‘Turn on CNN’: Newly released emails offer glimpse of what it was like to be at the White House on 9/11
President George W. Bush learns of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center. (Photo: Doug Mills/AP)
We all knew where President George W. Bush was when he first learned of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks: at an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., where he was reading “The Pet Goat” to a group of second-grade students when his chief of staff, Andy Card, informed him of a second attack on the World Trade Center.
“America is under attack,” Card told Bush, according to Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary.
But a series of emails released by the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, published by the New York Times on Thursday, provide a unique window into what was happening back at the White House that horrific morning.
At 8:56 a.m. ET, Tucker Eskew, director of the White House media affairs offices, emailed three colleagues with this message:
“Turn on CNN.”
About 15 minutes later, Tracey Schmitt, a White House aide, notified colleagues that the 9:30 a.m. budget meeting and a congressional conference call had been canceled.
At 9:20 a.m., David Horowitz, a conservative writer, emailed Mary Matalin, then counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, with a historical comparison.
“Today is Pearl Harbor.”
Meanwhile, friends and family send concerned messages to White House aides:
Clay Johnson, the president’s longtime friend and now White House aide, receives this from his sister, Ellen.
12:13 p.m. — “Are you safe? Hard to fathom what’s going on today. Hope you and [sic] safe and sound.”
Karen Hughes, the president’s counselor, receives this from an aide, reassuring her about friends and colleagues.
12:45 p.m. — “Mark and Rachel are okay. Brenda Anders also ok.”
Hughes receives this from Douglas Fletcher, her pastor and friend in Texas.
1:10 p.m. — “Dear Karen, I am in disbelief. You are in my prayers as is the president. I realize that were a country behind this, we would now be at war. We have services today at 12:45 and 5:30. We will keep you in our prayers. I am attaching some notes from my meditation on Psalm 23. I love you, Doug.”
Joshua B. Bolten, deputy chief of staff, receives this from an old friend.
1:31 p.m. — “Josh, We’re thinking of you and are confident your team will handle this with wisdom and fortitude. Love from Ellen and Jay.”
Condoleezza Rice, the president’s national security adviser, receives this from Javier Solana, the European Union’s chief security official.
1:44 p.m. — “All my solidarity and friendship today. Javier.”
At 5:07 p.m., Johnson replies to his sister.
“Unbelievable. Just got back into the White House, after having been in the ‘bunker’ all afternoon.”
At 5:28 p.m., his sister responds:
“Are you feeling secure there?”
His answer:
“If it’s safe enough for the president to return to, it’s safe enough for me.”
At 7:59 p.m., after President Bush returns to deliver a speech to the nation from the Oval Office, Hughes receives an email from deputy White House staff secretary Stuart Bowen praising the address:
“The speech was extraordinarily good. Even more impressive is that you wrote it under unprecedented constraints, given the time and nightmarish circumstances involved.”
