Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MAY 2 2 2003
Office of the Press Secretary
Internal Transcript
11 : 07 A.M. EOT
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And then I stepped back from the President and watched him
for a brief period of time -- it felt like a long time. I saw
him stare off, and I knew that he was struggling to find the
"rTgTFT: point to break the conversation with the students and the
teachers, and then extricate himself from the room so that he
could come in and deal with the situation.
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I was focusing on getting the President to a place where he
could have secure communications and be safe. And that was Air
Force One.
The beauty about Air Force One is the -- the office the
President uses on Air Force One has all the communications that
the office in the Oval Office has, the West Wing of the White
( House. And so he was able to communicate in a very, very good,
'" real-time way with the National Security Advisor, the Vice
President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of
Transportation. And he also was able to communicate with the
Governor of New York and the Mayor of New York City.
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spectacular job of getting planes down on the ground -- not
just the ones that were flying over the continental United
States, but also those that were coming from Europe and from
Asia, get them on the ground. And so there was a lot of
communication back to the White House to make sure that the
planes were on the ground.
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And as we were flying in the plane, we were looking to find
out what was happening in New York, in Washington, D.C. Clearly,
the situation with regard to the plane that crashed in
Pennsylvania. So there was a lot of misinformation. The fog of
war was real, and there was a lot of dust in the air. And I
thought the dust should settle before we put the President in a
place where he might have been vulnerable.
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SECRETARY CARD: He was told about it -- I think we were
in the limousine, actually, when we were heading back to the
plane. And we had a report that the Pentagon Kauj been hit.
There was also a report that there was a fire at the State
Department, there was a report of a fire in the Old Executive
Office Building. So there was a lot of information that was
coming in -- some of it proved not to be accurate, others
proved to be accurate.
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Laden, I remember hearing "Osama bin Laden." I do not remember
hearing "al Qaeda" at that moment.
The team that served the President on Air Force One was a
phenomenal team -- communicators, and military officers, and
Secret Service. And we did discipline people on the plane not to
come forward, to stay back in the back sections so the President
would have time to make those decisions.
But do I remember him sitting down and taking a big sigh and
saying, Wow, let me reflect on what lias happened today? No. He
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was in operational mode. He was focusing on how to respond. He
was mixing the responsibilities of the Commander-in-Chief with a
President who had great compassion for those people who were
victims. And the victims were unknown -- we didn't know the
level of aggravation that would invite itself upon so many
families in New York and in Washington, B.C., or in Philadelphia
I mean, Pennsylvania.
Q And there are still a few people saying, Sir, you know,
we're not so sure about the environment. Do you remember he way
he just sort of said
SECRETARY CARD: Well, it wasn't just at Offutt. He made
those statements repeatedly from the time were in the motorcade,
on Air Force One flying to Louisiana, flying from Louisiana to
Nebraska. And then -- once it was apparent that the dust was
settling, and we understand the nature of the attacks, and all
the planes were on the ground, the President kind of directed
that he was going back to Washington, D.C.
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0 And where were you when the President gave his remarks
to the American people?
1 think his compassion for those who were hurt and uncertain
was very real. It came through in his remarks -- not just from
the Oval Office, but also from what he said when he landed at
Barksdale. You remember, we landed at Barksdale, and he
desperately wanted to speak to the American people from
Barksdale. But we didn't have satellite trucks, we didn't have
the means of communication. So he gave a statement to the press;
we knew that it was covered by video, and the word would get out
very quickly to the American people that he had something to say.
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and very quickly said, "Move to the PEOC", the emergency center.
And without question., I dropped everything and went right to the
PEOC. There was a small parade of people heading over in that
direction.
But that was something I'll always remember. And then the
Secret Service was trying to suggest that the President should
spend the night in the emergency shelter, and he announced that
he would go back up to bed.
Q Any other moment from the day, or did you -- did you
have any time to go back? I've asked you if the President
exhaled; I mean, did you have a chance to flop at your desk, or
get home and just think about what the day meant?
SECRETARY CARD: It was a pretty late night before I got
home, and I was relieved to see my wife, because I had not talked
to Kathy during the entire day. And I knew that she would be
under a lot of stress as well. She's a minister, and she had
done a lot of counseling and ministering that day to people who
had great fear about what was happening in our country. And I
ached for her, and I was anxious to see her. So I was glad to
get home and see her at the end of the day.
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END 11:32 A.
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