
but neither of them had the last word.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
He was not hyperbolic. The only time I can remember
getting into any criticism was from Laura Bush, and this
was we went to the Pentagon, into the Tank. This
is just before we pulled the trigger and went to
war in Afghanistan. We're in the tank, we have a
meeting with all the generals, admirals, and then we moved
to another room and there's a press conference, and I'm
(38:05):
standing behind the President and the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense with the President and
the press conference back and forth, and the President I
remember looking at the camera saying, we're going to get
them dead or alive. And as soon as I heard
him say that, I said, oh, I wish he hadn't
said that to myself. I knew a lot of people
(38:27):
would like it, and I just thought there's going to
be some complications to it. So we get to go
out and we get in the limousine to go back
to the White House, and he says, how did you
like dead or Alive? I said, I know that a
lot of people with the Pentagon probably liked it, and
there's probably a lot of people at home, but I
don't think Laura's going to like it. He said, what
are you talking about? I said, I just I think
(38:48):
Laura's not going to like it.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
And he said, oh, that's.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Not true at all. We get back to the White House.
I get back to my office, literally my phone is ringing.
I pick it up and it's Laura Bush saying, why
did you let him say deaderal? And so I said,
it wasn't in a written script. He just did it himself.
It was just a reaction. And she said, well, you've
got to make sure he doesn't do that again. And
(39:12):
I said, I understand, Thank you very much. And the
end of the day comes, and I would always meet
with the President at the end of the day. I
say how is your day? And he says, how's my
day and all that kind of stuff. And he said,
how is your day? And I said it was good.
And he said did you get a call from Laura?
And I said yes, I did. He said, so did I.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
That's Andrew Carr. He served as White House Chief of
Staff for President George W. Bush for more than five years,
including on nine to eleven and the days and weeks
that followed. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veteran's Chronicles. Hi,
(39:57):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(40:18):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Andrew Card, and while he did attend
the Merchant Marine Academy for a year, he joins us
today to give his first hand perspective on the nine
to eleven terrorist attacks and the days immediately following. Mister
Card served as chief of staff to President George W.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Bush.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Andy Card says the chief of staff has three main roles.
The care and feeding of the President, as he puts it,
meaning that it's his job to make sure the president
is healthy, focused, and in a good frame of mind.
He also keeps the policy goals on track and helps
to promote the president's agenda. On September eleventh, two thousand
and one, Card was expecting an easy day. The president's
(00:55):
biggest public event was visiting a Florida elementary school to
promote his education as policy agenda. Kart explains how that
morning unfolded at the school.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
On the way to the limousines to get ready to
go over to the E. Booker School, I did hear
two people ask if they heard about a plane crash
in New York City. One was kyl Row, the other
one was Dan Bartlett, both White House staffers, and we
arrived at the school and the President went to a
secure phone and called his National security advisor, Contaliza Rice.
(01:26):
I did not hear that conversation because I went into
the classroom where the President was going to be to
make sure it was set up the right way. I
didn't want any misspelled words on a bulletin board and
have a potato moment. And I saw the teacher of
the school, second graders, and she was dressed to the
nines and her students were standing in line in perfect behavior.
(01:48):
I then saw Ari Fleischer, the Press Secretary, standing with
the press pool, and they were not on their best behavior,
and they were building around. And it was a great
contrast to see these young people, polite, standing at tension,
ready to go into the classroom, and the press pool
kind of milling around, chattering and chattering. And I then
went into the holding room before the President was going
(02:10):
to go into the classroom, and I'm with the principal
of the school and the President, and a Navy captain
by the name of deb Lower, who ended up becoming
an admiral in the Navy, was the acting National Security
Advisor on the trip, and she came up to the
president said, sir, it appears a small twin engine prop
plane crashed into one of the towers at the World
(02:31):
Trade Center in New York City. The President, the principal,
and I all had the same reaction. Oh, what a
horrible accident. The pilot must have had a heart attack
or something, and literally, that's what somebody said. The principal
then opened the door of the classroom and she and
the President walked into the classroom. The door shut, and
I'm standing there and Captain Lower came up to me
(02:52):
and said, sir, it appears it was not a small
to an engine prop plane. It was a commercial jetliner.
My mind flashed to the fear the passengers on the
plane must have had. They had to know it was
losing altitude. I guess my assumption took off from Liberty
Airport in Newark, JFK or LaGuardia. But that's where my
mind went, and I was ready to see how we
(03:14):
react to that when deb Lauer came up to me
and said, oh, my god, it was not a small
twin in prop plane. It was a commercial jet liner.
And then moments later she came up to me and said,
oh my god, another plane at the other tower. I
then stood at the door of the classroom and performed
a test that chiefs the staff have to perform a
(03:35):
lot every day. Does the President need to know? Easy
test to pass. Yes, the President needs to know. I
made a conscious decision what I would say to him.
I was going to pass on two facts and make
one editorial comment, and I wanted to do nothing to
invite a dialogue with the president. I presumed he was
sitting under a boom microphone. I knew he was sitting
(03:57):
in front of second graders and a press pool, and
I did not want to have a conversation with him.
I thought about what I would say. I opened the
door to the classroom, stepped in, and the president was
participating in a dialogue with the students. The principal or
the teacher of the students was saying, say good morning
to the president. Good morning, mister President, and the president.
(04:19):
This dialogue is going back and forth between the President
and the students. And Compton with ABC News sees me
come in kind of from backstage into the room and
she gestures and I gesture back, and she gestures back,
(04:40):
and then the teacher told the students to take out
their books. They were going to read a book with
the President. And as the students are reaching under their
desk to get their books, that's when I walked up
to the President, and I was pleased. He did not
turn around to me, but I leaned down and whispered
into his ear. A second plane hit the second tower.
(05:02):
America is under attack. And then I stood back from him,
hoping to discourage him from turning and talking and having
a conversation with me. He kind of glanced in my direction,
but never turned around to look at me.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Once he told President Bush about the second plane, Card
quickly gave orders to get more information and to get moving.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
By the way I went back into the holding room,
the first thing I said was, get a line open
to the FBI director, Bob Muller. He'd only been the
FBI director for ten days. Get a line open to
the Vice President. Get a line open to the situation
room back at the White House, And I said, Dan
Bartlett gets some remarks. We've got six hundred people in
the gymnasium, and the President can't say anything that is
(05:45):
not the truth. I don't want him saying anything that
we don't know to be the truth. The President then
walked into the Holling room. The first thing he said
was get the FBI director for me, bingo right here,
mister President. So told Mark Tillman, the pilot off Force one,
to get the crew back on there Force one, and
I talked to the Secret Service. I said, we're going
(06:07):
to have to get out of here, and we'll have
to do it pretty quickly. So the President was all
ready to do those things. I then ran around the
classroom into the room where the six hundred people were
from the community, and the President came out, and the
first thing he said was I'm going back to Washington,
(06:27):
d C. And I cringe because I said he does
not know we're going back to Washington, DC right now.
And I actually get a little angry at Dan Bartlett.
I thought he must have put it in the remarks,
so I ran around. The President finished his remarks, I
was leaving Rod Page, the Secretary of Education, there to
meet with the people in the audience, and I said
(06:47):
to Dan, why did you let him say we were
going back to Washington, D C. And he said I
didn't tell him that, He just said that. I said, well,
we don't know that we're going back to Washington, d C.
By then, were then put in the motorcade and we're
driving a very fast speed, and I'm with the President.
I'm calling back to the situation room back at the
White House. The President is calling the Pentagon and he's
(07:09):
frustrated that he can't get any answer. As he's calling
the Pentagon, and I'm hearing it looks like the Pentagon
has been hit. So that's what we find out. We
arrive at Sarasota Airfield and we get ready to fly out,
and the motorcade comes to a stop. The Secret Service
opens the door of the Beast, the limousine. We step out,
and I'm struck by a protocol. No, no, the engines
(07:32):
on Air Force one are already running. The normal protocol
is you don't start the engines till the president is
safely on the plane. So I said to myself, Mark Tillman,
the pilot must really want to get out of here.
We run up the gang plank, get on the plane.
The plane rolls down the frontway almost before the door
is shut, and almost before we've taken our seats on
(07:53):
the plane. And then we take it very steep incline
and fly up to about forty eight thousand feet flying
in a serpentine way, waiting for fighter jets to kept
up to us. And then what do we do. The
pilot wants to know where we're going to get together
with the two military aids on the trip who were invaluable,
(08:14):
I said, I want an airport with a runway B
fifty two runway. I wanted to be a very secure
facility within a forty five minute flight from where we
are right now. And they came back to me and
gave me some options. Box Steel, if was a base
in Louisiana, was already on an exercise where they were
at the highest alert just as an exercise. I knew Barksteel,
(08:37):
I knew there was had a B fifty two capable runway,
and so I said, we're going to Box Dailia for space.
Talked to the navigator, talked to the pilot, said do
not communicate with the FAA. We were going. We don't
know who's listening to us where we are. And so
we flew to Box Daili, a force space. As we're
coming into land, we could pick up the local TV
(09:01):
station and I was struck that the local TV station
had someone standing at the end of the runway saying,
if this one was about to land at barx DL
Airforce Space. I'm saying, how did they know that? I
learned later on that a reporter for a local news station,
it was actually a cameraman for a local TV station,
was driving by barks JLA Air Force Space, saw if
(09:22):
worse one starting to come in to land, jumped out
of his vehicle, set up a tripod, put his camera
on it, called the station. So that was anyway we
landed at barks DL Airforce Space, trimmed down the number
of people who were on IF was one. There were
a lot of hangaru ers, members of Congress staffers that
were at the event in Sarasota that didn't need to
(09:44):
go on where we were going. I made the decision
to go to off it if were space in Nebraska,
knowing that did great communications and great safety and we
could get more granularity to what was happening, and that's
what we flow. The President, you should know, was very
angry with me. He wanted to go back to Washington, DC,
(10:05):
and I kept telling him, I don't think you want
to make that decision right now. I understand you want
to be there, but I don't think you want to
make that decision right now. And he was pretty angry
with me, and he kept saying, I'm making the decision
right now, and I said, yeah, but I don't think
you really want to. I know, Mark Tilman, the pilot
would not go to Andrews there for a space or
joint Base Andrews if it wasn't safe to land there.
(10:27):
And he didn't know whether or not stinger missiles or
sitting in the grounds around the air base or not,
so he did not want to go there without having
a clear understanding that the plan would be safe.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Cart also explains the orders given at the White House
another reason he was cautious to return immediately to DC.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
When they evacuated the White House, they told all the
people at the White House to run away, and they
had gathering spots identified with the staff was supposed to
run to those spots and be accounted foreign in secure
locations around DC. And they told the young ladies to
take off your shoes, your high heeled shoes, and run.
(11:10):
So you can imagine that there was a lot of
fear on the ground in Washington, d C. Which contributed
to the reality that the Secret Service did not want
us to go back to d C until we knew
that the president could be well protected.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That's Andrew Card who served as chief of staff to
President George W. Bush on nine to eleven and for
more than half his presidency. Still ahead, Bush returns to
the White House and then visits Ground zero. I'm Greg
Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles sixty seconds of Service.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
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Speaker 1 (12:40):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Andrew Card, who served as White House
Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush for more
than five years, including on nine to eleven and the
days that followed. We now pick up Card's story as
he explains the first decisions President Bush made in response
(13:01):
to the al Qaeda terrorist attacks.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
The first decision that I heard the President make was
make sure Putin doesn't think we're using this as a
reason to attack them. So Conduise Rice reached out to Putin,
and the President made sure that that had happened. Didn't
want to have them overreact or have an unintended consequence.
The next thing was making sure that the FAA did
(13:26):
their job, getting communication with every flight that was coming
into this country and making sure that they were following
the rules. The rules were you're going to tell us
where you are and we're telling you where you're going
to go, And so I made sure that those things
were in action. By the way, Jane Garvey, who was
the FAA administrator, was not a Republican. She was holdover
(13:50):
from when the President took office, and she did a
remarkable job. Dor Minetta, who was the Secretary of Transportation,
did a phenomenal job that day too, And Normanetta was
in the bunker in the White House with the Vice
President and the National Security team. So we kept in
close touch. Yes, we knew fighter jets had been deployed.
(14:12):
We also knew that there was a high alert on
making sure that any plane that was entering our airspace
could identify who they were and we could make sure
that they were not the problem and where would we
put them? And they landed at a lot of airports
that hadn't seen a lot of air traffic for a
long time, including Gander, Canada, and we owe a great
(14:33):
deal of gratitude to the Canadians were taking in so
many planes and housing people in the local community until
it was safe for them to come back to the
United States. So there were a lot of actions going on,
and yes, fighter jets were deployed, and you could hear
the roar of them on the TV screens that we saw.
(14:53):
We also could see them beside Air Force One as
we're flying around. Point out that probably most intriguing reality
to this. I remember the Vice President calling in to
the President asking if he would authorize our fighter jet
pilots to shoot down commercial jet liners that were not
(15:15):
complying with the FAA rules. And I heard the President
confirm it. Yes. I honestly believed Dick Cheney may have
given the order before the President actually gave it, but
I'd know the President confirmed it and agreed to it.
But I was struck. After the President hung up the
phone from his conversation with the Vice President's he leaned
forward in his chair and I was sitting opposite side
(15:37):
of his at the desk. He says, I can't imagine
receiving that order. I was an International Guard pilot, and
I cannot imagine receiving that order as a National Guard pilot.
And I thought, thank you for the empathy you have
that you recognize that this is a big deal. And
then we heard the plane had crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,
(16:03):
and I admit some of us wondered did we shoot
it down? There was no indication that we had, but yes,
we asked the question, and we were comforted to know
that we didn't shoot it down. But people who deserve
to get the Medal of Warner, except they weren't wearing
a uniform so they couldn't qualify for it, were the
(16:24):
first heroes of the war in Terror, near the ones
who were the passengers on flight ninety three.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
After Card convinced a very reluctant President Bush to stay
away from Washington for much of the day, they did
return to the nation's capital that evening and Bush addressed
the American people and the world from the Oval Office.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
First of all, the President was eager to speak to
the American people and the world, so he was eager
to get back to the White House to be able
to do that. He did have two of his speechwriters
working on a speech. And when we arrived back at
the White House, I want to say was around seven
point thirty at night. We went into the Oval Office
and then into a dining room just off the Oval Office,
(17:06):
and there was a draft of a speech the President
read through, it made some edits people commented about it.
Other credits have made. Then the President said he was
ready to make delivery. It was a very short speech,
but it was very important for the American people and
the world to hear it. First of all, the President
assured the American people that he was going to do
(17:28):
everything in his power to make sure that there were
no more attacks and that the people who did this
would be held accountable. But he also said, right up
front to all you leaders around the world, you're either
with us or against us. He knew his allies would
be with us, but he knew enemies would be reluctant
(17:50):
to be with us. But he sent the signal it's
your choice to make the first country to weigh in
and saying we're with you. Momar Gadaffi, I'm with you,
I'm with you, I'm with you. Don't bum me. But
that had a conscience. I'm sure that the president of
Pakistan was saying, I want to be with you and
against you. No, it's one way or the other. So
(18:12):
the President's changed foreign policy, and I'm sure some folks
at the State Department were a little bit nervous when
he made that policy statement, but it became the policy
of America.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
That's Andrew Card, who served as chief of staff for
President George W. Bush for more than five years, including
on nine to eleven and the weeks that followed. When
we come back, Card's reflections on Bush preparing his administration
for war, consoling a stun nation, and rallying the nation
at ground zero. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
(18:46):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest is
Andrew Card, who served as chief of Staff for President
George W. Bush. We now shift to the remarkable day
of September fourteenth, two thousand and one, as Card walks
us through President Bush putting his cabinet on a war footing,
speaking to the nation at National Cathedral and heading to
(19:07):
Ground zero.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
He said to the cabinet, we are at war. While
we are at war, we have a job of governing
to do. And then he addressed each member of the
cabinet about their responsibilities. And it was a tort force
in terms of understanding what were the priorities for those
departments and how we had to meet those expectations. At
(19:31):
the same time, we were going to be getting ready
to go to war. It was a torter force. I
was very impressed with how he did this without notes,
without being told to do it. He then walked back
into the Oval Office and everybody left the cabinet meeting.
But then we went out and got piled up into
limousines and we go to the National Cathedral and we
(19:54):
arrived and almost every pew was filled, and there were
members of Congress, members of the Senate, there were governors,
there were military people, there were diplomats from the State Department.
There were representatives of almost every faith in America. And
we said prayers, sang hymns, heard some remarkable commentary from
(20:18):
the religious leaders of the country, and then the President
addressed us, and it was a remarkable address. The team
that helped him with that speech did a phenomenal job,
and I remember it was very teary, and remember the
other presidents were there. It gave definition and that could
have ended the day, and it would have been an
(20:40):
unbelievable day. But then we went to Andrews Air Force Base.
We got on Air Force one. It became Iforce one
as soon as the President got on it, and we
flew to Newark, New Jersey. We get off the plane
at Newark, New Jersey, were greeted by the Governor of
New York and the Mayor of New York City. We
pile into a helicopter. The helicopter takes off from Lake Heurst.
(21:05):
We fly across New Jersey out to the coast. We
fly up the coast and there she is and she
is beautiful, the Statue of Liberty and the torch was glistening.
She looked beautiful. But then you saw a pillar of
black smoke coming out of Manhattan. And everybody on the
(21:26):
helicopter is looking out the windows. Nobody's saying anything. As
the pilot circles that pillar of black smoke twice, and
you're looking down and you can see people with hard
hats on. And then we land down by Wall Street.
We get into suburbans drive through the streets of New York.
(21:49):
I've done that many times with presidents, and usually there's
all kinds of greetings, some single digit helloes and other
big waves. Almost nobody is on the streets of New
York until you get close to what we now call
ground zero, and there's a lot of people there, but
they were wearing hard hats and the present. I can
(22:09):
hear him telling the driver of the vehicle that he's in.
I want to stop and say hi, I want to
see them. I want to get out. And I can
hear the Secret Service chatter everybody nobody's gone through magnetometers.
They haven't, so they're reluctant to have them stop. He says,
I want to stop. He gets out, he's greeting the crowd,
and there were all kinds of emotions. There were people
(22:31):
chanting Usa Usa. There were people praying, there were people crying,
there were people smiling, and he's glad handing and pumping,
he's hugging, and it's just a remarkable reaction. We then
get down to what we now call ground zero, and
(22:54):
the crowd is chanting Usa Usa. I see people hanging
off of stanchions, chanting Usa USA. They have Canadian flags
on their uniform, are Japanese flags on their uniform, and
they're chanting Usa, Usa, Usa. And then there's a crushed
(23:14):
vehicle and turns out it's a fire engine that's been crushed.
And I asked if somebody could take a look to
see if the president could get up there, and Carl
Row found a firefighter, Bob Beckwith, and I saw an
agent get up on top of that vehicle and jump
up and down to see if it was secure. He
(23:36):
gives me the thumbs up, and I went to the president.
Would you be going to get up there? He said,
do you think it's appropriate? I said, if you think
it's appropriate, it's appropriate. If you don't think it's appropriate,
don't do it. And he said, I'll do it. We
needed a bullhorn. Cayl Row found an advanced person to
find a bullhorn. I don't know how they found it,
(23:57):
found a bullhorn, and the President got up there with
beck With. The crowd is chanting usay, usay, usay. It
happens to be at about the same moment that in Washington,
d c. Every member of the House and in the
Senate except for one, voted to authorize us going to
(24:18):
war at that same time. And then the President starts
to give his speech, and somebody yells out, we can't
hear you, we can't hear you, and the President says,
I can hear you. In the whole world will hear us?
Speaker 1 (24:37):
You've likely seen those ground zero images and heard what
Bush said on the bullhorn before, but many Americans don't
know about what Bush did next.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
After he left Ground zero, we went into the Jacob
Javitt Center and the President went to if you've ever
been there in New York City, it's a big convention
hall and there's all these booths, blue drapes, pipe booths.
The President went to every single little unit and thanked
(25:07):
the people that were there, and they were the rescue
workers that came from all around America, every state in
the Union. They also came from I think about thirty
eight other countries. People came to help search the rubble
for people that had survived the attack. And the President
rallied everyone who took pictures with the search and rescue dogs,
(25:28):
patted them, he shook the hands, and took a picture
with the teams that were there to be the next
shift working at Round zero. And that took a lot
of time. It was well received, and he looked at
people right in the eye and said thank you, thank
you for being here. And after he did that, he
(25:49):
thought his day was done. And I said, We've still
got one more place to go, and it's where I said.
It's in the Jacob Javitsenter's just around the corner and
it actually had to drive to it, and there was
a much larger blue pipe and drape room. And the
limousine comes to a stop and the door opens up
and there's an advanced man there and the president. What's this.
(26:10):
He said, we've got some of the family members from
people who were lost at crownd zero, and we thought,
we've got a podium set up in a microphone. Who thought,
as you could come in and say some remarks to
them and offer your hope and love. And he said,
I'm not going to the podium, and he just walked
into the room. And he walked into the room before
(26:31):
the Secret Service walked into the room. Usually when a
president arrived, secret service agents walk in there, everybody knows
that they stand up and getting their best behavior. He
just charged ahead of the Secret Service and walked into
that room. And I remember many people were sitting down
shocked that he kind of walked in. And there was
a woman sitting by a pillar, and he went right
(26:56):
over to her and she stood up, and she was
probably a bout four foot eight inches tall, and he
gave her a hug and listened to her, and then
he said, we'll find him, and then he and he
went to every single person in the room. He did
not give a speech, he didn't stand behind the podium.
(27:17):
He went to every individual and he shared a prayer,
he shared a tear, he shared a hug, and he
shared confidence. And he was only scheduled to be there
for like twenty minutes. I think he stayed for forty
five to fifty minutes, so everybody in the room. As
he's getting ready to leave, the woman that he first
(27:40):
saw stood up, looked up at his eyes and said,
I want you to have this. And she held her
hand out, and the present put his hand out, and
she dropped a badge into the hand and held it.
This is my son's badge. Is George Howard. Don't ever
(28:03):
forget him. And the President has tears dreaming down his cheeks.
All of us are crying, and I'll never forget what
the president said to her. He said, missus Howard, and
that was not her name, but missus Howard, you don't
have to worry about me. I will never forget George Howard.
(28:26):
And with tears dreaming down his cheeks, he squeezed the
badge and he put it in his pocket and he
hugged George Howard's mother, and then he walked out and
I'm right behind him. I send the limousine right next
to the President. As we're getting ready to drive down
to Wall Street to get on the helicopter, the President
(28:50):
reaches into his pocket and pulls out the badge badge
Noumber ten twelve, and he squeezes it him down his cheeks.
He puts it back in his pocket. He doesn't say
anything else. We get to the helicopter and the President
jumps out of the limousine, the first one, and he
(29:12):
goes over and he thanks the firefighters and the policeman
that was securing the helicopter. He shakes their hands. The
staff has already rushed onto the helicopter. The President comes
on the door, shuts, he wipes tears from his eyes,
and he says, we have a mission. That's all he said.
(29:36):
And we lifted off and flew all the way to
Lakehurst in New Jersey, and nobody spoke on the helicopter.
It was a very strange flight, and we landed right
near Air Force one at Lakehurst, and I remember the
President getting out of the helicopter, but he does not
(29:58):
go to the seven forty seven. He goes to a
small jet, and I even getting a small jet with him,
and it's a pilot, a navigator, co pilot, flight attendant,
secret service agent, me and the president. And the President
(30:18):
is sitting down at a seat with a table. I'm
right opposite him at the same table in another seat,
and he slumps down in his chair. He's exhausted. He's
physically exhausted, mentally exhausted, emotionally exhausted. I believe he'spiritually exhausted.
(30:39):
And I lean forward and I say, mister President, thank you.
And he goes what I said, thank you? He said,
what what are you talking about? I said, you're a
great president. He said, what what are you talking about?
I said, you are a great president. Did everything a
president can be expected to do, and you did it
(31:01):
in one day. You heard about the attack. You changed
the mission of a department of the government, the FBI,
so the mission now is to prevent the next attack.
You met with your cabinet, and you told the cabinet
that they had a job to do, and we were
(31:22):
going to do the job. He told me to convene
the war Council because we were going to go to war.
Then you went to the National Cathedral and you prayed,
You sang hymns, and you listened to the leaders of faith,
and then you addressed us. Then you went to the
(31:42):
ground zero, told the world they would hear us. You
then rallied the rescue workers, and then you comforted the victims,
and you did it in one day. Thank you, And
all he said to me was thank you. And we
(32:04):
landed near Camp David and went to Camp David. The
next morning he met with his national security team, the
so called War Council, and he talked about going to war.
And I remember one person talked about going to war
in a place that we hadn't talked about going to war, Iraq.
And the President said, I don't want to hear that.
(32:26):
This isn't about going to Iraq. This is all getting
the terrorists. And so I was tasked with taking this
other person to the woodshed to not bring that up.
Those were my most memorable days. September fourteenth. September fifteenth, less.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Than a week later, Bush addressed a joint session of
Congress about the terrorist attacks. Afterwards, Card was shocked by
what he was told by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
And then in came Prime Minister Tony Blair and he
greets Laura Bush and then he says to me, oh Andy,
it's so good to see you. And I said, it's
good to see you too, mister Prime Minister. And he said,
you're a marked man to me, and I said, excuse me.
(33:16):
He said, you are a marked man. I said, what
are you talking about. He said, that picture of you
whispering in the President's here, that's target practice in every
terrorist training camp in the world. I will be candid
with you. I was shocked when he said that. We
then piled into limousines after the President came in, and
(33:38):
we went back to the White House, and the President
and Laura Bush and the Prime Minister went up to
the residence and I went back to my office. I
didn't turn the light on. I went in just to
pick up the documents that were on my desk and
get ready to go home. And I'm shocked because two
people are in my office, the head of the Secret
Service and the head of the Presidential Protection Detail, saying
(34:00):
we own you twenty four to seven starting right now.
Why what are you talking about? They heard what Tony
Blare said to me, Laura Bush's Secret serviceation told them,
and so I had Secret Service protection after that.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
When we come back more of Card's thoughts on the
aftermath of nine to eleven, I'm Greg Corumbus, and this
is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
Our guest is Andrew Card, who served as chief of
staff for President George W. Bush for more than five years,
including nine to eleven and the days and weeks that followed.
(34:36):
But first I asked him how soon he and the
president knew that al Qaeda had perpetrated the attacks.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
Well, when I was told that appears a second plane
hit the second tower, the first first initials I thought
of was ubl who Samobin Lauden. I knew about the
attack on the World Trade Center during the Clinton administration,
so I knew who Samobin Laden was. I knew what
was el Kita was, and so I thought before I
(35:02):
even whispered in his ear that it was al Qaida.
We kind of got the confirmation from the CIA representative
on the flight. I was one as we're flying around
when he checked back with George Tenant, and so the
President didn't want to say it until it was confirmed,
and the confirmation came from George Tenant, So that's when
(35:26):
we acknowledged that we knew who it was.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
In addition to the terrorist attacks, the US was faced
with the anthrax attacks, the Beltway sniper, and other real
and perceived threats, and trying to separate fact from fiction
was not easy.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
We had anthrax come, We had the driver in the
white car shooting people in Washington, DC area. We had
rumors that there's a target in San Francisco, La. Bad
guys are talking about it. We had somebody saying they've
somehow communicating over satellite dishes, and where are the satellite
(36:04):
dishes coming from? And all this kind. Yeah, we were paranoid,
and the anthrax letters was clearly a targeted opportunity that
somebody took, and we presumed it was the bad guys.
It turns out it was a domestic thing. It wasn't international,
it wasn't a terrorist organization. It was a really bad
actor who was premeditated, very premeditated act. And I remember
(36:28):
that the information that around that wasn't that reliable, and
the discussions with the FBI and the investigations, where it's
going and do they have it here? Did we find
it there. So there was a lot of uncertainty around
what that meant and even the search for the person
who was shooting people in Washington, DC. There was a
(36:49):
lot of misinformation and people reacting in strange ways. But
we were a paranoid nation at that time, and some
bad actors tried to take advantage of that paranoia. The
President did not. He was focused, and he took everything seriously,
and he motivated the FBI and the intelligence community to
(37:13):
really be in the best behavior. I wish I had
read some of the books that were written after this happened,
because I would have loved to have read him before
it happened. The Looming Tower comes to mind, which was
a remarkably good book, but I wish I could have
read it a month earlier.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Kart also recalled Bush saying he wanted Osama bin Laden
captured dead or alive. Card says Bush loved it. Card
wasn't so sure it was the right thing to say,
but neither of them had the last word.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
He was not hyperbolic. The only time I can remember
getting into any criticism was from Laura Bush, and this
was we went to the Pentagon, into the Tank. This
is just before we pulled the trigger and went to
war in Afghanistan. We're in the tank, we have a
meeting with all the generals, admirals, and then we moved
to another room and there's a press conference, and I'm
(38:05):
standing behind the President and the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense with the President and
the press conference back and forth, and the President I
remember looking at the camera saying, we're going to get
them dead or alive. And as soon as I heard
him say that, I said, oh, I wish he hadn't
said that to myself. I knew a lot of people
(38:27):
would like it, and I just thought there's going to
be some complications to it. So we get to go
out and we get in the limousine to go back
to the White House, and he says, how did you
like dead or Alive? I said, I know that a
lot of people with the Pentagon probably liked it, and
there's probably a lot of people at home, but I
don't think Laura's going to like it. He said, what
are you talking about? I said, I just I think
(38:48):
Laura's not going to like it.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
And he said, oh, that's.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Not true at all. We get back to the White House.
I get back to my office, literally my phone is ringing.
I pick it up and it's Laura Bush saying, why
did you let him say deaderal? And so I said,
it wasn't in a written script. He just did it himself.
It was just a reaction. And she said, well, you've
got to make sure he doesn't do that again. And
(39:12):
I said, I understand, Thank you very much. And the
end of the day comes, and I would always meet
with the President at the end of the day. I
say how is your day? And he says, how's my
day and all that kind of stuff. And he said,
how is your day? And I said it was good.
And he said did you get a call from Laura?
And I said yes, I did. He said, so did I.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
That's Andrew Carr. He served as White House Chief of
Staff for President George W. Bush for more than five years,
including on nine to eleven and the days and weeks
that followed. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veteran's Chronicles. Hi,
(39:57):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(40:18):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
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