Thursday, April 8, 2004

Bush on 9/11

Have you ever wondered exactly what President Bush did when he heard that the second plane had struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, leaving no doubt the attacks were deliberate?

You can watch it here, courtesy of the Memory Hole.  It's a QuickTime video.

This five minute segment begins when chief of staff Andy Card whispers into Bush's ear about the second plane striking.

And, no, this is not a joke!

[03/09/04 addition:  In response to the first comment, I'm adding a couple of follow-up informational links:  Bob Harris at Tom Tomorrow's blog 06/26/03, and the introduction to the video at The Memory Hole.  At the bottom of the page is the address of the Education Channel in Sarasota FL where you can order your very own copy of the VHS version for $35.]

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thats not the first time i have seen that. too bad they cut it short. right when the video cuts off is when he was notified of the attacks. he calmly excused himself, went outside to deal with the situation. do not really understand your point in this post. did you want him to jump up and down and scare the children?

Anonymous said...

As I said in the post,  "This five minute segment BEGINS when chief of staff Andy Card whispers into Bush's ear about the second plane striking."  And he didn't rush off to deal with the attack after the five minutes in this film segment.  He stood around chatting and having photo ops for another several minutes.

"Scare the kids"?  It showed incredibly bad judgment that Bush stayed at the school and even gave his initial press statement on the attacks flanked by little children.  It should have been obvious that the President was a potential target of attacks, and that he not only should make sure he was properly protected, but he should have worried about the safety of the kids in the building if he was being stalked by attackers.

The "point" is that the reality of Bush's reaction to the 9/11 attacks, then and in the following days, hardly fits the picture of Bush the masterful commander who never makes a mistake.  If his subsequent policies had inspired confidence that they were the right moves to protect the US against terrorism, no one would care today about his fumbling initial responses. - Bruce

Anonymous said...

 It should have been obvious that the President was a potential target of attacks, and that he not only should make sure he was properly protected, but he should have worried about the safety of the kids in the building if he was being stalked by attackers.
   

I agree the secret service should have rushed him out of there. they screwed up

Anonymous said...

Funny how this video conflicts with a story that was printed in the NY Post one year later.  If the teacher really described that day the way they say, then I think she was indulging in some wishful remembering.  She sure makes him seem more decisive than the video shows, huh? I have posted the whole article here:
http://journals.aol.com/justcherie/whocareswhatithink/entries/856

Anonymous said...

youre all just a bunch of ungrateful liberals...how you be president for a day, on the day your country is attacked a brutal terrorists, killing thousands of people,  surrounded by innocent children learning how to read...then youll have some room to talk...