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THE WHITE
 HOUSE
Office
 of the
 Press
 Secretary
(Crawford,
 Texas
Internal
 Transcript
 August
 22,
 2002
INTERVIEW OF
 KAREN
 HUGHES
BY
 SCOTT
 PELLEY,
 CBS
 RE EIVED
Hilton
 Hotel MAY 2 2
 2003
Portland,
 Oregon
National
 Commission on
Terrorist
 ttacks
7:05 P.M.
 PDT
Q
 Talking
 on the
 airplane, Karen, there
 was
 that moment when
 you
 were
 returning
to the
 White House
 and
 things
 were
 not the way
 they normally
 were.
 Paint that picture
 for me.MS.
 HUGHES:
 Well,
 it was in
 some
 ways,
 as I was
 explaining
 to
 you, nothing matchesthe horror, as I did and as many Americans did,
 that
 plane fly into that
 second
 tower. A lot ofpeople saw it on television; I did. Nothing matches
 that
 horror.
 But in
 some
 ways it was almost
as
 chilling
 to
 drive back into downtown Washington when
 I
 did, which
 looked
 almost like
 a
ghost town, and there were men in black
 
 I don t really know if they
 were
 military or they were
Secret
 Service,
 but
 they
 had
 machine guns drawn. They
 were
 holding their machine guns
 in the
streets
 of
 downtown Washington.
 And
 that s
 a
 sight
 you
 expect
 to see in a
 foreign
 capital,
maybe, during a coup, but never expect to see
 that
 in our capital, in downtown Washington.And
 I had an
 experience once
 as a
 reporter where
 I was
 going
 to a
 hurricane,
 and
everyone
 else
 was
 driving away,
 and
 that
 was how I
 felt
 as we
 drove
 into downtownWashington.
 We
 were driving
 in, we
 were
 the
 only
 car
 driving
 in.
 Everyone
 else
 was
 going
 the
other way,
 on the
 outskirts
 of the
 city.
 And as we got
 closer
 and
 closer,
 no one was
 there.
 And itwas
 almost like
 the
 surreal ghost town
 you
 would
 see
 after devastation, except
 for
 there
 were
police
 in the
 streets, again
 probably
 eight blocks from
 the
 White
 House
 
 there
 was a
 hugeperimeter
 that
 they
 had set up. And they were either military or maybe
 Secret
 Service,
 dressed
all
 in
 black,
 holding machine guns, as we drove up. And I never expected to see something like
that
 in our
 Nation s
 Capital.
Q And
 when
 you
 entered
 the
 White
 House?
MS.
 HUGHES:
 Well,
 actually,
 when
 we
 went into
 the
 White
 House
 I had a
 militarysergeant
 who
 drove
 me and
 picked
 me up. The
 Vice
 President
 had
 sent
 a car out to get me
because
 they weren t letting,
 I
 don t
 think, civilian traffic
 back
 into
 downtown Washington.
 So
they sent
 a
 driver
 to
 pick
 me up. He
 brought
 me in and
 told
 me to go in an
 entrance
 that
 is not an
 6
 
entrance I
 usually
 go in. And I walked in and there was no one in sight. And I knew it was a day
that
 you didn t want to surprise anybody. And so I yelled,
 hello.
 And two, again, kind of
 SWAT
team
 members
 came running, running through the
 hall
 with, again, guns drawn, and took me tothe location where I met the Vice President.
Q You
 walked into
 the
 White
 House
 and it was
 empty,
 and you
 called,
 hello.
MS.
 HUGHES:
 And
 there
 was no one
 there.
 Of
 course,
 it had
 been evacuated.
 I was
actually
 on the
 phone with
 my
 assistant when
 it was
 evacuated,
 and she
 said,
 Karen,
 I ve
 got togo,
 they re screaming
 at us to get out of
 here.
 And I
 said, well,
 go, and
 hung
 up. And so for
minutes after that
 had no
 contact with anyone.
 Air
 Force
 One had
 taken
 off
 from
 Florida.
 I d
been talking
 to my
 deputy,
 Dan
 Bartlett,
 who was
 with
 the
 President,
 on his
 cell
 phone,
 and
 they
had
 taken off.
 So I had no
 contact with them
 any
 longer.
 And
 they
 evacuated
 the
 White
 House,
and
 I
 knew
 I
 needed
 to get
 there.
 I
 needed
 to go
 somewhere.
 I had a
 duty,
 a job to do, but I
wasn t really sure where.
Q
 Let s
 talk about
 the
 first
 time
 you
 spoke
 to the
 President
 on the
 telephone from
 Air
Force
 One.
 Do you
 recall
 the
 first
 conversation? What were
 his
 priorities, what
 was he
 asking
you for?MS.
 HUGHES:
 I
 spoke
 with him
 
 I don t recall the exact time. He wanted me to go out
and
 brief
 the country about how the government was
 functioning.
 It was a very shortconversation,
 as I
 recall.
 He was
 getting
 ready
 to
 
 I
 don t even remember exactly where
 he
 was.
The
 first time
 I
 tried
 to
 call
 him was earlier in the
 day.
 He had had a
 conversation with
 the
 VicePresident where they had agreed
 that
 the President would be the
 first
 one to go out and speak on
behalf of the
 government,
 as was
 appropriate.
 But in the
 meantime, they
 had
 diverted
 his
 planeand he was going to
 Barksdale,
 Louisiana. And so it was taking forever.
And so I was
 very frustrated
 as a
 communicator,
 I
 felt
 that
 the
 public
 was
 hearing
 the
State Department
 has
 been evacuated,
 the
 White
 House
 has
 been
 evacuated
 
 it
 sounded
 as if the
government
 was
 basically
 shut
 down.
 I was
 seeing
 and
 knew
 that
 it was
 functioning verysmoothly, that Secretary Mineta was there ordering the planes down, and the Vice
 President
 andPresident were
 in
 constant communication,
 that
 the
 National Security Advisor
 was
 beginning
 the
process
 of
 pulling
 together
 the
 national
 security team, that
 the
 continuity
 of
 government plans
and
 the
 continuity
 of operations plans were being implemented. So I was seeing how smoothly
the
 government
 was
 functioning;
 yet I
 realized
 the
 view
 the
 public
 was
 getting
 was
 quite
different.
And so I tried to call the President because I knew that if I had a chance to
 talk
 with him,
that
 he would
 probably
 be
 fine
 with
 me calling a
 r port r
 just to get the word out that thegovernment was functioning well. And
 that
 was another one of the most chilling
 moments
 of the
day
 for me. It was when Air
 Force
 One was
 --right
 after the threat had
 been
 received, and theywere apparently doing
 some
 defensive maneuvers. Of
 course,
 we didn t know that at the time.
And
 the
 military
 operator came back to me and, in a voice
 that
 to me sounded very shaken, said,
ma am,
 I m sorry, we
 can t
 reach Air Force One. And
 that
 was after the Vice President had
communicated to me
 that
 there
 had
 been
 a
 threat
 against
 the
 plane.
 I
 later found
 out
 that
 it was
000065
 
not
 as
 credible
 a
 threat
 as we
 thought
 at the
 time.
 But,
 of
 course,
 at the
 time
 it was
 very
frightening.
Q What did that mean to you?
MS.
 HUGHES:
 Well,
 it was
 just
 a
 
 the
 Towers
 had
 been hit,
 the
 Pentagon
 had
 been hit,there were all kinds of
 reports
 still at the time about
 possibly
 car
 bombs
 and other planes, andthen suddenly, the
 operator
 said, we can t reach Air
 Force
 One. And you just have to wonder
what
 is happening. In the early hours we
 still didn t
 have any idea exactly what was happening.We knew, as Andy so succinctly put it, that America was under attack.
Q
 When
 the
 President arrived from
 Offutt
 Air
 Force
 Base
you
 were among
 the first
people
 that
 he
 saw.
 Can you characterize
 him?
 We see him
 come
 off the
 helicopter
 in the
videotape; he is clearly angry. That is the expression that he s wearing. He walks into the Oval,
he
 sees
 you—
 what
 is the
 first
 thing
 he
 says?
MS.
 HUGHES:
 I
 don t remember exactly what
 he
 said.
 I
 walked down, because
 we had
talked while he was on the plane
 flying
 back and
 be
 had
 basically
 dictated and given me somethoughts about what
 he
 wanted
 to say in his
 address
 to the
 country.
 He had
 felt
 very
 strongly,
and I had
 felt
 very strongly,
 that
 he
 needed
 to
 address
 the
 nation that night;
 that
 we d been
through
 a horrible, horrible experience and
 that
 people needed to hear from the President. And
so he had
 talked with
 me
 about what
 he
 wanted
 to
 say,
 and I had
 worked
 on
 
 one of our
speech
 writers, Mike Gerson,
 our
 chief speechwriter,
 had
 worked
 on
 some ideas some other
people
 had contributed
 some
 ideas, and then the President talked with me directly about what hewanted
 to
 say.
 And I
 sort
 of pulled
 that all
 together.And I met him on the porch, there outside the Oval Office, as he walked back. And he
had
 called again from
 the helicopter,
 wanting
 to see the
 draft
 of his
 address
 to the
 nation.
 And so
I walked down there to meet him. And I
 think
 I had the same
 feeling
 that
 all
 Americans did
 that
I just
 felt
 an enormous sense of relief to see our President back at the White House, to see himwalk
 across
 that lawn,
 and to see
 that
 familiar
 picture
 of the
 President landing
 by
 helicopter
 on
the
 South Lawn, walking back into
 the
 Oval Office.
 To me, it was a
 very reassuring sight.
He was
 very determined.
 The way I
 describe
 it
 
 people
 ask me all the
 time,
 did he
change. And you don t develop those kind of qualities of leadership in an instant. I say that hewas more so. He s always been very determined and very dedicated and very disciplined. He
was
 more
 so.
 He s always been very energetic;
 he was
 more
 so.
I
 told
 you
 that
 he, in the
 days afterward,
 one
 morning
 greeted
 me by
 saying,
 let me
 tell
you how to do
 your
 job
 today,
 and he was
 just
 totally
 in
 command.
 And
 that s
 the way I
 found
him
 throughout
 the
 week.
 I
 really
 felt
 that
 he
 carried
 the
 rest
 of us
 through.
 He was so in
command, he was laser-focused. He was asking questions, he was probing, trying to
 find
 out,
trying to
 assess,
 very much
 in
 charge
 the
 morning
 after
 September
 11th, the
 September 12thmorning.
 

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