With the president on 9/11
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On September 11 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida as two planes hit the World Trade Center. In an image that would become iconic, the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, broke the news to the president by whispering in his ear as he listened to schoolchildren practising their reading. In interviews from 2011, Andrew Card recalls the moment that transformed President Bush’s presidency and the course of recent history.
PHOTO: President George W. Bush shortly after learning of the 9/11 attacks (AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Hello and thank you for downloading the podcast of Witness History from the BBC World Service |
| 0:47.3 | with me Simon Watts. All this week we're looking back at the events surrounding the Al-Qaeda attacks against America in September |
| 0:55.3 | 2001. Today, how the news was broken to President Bush as he visited a school. We understand that there has been a plane crash on the southern tip of Manhattan. |
| 1:08.8 | You're looking at the World Trade Center, we understand... |
| 1:11.6 | On the morning of September 11th, 2001, President Bush was in Florida to promote his education |
| 1:18.6 | policies. |
| 1:20.1 | As he arrived for his first appearance of the day, his officials began to hear worrying news from New York, |
| 1:26.5 | among them White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. |
| 1:30.2 | He spoke to the BBC in 2011. |
| 1:33.0 | As we were heading over to this elementary school, the Emma E-Booker School in Sarasota, Florida, |
| 1:39.0 | there was a buzz in the air. |
| 1:40.0 | People kind of asking a question, anybody here about a plane crash in New York City. |
| 1:45.0 | We don't know if it was a commercial aircraft. We don't know if it was a private aircraft. We have no idea. |
| 1:50.0 | Then, very shortly after that, the president was standing by the door to the classroom |
| 1:56.2 | with the principal of the school and the lead person from the situation room |
... |
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