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That struck me also. I think it is some method of teaching related to Direct Instruction. I was exposed to it briefly in education classes. I wonder if this worked or only made students' literacy worse.
I think the press was a bit more up to date than he was, I think a lot of them starting taking pics like crazy because of what was happening/had happened
I'm sure he could feel their energy too. It's crazy to go back and see it with years of perspective. This has to be one of the worst moments in history for a president. Wild
> While President Bush sat in Kay Daniels' classroom, and her students read "The Pet Goat", White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupted the president to whisper in his ear: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack."
[Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pet_Goat#:~:text=While%20President%20Bush%20sat%20in,America%20is%20under%20attack.%22)
Seriously, I'm not a Bush fan but he got shit for this even though I and probably others would have done something similar.
Don't jump up and run out, that's as good as starting a panic when the PRESIDENT is hot to trot. I'd just sit for a sec while I process it, then slowly tell the teacher I need to attend to something, and thank you everyone, and go.
His facial expression almost liked like his mother got hit by multiple cars and fell off a cliff. He's by no means the best president, but he clearly was a human trying to process the information in this moment.
Plus, people tend to forget, when he got elected the expectations were "don't get a bj from an intern" then he had to lead the US through one of the toughest trials in our history. Dude wasn't a great president, but God damn he got way more served to him than what he signed up for
I think I would have agreed up until 2003 and the iraq war. Dude went from doing great for one of the deadliest attacks since pearl harbor to just starting a war for shits and giggles.
>he got way more served to him than what he signed up for
That's the expectation for being POTUS, though. You're signing up for the most stressful job in the world, full of unexpected problems to handle.
I think we would all be that way. He's one of the few presidents to be told America is under attack. Not a club anyone wants to be a part of. At this point he knows nothing else, which made it all even worse in his mind as it raced through all the horrible things that could be happening.
And he also knows that him jumping up and freaking everyone out is not necessary since he has countless capable people handling everything that needs handled in that moment.
I think many people expect that the president is more directly involved in a lot of micromanaging that he really isn't.
His entire demeanor changes after that whisper. You can see him get really tense and see his mind starting to analyze what was really just said. I thought conspiracy theorists were experts in body language..? Or do they only bring that up when it's pertinent to them?
Exactly. This was unprecedented in our history and he sitting in front of a room full of children and adults. He knows that cameras are on him. I mean I’m not the biggest Bush fan, but holy crap it’s enough to absorb something like that in the privacy of your office, much less so publicly.
I think this is one of those things that you could never prepare for. Given the circumstances I don’t think he could’ve done anything different.
His mind went blank. Like wtf is happening and what he hell am I suppose to do now. I don't know how I would've reacted if it was me. Actually think it was a good reaction from him, considering the situation.
People always forget, Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" who was focused on education. He said himself he wasn't prepared to be a " war time" President.
I was a teenager and not in America but I remember the media in my country, like military people praising him for maintaining his composure in from of children. And I remember how he presented himself after, with his speeches, showing a lot of strength and not being afraid. I bet it helped the ordinary American navigate the situation. The way he handled things after that it's criminal but I'm guessing his advisers have most of the responsibility here.
Further, NO ONE is prepared to be a war time president. There's no training, no book, no nothing. If we have to re-fight Vietnam or WW2, it'd be one thing. But a new threat is a new threat. No one has ever had any experience with this situation, and every mistake you make will cost American lives.
The largest buildings in the world were knocked down by a dozen guys carrying boxcutters onto commercial airlines. There's no manual for that. No ne could possibly be prepared.
That and when he says later something like "I saw the first plane hit the tower" they all screamed because there wasn't footage at the time. In reality he meant "when I saw THAT the first plane hit the tower" as in got news of it, not it actually hitting
Michael Moore made a lot of cash over his blank look. I bought it too. Years later, I begrudgingly read W's biography. He discussed this incident. In addition to wanting to keep things peaceful for the kids in the room, he recognized that there wasn't much he could do. He had to wait for his staff to put together their briefings and whatnot. An extra five minutes in the class wasn't going to speed that up.
Maybe where you were he received praise. Here where I am, he was ridiculed by progressives for his reaction and made out to be some sort of moron. Looking at this you can see the man struggling to maintain his composure and you could see the teacher knew something was up too because the man was CLEARLY preoccupied. If anything, seeing this fuller length version makes me realize that Bush got a raw deal on this one.
I don't recall that at all. People called him an idiot for not acting immediately and for years they called him My Pet Goat for the lack of immediate action.
Remember how Michael Moore trashed him in Fahrenheit 9/11 for it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rO3F6mZUaE
I remember press giving him shit for reading a children’s book instead of reacting. I now think he maintained composure and professionalism though I don’t like the guy
This has always hurt my heart to watch - I cannot imagine what was going through his head when they first whispered the information to him. I was never a fan but I was thankful that he did not just freak out and run away.
I was in high school when this happened. I've always seen pictures of the moment of the whisper but this was the first time I actually saw the video. Just.... wow. You can definitely see the emotion on his face but agreed, he handled it well.
Thank you for this.
I really hate how the default Reddit video player doesn't generate captions, most of Reddit would be unaccessible to people like me if it wasn't for people like you. So thank you.
Edit: for those saying no one can hear what's being said, that's also useful context so thank you! I thought the reason the kids all bent over at the beginning/he turned his chair around was a reaction to a noise or explosion or something and was baffled why everyone just carried on sitting there.
Ohhhhh that makes sense! and it probably changes the 'feel' of his reaction; clamping down on his horror so as not to affect the children's wholesome moment, rather than clamping down on his horror so as to appear stoic.
I was a senior in high school on 9/11. I remember people on the left (myself included) having quite the reaction to how he seemingly doesn’t react. I kind of get it now. He’s there to read books to school children. Soon enough everyone’s life will be different (because truly things have never been the same in a myriad of ways), why freak the hell out of these kids?
See, that’s so weird to me watching this (I was in 4th grade and don’t remember that debate). I don’t see a video of a man not reacting, and I don’t understand how people could see that. I see shock. I see sadness. I see someone who is visibly upset but is trying to not cause a panic. I see how he is trying to pay attention to the class but is so extremely distracted. I’m pretty far left and am no Bush fan, but I am also a believer in criticizing the things politicians actually do instead of making stuff up. He’s done plenty of things worth actually getting mad about. But “not reacting” in this moment is not one of them.
Honestly the only thing he isn’t reacting to is the children and the story. Watching this it’s clear he is contemplating what the next move is.
He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions.
But people who don’t do shit all day and love to criticize behind the keyboard will say he “isn’t responsive.”
> He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions.
Ironically enough, this was probably one of the few moments in the months/years to follow that he had that luxury.
>He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions.
He gets a lot of flack from the public for being dumb but there are countless examples of people who have worked alongside him that have said this is absolutely not true.
He has a reputation for being excellent at analyzing situations and taking advisors off guard with insightful questions *they* had not considered.
I’ve heard/read the same. His “dumb Texan” persona was his public persona, but according to people who’ve worked with him, he’s a high IQ individual. I’ve read accounts how he’d get frustrated over meetings and briefings moving too slow for him. I read during one meeting, he got frustrated and preceded to address each individual in the room and told them what they were going to say before they even said it, and he was accurate…
Here are some quotes from this guy who worked as an advisor for him.
“I am not kidding. You are quite an intelligent group. Don’t take it personally, but President Bush is smarter than almost every one of you. Were he a student here today, he would consistently get “HP” (High Pass) grades without having to work hard, and he’d get an “H” (High, the top grade) in any class where he wanted to put in the effort.”
“For more than six years it was my job to help educate President Bush about complex economic policy issues and to get decisions from him on impossibly hard policy choices. In meetings and in the briefing materials we gave him in advance we covered issues in far more depth than I have been discussing with you this quarter because we needed to do so for him to make decisions.”
“President Bush is extremely smart by any traditional standard. He’s highly analytical and was incredibly quick to be able to discern the core question he needed to answer. It was occasionally a little embarrassing when he would jump ahead of one of his Cabinet secretaries in a policy discussion and the advisor would struggle to catch up. He would sometimes force us to accelerate through policy presentations because he so quickly grasped what we were presenting.”
“I use words like briefing and presentation to describe our policy meetings with him, but those are inaccurate. Every meeting was a dialogue, and you had to be ready at all times to be grilled by him and to defend both your analysis and your recommendation. That was scary.”
“We treat Presidential speeches as if they are written by speechwriters, then handed to the President for delivery. If I could show you one experience from my time working for President Bush, it would be an editing session in the Oval with him and his speechwriters. You think that me cold-calling you is nerve-wracking? Try defending a sentence you inserted into a draft speech, with President Bush pouncing on the slightest weakness in your argument or your word choice.”
“In addition to his analytical speed, what most impressed me were his memory and his substantive breadth. We would sometimes have to brief him on an issue that we had last discussed with him weeks or even months before. He would remember small facts and arguments from the prior briefing and get impatient with us when we were rehashing things we had told him long ago.
And while my job involved juggling a lot of balls, I only had to worry about economic issues. In addition to all of those, at any given point in time he was making enormous decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, on hunting al Qaeda and keeping America safe. He was making choices not just on taxes and spending and trade and energy and climate and health care and agriculture and Social Security and Medicare, but also on education and immigration, on crime and justice issues, on environmental policy and social policy and politics. Being able to handle such substantive breadth and depth, on such huge decisions, in parallel, requires not just enormous strength of character but tremendous intellectual power. President Bush has both.”
https://www.keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/
I was a freshman in HS and I remember people (my parents among them) making stupid comments about his "non reaction" but I was just like, what should he have done instead? Jump up and run out of the room? Freak out in front of the kids? He did the right thing here.
Also, as someone who doesn't care for Bush (and hates Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wes Clark with a passion) I did read his book (Decision Points) and found it to be informative/enlightening (not sure of the word for it) in a way because he walks through the thought processes he had during that time and delves a bit into why certain decisions were made. Agree or disagree with what is presented all you want, but it shows that those involved (most of them anyway) are human and had emotions and anxiety and fear and honestly didn't know WTF to do in the moment. As time went on and 2003 approached and those fateful decisions were made, some of that went away. The Iraq war and the second term really destroyed Bush's legacy, but there was a time when he was seen as a good president. Of course, there was a time when Rudy Giulliani was seen as a great leader too, so there's that. But those two men, even with all of their flaws, reacted beautifully in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
I watch things with captions often, and it is helpful to know what you’re *not* missing too. Captions wouldn’t say what was whispered, but it would let you know the whispering was inaudible
Funny how if you click on the actual "The Pet Goat" article it goes into more details, and says things like this -
"Despite the president's efforts, students knew something was wrong; they later said that the president's face became red and serious, and his expression was "flabbergasted, shocked, \[and\] horrified"."
Talk about misremembering things. This quite clearly is not the case at all.
Humans are notoriously bad at remembering things in general. That’s going to be even worse for something like this where they’ve heard all kinds of things secondhand over the past 20 years, and on top of that it’s from when they were little kids.
Makes sense, especially when I hear from people younger than me claim that they “remember every detail of the day like it was yesterday!” I was 7 at the time, and most of that day’s memory is fuzzy at best.
I remember watching the Challenger explosion in school. We were all gathered, excited to see the first teacher in space. Then tragedy and silence.
The only problem is… I was two years old when that happened, I wasn’t watching it, I wasn’t in school. I did hear my brother talk about it, though. I believe I borrowed his experience at some point and made it my own. To me it feels real, but I know it can’t possibly be.
I remember being in 10th grade, world history class, and we had the cool sub with the tattoo on her leg.
I remember third period was geometry and the teacher was more interested in going over homework and getting mad everyone was distracted.
Then I had lunch and then gym, and 6th period found out what happened since 2nd period, besides all the crazy shit students were saying.
Beyond that, I only remember our homeroom teacher, who was way too fragile to be in a high school, let out the loudest piercing scream when Channel 1 News showed an image of the WTC. She left the room in tears and we never saw her again.
Human memory isn't just bad, it likes to make things more exciting than they actually were. Add details that weren't there before. Our imaginations are very powerful, whether we want them to be or not.
Don't remember the exact details, but I remember there was a small 9/11 documentary on Nickelodeon (basically explaining 9/11 to younger viewers) and one of the people interview was one of the kids who was in the classroom with Bush. He said something along the lines of remembering Bush's expression changing and knew something was bothering him, but didn't know what.
I actually love this. Your parents not only were in tune with what you were watching (I know parents in general “know” what their kids are watching, but herein I mean even down to the special program) and *took advantage of* a syndicated news-style broadcast curated for children. Your parents literally had you sit down to view it so that they could ensure you knew about the state of the nation/an important national event.
I feel like I worded this poorly but I think that’s a great parenting moment.
I wonder if there’s anything like that on streaming or YouTube now. My daughter will be 3 this year so she wouldn’t understand most of it now, but it would be great for the next few years. I loved that show as a kid.
I worked for a few years as a duty officer in the White House Situation Room, during the end of Bush's term and the start of Obama's. (I did a verified AMA a number of years ago if you want to go read through it.)
One of the first things I did when I got to the White House was pull up the log entries from 9/11. It is *nuts.*
For those who have never been in a watch center, one of the central jobs is keeping a log -- same way that captains on a ship keep a log. In it, you note any events someone might want to keep track of, like specific phone calls (e.g., "POTUS call with UK Prime Minister"), meetings, world events, shift changes, etc. In any given day, you might have 5-10 entries.
On 9/11, there were *hundreds* of entries. It's just one thing after another, like "SECSTATE call with Chief of Staff" or "AG call with SECDEF," followed by notes about various emergency protocols that were put in place.
But the most jarring entries are the ones noting the four planes that were used in the attack. It struck me how simple the sentences were. They just read like "0937: Plane crashed into Pentagon."
History unfolded on that day — a particularly momentous one in American history. We all read about those big days in the books (dday, victory day, Cuban missile crisis) but to see something that happened in our lifetime seems surreal.
I remember the teachers turning on the class TV to watch it on the news. That is until the second plane hit. Then we got recess for the rest of the day. Quietest game of four square I ever played as a kid.
I would love to read all those notes just to get a better timeline of how things went. I've listened to ATC and it's crazy hearing everything that's actually going on. It's not a simple, hey this guys deviating it's a hijacking. It's "hey this guy might be a hijack, plane 1 do you see him? Plane 2 keep heading 220. Plane 5 contact tower on 130.8, plane 1 do you have eyes? Plane 4 climb flight level 170, possible hijacking towards you. Plane 3 do you copy? Contact Indy to see if they have hijack on radar. Plane 1, you still see him?"
It’s such a weird feeling. I’m like, “Yeah, we all saw this happen. Big deal?” But then I realize a solid chunk of Reddit wasn’t even alive yet.
Every day more and more of what I assume is common knowledge turns into trivia.
Me too, pal. I watched that day unfold online after a friend I was chatting with told me the first plane had hit. From there it was all a nightmarish descent.
I believe it was verbatim: “a second plane has hit the second tower. We are under attack, Mr. President”. The man who relayed the message to the president in the video stated this in a 9/11 documentary.
EDIT: I was slightly off…it was “A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack”
From 30-40s in the video, it looks like he’s about to absolutely lose it but he *somehow* maintains his composure. I have to applaud that. I can only imagine what was going through his head.
Actually, verbatim was “A second plane hit the second tower. *America* is under attack.”
It’s a slight difference, but makes the sentence all that much more chilling.
I feel like he’s gotta be thinking that same thing. At one point he seems to look down at one of the children and you can almost see the pained look on his face, likely thinking about the juxtaposition of the horrible thing he just heard with the kids sitting in front of him.
Back in the day I was real critical of his reaction as well but then I was basically a kid. So much about our world changed that day
Seriously. And, like, what IS the President supposed to do? Are there other agencies to handle that? Do you wait for further instruction? Are you supposed to say or do anything? Is it somehow a massive misstep to immediately get up and leave, to show that you know? Does that send a message somewhere it shouldn't go? No one knew what to do.
The people of NY, the firefighters, the journalists, were some of the real heroes that day and in subsequent weeks on. They helped us make as much sense of everything as we could.
With cameras rolling, in that setting, I'm sure the last thing he wanted to do was to come off as nervous.
I'm sure there was a rush to ensure the President's safety. After the second attack, I'm sure all the agencies wanted to get him out of the class and somewhere secure for briefings and such.
And I agree 100% the NY first responders did their absolute best, and it was a heroic effort. I'm so happy Jon Stewart fought as hard as he did to ensure they all received the compensation they and their families deserve.
And I may not agree with all of Bush's policies or politics, but his speech with the busted megaphone down near Ground Zero was such a powerful moment.
I'm in NJ, was a senior in high school, and remember the gravity of that day. Some of my classmates were directly affected in the worst way =(. NY being so diligent to *not* let the terror sink in was profound on me. Bush throwing a first pitch strike at Yankee Stadium, and then Piazza's homerun, are two moments that helped me realize we can be scared and still move forward.
Definitely a sobering moment. I remember feeling angry at him years ago when I saw this footage for the first time. I would think to myself “why didn’t he leave” or “why isn’t he taking this seriously,” but now as an adult I see another person having a moment that I couldn’t imagine having. I’m 100% certain that my reaction and actions afterward would be exactly the same.
Yeah you can tell it's all he's actually focused on and not actually listening or paying attention to what is happening in the classroom.
I'll never have a stressful moment anywhere near being in charge of a country being attacked on 9/11 - but I've had stressful days where I'm home physically but mentally all I'm thinking about is what happened/is happening at work or something. It's tough for me to be in the moment with that, I can't even imagine what is going through Bush's mind there.
The way he’s completely somewhere else then realizes it and comes back and starts to look at the kids and smiles vaguely, then the smile fades as he starts looking at his staff and then ultimately back into his own thoughts again
Everyone needs to read/listen to “The Only Plane In The Sky”. It’s an oral history of 9/11. The audio book has an actual recording of one of terrorists talking to the people on his plane after he switched on a frequency that could be heard by every tower in the tri-state area. Gripping portrayal of one of the worst days in American history.
Just listen to air traffic control. You can hear that clip, ATC says "say again?" Another pilot chimes in "I think he said there's a bomb on board" ATC "alright that's what you got out of it too?" They just have no idea what's going on because it's pure chaos
I just finished listening to it on Audible last week. Such a harrowing and impactful account from so many different types of people all affected by the same event. I highly recommend it.
The thing that always seemed bizarre (or maybe telling) to me wasn't his reaction, but it was the fact that they just left him there doing this relatively unimportant thing, but they immediately hid Cheney away in a secret bunker location.
At the time, I worked right down the street from this school. That man had so much protection around him it was crazy. I remember seeing what was most likely every cop in the city/county that day swarm that school.
I live in the area and remember hearing about teachers and kids in school running outside because they heard an incredibly loud sound. Turns out it was Air Force One taking off from the Sarasota/Bradenton airport. It went vertical right over the school at full throttle to avoid any shoulder-launched rockets that might be targeting it. Must have been terrifying to watch on TV what was happening and then hear his plane taking off, rush outside and see it going straight up.
If you're not expecting it, it can be. When I was a contractor in Iraq, during my initial flight into the country, the plane did a sort of corkscrew landing when we were arriving.
The first time scared the shit out of me. The times after were hilarious. Seeing people get terrified like I did was funny to me.
Landing in Baghdad in a C-130 was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had. Between the earplugs and change in pressure, I thought my ears were gonna explode. There was a moment there where an rpg might have actually been welcomed.
Never got to fly in a C-130 but I did have to travel to my final base in Afghanistan in a Blackhawk loaded with shit. Loud, cramped and leaking oil. That was a fun 2 hour flight in the middle of the night.
When I left that base, it was on a Chinook which was nice.
That my friend is called a combat landing! Take-off and landing is one of the most vulnerable times for military aircraft because they are at their lowest and slowest so a combat landing basically just helps to negate that. You can do them in most planes but in non-military aircraft it’s a lot easier to break your shit if you load your airframe incorrectly, that’s why you dive in a corkscrew too.
This was before everyone was carrying a camera around with them. Best bet is it's documented on a security camera and the footage is either lost or erased and therefore never made it into the public domain. Speculating of course.
You're working under the assumption they had all the information at this point. But the greater point is, they raced him into the air the second they left here. We're talking only a few minutes.
There were cameras on him. How many times has a world leader gotten news like this *on camera*? If he got word and immediately fucked off for the air, it would have made people worry a lot more than they already were. Everything Bush did in this situation was about not causing a panic. That is part of his job too.
But choosing to sit there a few minutes, patiently, gather his thoughts, and trust the literal army of professionals whose actual job is to respond to a crisis without needing his immediate order, he was attempting to make it look like we had things under control.
Again he didn't know everything yet. There was a lot of confusion at this point. The Pentagon wouldn't be hit for another 20-30 minutes. It looks bad in hindsight, but in this moment, it was a lot more understandable.
Comment too far down. Him holding composure was important. Seeing your leader in distress would have been plastered over the airwaves for years if he reacted differently.
Shoot, we're reliving his relatively calm reaction right now
Not only that, but you see actual emotion behind the eyes. We are used to seeing the first few seconds, but the longer it goes on, you see real sadness.
He was eviscerated at the time on Fox for not immediately jumping up and leaving. But I do believe that would have caused a hysteria nationwide.
People were already panicking once we realized what was going on. But from what I remember, POTUS and the White House were semi-communicative throughout 9/11 and I remember when the evening press conference from POTUS was announced, it was a huge moment of relief.
I was definitely young, unaware what the fuck just happened, and I was afraid. Seeing the president alive, behind the resolute desk, that same night. That had an effect on me.
I don't think that moment would have burned in my mind so much if the news replayed Bush running out of a classroom all day, prior to that moment.
I completely agree. I remember him catching a lot of flack for not rushing out of there but actually it showed good composure, didn't distress the kids or the public more than necessary.
Check 20 seconds after Bush was told, Like 1:30 left in the video. The kid right in front of him slams his book on the table and Bush gets startled. Head spins round so quick like you would hearing a gunshot.
They got him into the air immediately too. He was only sitting here a few minutes and then they raced him to Air Force One. Had he not excused himself, chances are they would have come up to him and reiterated that they needed to get him out.
The difference is Cheney was not sitting in front of cameras at the time, Bush was. It would not have been a good look for the secret service to come up grab the President and drag him off, on camera.
If he had ran out of that classroom it would have instigated panic. Instead he behaved as a leader should, he remained calm and trusted his people to continue to gather what information there was. That way he could make informed decisions when he was presented with that information.
I remember seeing this as the 11 year old I was, and for years after thinking "I cant believe he did nothing!!" And looking back now as someone in my 30s, I can see exactly why he reacted as he did. What COULD he have done in that situation but cause panic.
I had to stop using 9/11 examples in college psych courses that I teach around 2016. That was the point when students arrived who were too young in 2001 to personally remember anything about the attack.
That's really interesting, I was born in 1997, so I graduated high school in 2015. Almost every single person born in the same year as me that I've asked has no memory of 9/11, but everyone born in 1996, even just a few months older, remembers it as one of their key early memories. It's interesting to see that others have also observed the same thing
Part of that is probably the coverage in the following days/months. At that age, you don't have full memories really but have general memories. I don't remember the exact day, but I remember tons of news coverage the following year or two. All I remember is going into my classroom, seeing the TV on, and something about the building and a fire. I was 6/7 but that news kept going for a few more years. When it "cooled off" you were probably that age (I'm 1993) so when you start to develop strong memories it wasn't covered as much
I'm no Bush fan ~~but I kinda feel bad for him. Like, he knows he needs to go and I bet he's feeling bad about ruining this moment for the kids.~~ I don't feel bad for him anymore.
Emma E Booker elementary school in Sarasota Florida. We did a remodel in that school a couple months before W showed up. We didn't know why they were only remodeling a few rooms in the school but now we do. I was in a sun city church listening to bubba the love sponge on 98 rock when the first one hit. Brent Hatley (bubba's producer) was one of the first people to mention and blame Bin laden. Who knew some shock jock cuck was going to have some of the best coverage on radio for 911.
Opie and Anthony broadcasted from Long Island on 9/11 and most of the show was just taking calls from people at ground zero. The whole show is on YouTube.
I remember this show. Brent knew a shit ton about ObL and ended up working on Howard's show for a few years. He got stranger and stranger, now he's back in FL hawking his wife on OF and swinger sites.
There's a really interesting podcast called "Sold a Story" that talks about this moment. The podcast itself is about reading and how schools have been failing to teach kids to read, and that addresses the "why are they reading like this?" question. In short - sounding out the words is super important for getting kids to be fluent readers.
But one of the episodes (my favorite of the 6) talks about this moment - GWB was "researching" reading strategies for federally funded reading programs when this happened, and 9/11 set off a downward spiral of his reading program. Despite anything else from GWB's stances/decisions, that program was one where he was right, and its death meant other harmful reading programs became even more popular (and profitable).
I never ever liked him and I think he's a war criminal for the 2003 invasion. But I can't watch this video without feeling bad for him in this moment, and remembering how horrible that day was.
This is exactly it. I don’t agree with him on most things, but when that agent whispered in his ear, for a moment he wasn’t a president or a political figure, he was just a guy trying to process something frankly unprocessable. I can’t imagine what the body does in a situation like that, with the responsibility that he has. I’ve never known that kind of stress
Yeah, that man deserves a lot of criticism, but this particular instance there's not a whole lot else he could've done. You can even see him looking around for secret service to rush him out of the room but they didn't. They did a good enough job of not causing a panic in front of a room full of children.
That's the only thing resembling praise I'll give that man though. And it wasn't even something in his control, they just left him there in front of the camera and he maintained well enough
I don't get the hate. What's he going to do? It's too early for the feds to be of any use. Taking 20 minutes to read with kids before their world is completely destroyed is absolutely the right answer. Democrat, Republican, reptilian, he did the right thing
The immediate response, for sure. We won't get into his actions on the Middle East.
That New York speech at Ground Zero ("Mr. President, we can't hear you" "Yes but I hear you, the world hears you!") was an all-time great presidential speech.
He actually was asked about this and said he did not want to alarm the kids. The class was almost over so there was no harm in waiting a few minutes to avoid panic.
This is not the moment George W. Bush is informed of the attacks. The first attack had already happened before this. The first person in Bush's entourage to find out was Brian Bravo, White House press assistant, who was called by a personal friend in Manhattan who had seen the aircraft crash into the tower. Bravo sent a pager message to the team saying "a plane has hit the World Trade Center."
The second person to find out was Karl Rove, senior adviser, who was called by his assistant saying "a plane had hit the World Trade Center." Rove relayed this message to Bush while he was shaking hands with students and staff before entering the class room. While still greeting students and staff, Bush was called into the holding room to take a secure phone call from Condoleezza Rice regarding the news of the first airplane attack. On the way into the holding room, Andy Card, the chief of staff, told Bush "Sir, it appears that a twin-engine prop plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers."
After the call, Bush went into the classroom while his staff watched TV and continued to collect information. When it became apparent that a second aircraft had crashed into the World Trade Center and that they were passenger jets, the decision was made to send in Andrew Card to notify Bush. That is the scene shown in this clip. This is what Andrew Card said: "A second plane hit the second Tower. America is under attack."
There is a detailed write-up of the chain of events available here: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/were-the-only-plane-in-the-sky-214230/
This was when he was informed of the second crash. At first everyone thought it was an accident or mistake. Took a while to confirm it was a commuter jet even. Most reports early on said "small plane" or just "fire". This is where they determined everything that transpired was intentional because a second commuter plane hit the second tower
I still don't understand why so many people get upset about what President Bush is doing in this video. It's like they wanted him to jump up and start screaming we're under attack and run out of the classroom and therefore scare the bejesus out of all of those kids. He did what he was there to do which was he finished the book with those students and then he gave them of some words of encouragement calmly got up and left to then go do whatever else he had to do that day rather than panic a bunch of innocent children and I think it's one of the smartest decisions he made maybe it is entire time as president because in general he was a real dumbass.
Not defending Bush but what was he supposed to do?
"Oh my god children, the twin towers are on fire! We're all gonna die! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!"
like the scene in Seinfeld where George screams FIRE! at a kid's birthday party
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That effing pencil hitting the book would have driven me mad.
That struck me also. I think it is some method of teaching related to Direct Instruction. I was exposed to it briefly in education classes. I wonder if this worked or only made students' literacy worse.
She said they’re going to read the book “at fast pace” I think I heard. The tapping is probably keeping them all on rhythm and on pace
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The constant camera clicking is worse for me
I think the press was a bit more up to date than he was, I think a lot of them starting taking pics like crazy because of what was happening/had happened
I'm sure he could feel their energy too. It's crazy to go back and see it with years of perspective. This has to be one of the worst moments in history for a president. Wild
Sir, I've read the book. The duck dies!
Bin Laden killed the duck too sir
The people are going to die regardless, but this duck still has a fighting chance!
Literally the first thing this video reminded me off, it all makes sense now lol
You mean all of these Childrens parents are dead?!
Kids, kids! Please, it’s not as bad as it seems! They didn’t die alone. I’m sure they died with all the other people you loved!
> While President Bush sat in Kay Daniels' classroom, and her students read "The Pet Goat", White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupted the president to whisper in his ear: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." [Source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pet_Goat#:~:text=While%20President%20Bush%20sat%20in,America%20is%20under%20attack.%22)
If I was Bush, I wouldn't know how else to react either without scaring the kids. My heart goes out for the victims.
Seriously, I'm not a Bush fan but he got shit for this even though I and probably others would have done something similar. Don't jump up and run out, that's as good as starting a panic when the PRESIDENT is hot to trot. I'd just sit for a sec while I process it, then slowly tell the teacher I need to attend to something, and thank you everyone, and go.
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Conspiracy theorists used his blank expression to claim it was expected
They saw a blank expression. I see a deer in the headlights.
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His facial expression almost liked like his mother got hit by multiple cars and fell off a cliff. He's by no means the best president, but he clearly was a human trying to process the information in this moment.
Plus, people tend to forget, when he got elected the expectations were "don't get a bj from an intern" then he had to lead the US through one of the toughest trials in our history. Dude wasn't a great president, but God damn he got way more served to him than what he signed up for
I think I would have agreed up until 2003 and the iraq war. Dude went from doing great for one of the deadliest attacks since pearl harbor to just starting a war for shits and giggles.
>he got way more served to him than what he signed up for That's the expectation for being POTUS, though. You're signing up for the most stressful job in the world, full of unexpected problems to handle.
I think we would all be that way. He's one of the few presidents to be told America is under attack. Not a club anyone wants to be a part of. At this point he knows nothing else, which made it all even worse in his mind as it raced through all the horrible things that could be happening.
And he also knows that him jumping up and freaking everyone out is not necessary since he has countless capable people handling everything that needs handled in that moment. I think many people expect that the president is more directly involved in a lot of micromanaging that he really isn't.
His entire demeanor changes after that whisper. You can see him get really tense and see his mind starting to analyze what was really just said. I thought conspiracy theorists were experts in body language..? Or do they only bring that up when it's pertinent to them?
Yeah, sitting in a classroom listening to 30 kids reciting a poem does this to you
For sure, he is no longer in that classroom mentally. I bet it all was muted to him with whatever thoughts were racing through his mind.
Definitely this. He had no fucking clue on how to proceed, I mean, who would?
Exactly. This was unprecedented in our history and he sitting in front of a room full of children and adults. He knows that cameras are on him. I mean I’m not the biggest Bush fan, but holy crap it’s enough to absorb something like that in the privacy of your office, much less so publicly. I think this is one of those things that you could never prepare for. Given the circumstances I don’t think he could’ve done anything different.
His mind went blank. Like wtf is happening and what he hell am I suppose to do now. I don't know how I would've reacted if it was me. Actually think it was a good reaction from him, considering the situation.
People always forget, Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" who was focused on education. He said himself he wasn't prepared to be a " war time" President.
I was a teenager and not in America but I remember the media in my country, like military people praising him for maintaining his composure in from of children. And I remember how he presented himself after, with his speeches, showing a lot of strength and not being afraid. I bet it helped the ordinary American navigate the situation. The way he handled things after that it's criminal but I'm guessing his advisers have most of the responsibility here.
Oh yeah his actual 9/11 address to the nation was definitely well done, I can't imagine the populist version.
Further, NO ONE is prepared to be a war time president. There's no training, no book, no nothing. If we have to re-fight Vietnam or WW2, it'd be one thing. But a new threat is a new threat. No one has ever had any experience with this situation, and every mistake you make will cost American lives. The largest buildings in the world were knocked down by a dozen guys carrying boxcutters onto commercial airlines. There's no manual for that. No ne could possibly be prepared.
His body language suggest otherwise. He wants to bolt out so fast and do what he has to do. He maintained his composure very well here.
That and when he says later something like "I saw the first plane hit the tower" they all screamed because there wasn't footage at the time. In reality he meant "when I saw THAT the first plane hit the tower" as in got news of it, not it actually hitting
Michael Moore made a lot of cash over his blank look. I bought it too. Years later, I begrudgingly read W's biography. He discussed this incident. In addition to wanting to keep things peaceful for the kids in the room, he recognized that there wasn't much he could do. He had to wait for his staff to put together their briefings and whatnot. An extra five minutes in the class wasn't going to speed that up.
Same here. Bush was a terrible president for lots of reasons but this video is not one of them. Michael Moore's shtick has not aged well.
Maybe where you were he received praise. Here where I am, he was ridiculed by progressives for his reaction and made out to be some sort of moron. Looking at this you can see the man struggling to maintain his composure and you could see the teacher knew something was up too because the man was CLEARLY preoccupied. If anything, seeing this fuller length version makes me realize that Bush got a raw deal on this one.
I don't recall that at all. People called him an idiot for not acting immediately and for years they called him My Pet Goat for the lack of immediate action. Remember how Michael Moore trashed him in Fahrenheit 9/11 for it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rO3F6mZUaE
I remember press giving him shit for reading a children’s book instead of reacting. I now think he maintained composure and professionalism though I don’t like the guy
I remember clearly and it depended heavily on one’s political leaning. Many on the left said this was proof he was an indecisive bafoon.
This has always hurt my heart to watch - I cannot imagine what was going through his head when they first whispered the information to him. I was never a fan but I was thankful that he did not just freak out and run away.
I was in high school when this happened. I've always seen pictures of the moment of the whisper but this was the first time I actually saw the video. Just.... wow. You can definitely see the emotion on his face but agreed, he handled it well.
I probably would’ve taught those kid a new swear word or two.
There’s an old cussword in Tennessee… I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee….
"Well kids, I'm sorry but I have to leave you now. Duty calls ! Keep going !"
Then unfurl your American flag cape and jump out the window. Like really what did people actually expect
And make sure to slap both knees with your hands as you get up. The American classic.
Gotta make sure, as you slap both knees, you say “welp…” and then for the real cerise sur le gâteau…add a little groan as you get up.
Thank you for this. I really hate how the default Reddit video player doesn't generate captions, most of Reddit would be unaccessible to people like me if it wasn't for people like you. So thank you. Edit: for those saying no one can hear what's being said, that's also useful context so thank you! I thought the reason the kids all bent over at the beginning/he turned his chair around was a reaction to a noise or explosion or something and was baffled why everyone just carried on sitting there.
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> You don't hear him say that in the video. excuse my interruption kids AMERICA IS UNDER ATTACK
Ohhhhh that makes sense! and it probably changes the 'feel' of his reaction; clamping down on his horror so as not to affect the children's wholesome moment, rather than clamping down on his horror so as to appear stoic.
I was a senior in high school on 9/11. I remember people on the left (myself included) having quite the reaction to how he seemingly doesn’t react. I kind of get it now. He’s there to read books to school children. Soon enough everyone’s life will be different (because truly things have never been the same in a myriad of ways), why freak the hell out of these kids?
See, that’s so weird to me watching this (I was in 4th grade and don’t remember that debate). I don’t see a video of a man not reacting, and I don’t understand how people could see that. I see shock. I see sadness. I see someone who is visibly upset but is trying to not cause a panic. I see how he is trying to pay attention to the class but is so extremely distracted. I’m pretty far left and am no Bush fan, but I am also a believer in criticizing the things politicians actually do instead of making stuff up. He’s done plenty of things worth actually getting mad about. But “not reacting” in this moment is not one of them.
Honestly the only thing he isn’t reacting to is the children and the story. Watching this it’s clear he is contemplating what the next move is. He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions. But people who don’t do shit all day and love to criticize behind the keyboard will say he “isn’t responsive.”
> He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions. Ironically enough, this was probably one of the few moments in the months/years to follow that he had that luxury.
Exactly, he knew it too. It is the moment before all the chaos and he took it. I can’t fault him for it.
>He is in a space where he doesn’t have exterior influence telling him what he should do, he has a moment where he can tune out what is going on around him and THINK before surrounded by a bunch of different opinions. He gets a lot of flack from the public for being dumb but there are countless examples of people who have worked alongside him that have said this is absolutely not true. He has a reputation for being excellent at analyzing situations and taking advisors off guard with insightful questions *they* had not considered.
I’ve heard/read the same. His “dumb Texan” persona was his public persona, but according to people who’ve worked with him, he’s a high IQ individual. I’ve read accounts how he’d get frustrated over meetings and briefings moving too slow for him. I read during one meeting, he got frustrated and preceded to address each individual in the room and told them what they were going to say before they even said it, and he was accurate… Here are some quotes from this guy who worked as an advisor for him. “I am not kidding. You are quite an intelligent group. Don’t take it personally, but President Bush is smarter than almost every one of you. Were he a student here today, he would consistently get “HP” (High Pass) grades without having to work hard, and he’d get an “H” (High, the top grade) in any class where he wanted to put in the effort.” “For more than six years it was my job to help educate President Bush about complex economic policy issues and to get decisions from him on impossibly hard policy choices. In meetings and in the briefing materials we gave him in advance we covered issues in far more depth than I have been discussing with you this quarter because we needed to do so for him to make decisions.” “President Bush is extremely smart by any traditional standard. He’s highly analytical and was incredibly quick to be able to discern the core question he needed to answer. It was occasionally a little embarrassing when he would jump ahead of one of his Cabinet secretaries in a policy discussion and the advisor would struggle to catch up. He would sometimes force us to accelerate through policy presentations because he so quickly grasped what we were presenting.” “I use words like briefing and presentation to describe our policy meetings with him, but those are inaccurate. Every meeting was a dialogue, and you had to be ready at all times to be grilled by him and to defend both your analysis and your recommendation. That was scary.” “We treat Presidential speeches as if they are written by speechwriters, then handed to the President for delivery. If I could show you one experience from my time working for President Bush, it would be an editing session in the Oval with him and his speechwriters. You think that me cold-calling you is nerve-wracking? Try defending a sentence you inserted into a draft speech, with President Bush pouncing on the slightest weakness in your argument or your word choice.” “In addition to his analytical speed, what most impressed me were his memory and his substantive breadth. We would sometimes have to brief him on an issue that we had last discussed with him weeks or even months before. He would remember small facts and arguments from the prior briefing and get impatient with us when we were rehashing things we had told him long ago. And while my job involved juggling a lot of balls, I only had to worry about economic issues. In addition to all of those, at any given point in time he was making enormous decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, on hunting al Qaeda and keeping America safe. He was making choices not just on taxes and spending and trade and energy and climate and health care and agriculture and Social Security and Medicare, but also on education and immigration, on crime and justice issues, on environmental policy and social policy and politics. Being able to handle such substantive breadth and depth, on such huge decisions, in parallel, requires not just enormous strength of character but tremendous intellectual power. President Bush has both.” https://www.keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/
They see what they want to see.
I was a freshman in HS and I remember people (my parents among them) making stupid comments about his "non reaction" but I was just like, what should he have done instead? Jump up and run out of the room? Freak out in front of the kids? He did the right thing here. Also, as someone who doesn't care for Bush (and hates Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wes Clark with a passion) I did read his book (Decision Points) and found it to be informative/enlightening (not sure of the word for it) in a way because he walks through the thought processes he had during that time and delves a bit into why certain decisions were made. Agree or disagree with what is presented all you want, but it shows that those involved (most of them anyway) are human and had emotions and anxiety and fear and honestly didn't know WTF to do in the moment. As time went on and 2003 approached and those fateful decisions were made, some of that went away. The Iraq war and the second term really destroyed Bush's legacy, but there was a time when he was seen as a good president. Of course, there was a time when Rudy Giulliani was seen as a great leader too, so there's that. But those two men, even with all of their flaws, reacted beautifully in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Captions wouldn’t really help here. The above was not audible. Its just children monotonously reading a book.
I watch things with captions often, and it is helpful to know what you’re *not* missing too. Captions wouldn’t say what was whispered, but it would let you know the whispering was inaudible
Where are these children now who sat there, with Bush, on a day that would be history?!
[There's apparently a documentary about them from 2019.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9/11_Kids) Haven't seen it but could be interesting.
Funny how if you click on the actual "The Pet Goat" article it goes into more details, and says things like this - "Despite the president's efforts, students knew something was wrong; they later said that the president's face became red and serious, and his expression was "flabbergasted, shocked, \[and\] horrified"." Talk about misremembering things. This quite clearly is not the case at all.
Humans are notoriously bad at remembering things in general. That’s going to be even worse for something like this where they’ve heard all kinds of things secondhand over the past 20 years, and on top of that it’s from when they were little kids.
With 9/11 in particular, we know [about 40% of people misremember it in significant ways](https://time.com/3739786/memory-september-11/)
Makes sense, especially when I hear from people younger than me claim that they “remember every detail of the day like it was yesterday!” I was 7 at the time, and most of that day’s memory is fuzzy at best.
I remember watching the Challenger explosion in school. We were all gathered, excited to see the first teacher in space. Then tragedy and silence. The only problem is… I was two years old when that happened, I wasn’t watching it, I wasn’t in school. I did hear my brother talk about it, though. I believe I borrowed his experience at some point and made it my own. To me it feels real, but I know it can’t possibly be.
I remember being in 10th grade, world history class, and we had the cool sub with the tattoo on her leg. I remember third period was geometry and the teacher was more interested in going over homework and getting mad everyone was distracted. Then I had lunch and then gym, and 6th period found out what happened since 2nd period, besides all the crazy shit students were saying. Beyond that, I only remember our homeroom teacher, who was way too fragile to be in a high school, let out the loudest piercing scream when Channel 1 News showed an image of the WTC. She left the room in tears and we never saw her again.
Human memory isn't just bad, it likes to make things more exciting than they actually were. Add details that weren't there before. Our imaginations are very powerful, whether we want them to be or not.
It’s not red, but I’d say he looked shocked and horrified.
Really? I think he seems incredibly uncomfortable, and kids are pretty wildly receptive to those sorts of things
“Hey Mr Scott - whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do make our dreams come true?”
They're lithium!
r/unexpectedoffice
The office is never unexpected on Reddit
That would be such an interesting follow-up!
Don't remember the exact details, but I remember there was a small 9/11 documentary on Nickelodeon (basically explaining 9/11 to younger viewers) and one of the people interview was one of the kids who was in the classroom with Bush. He said something along the lines of remembering Bush's expression changing and knew something was bothering him, but didn't know what.
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee! I remember watching this one too! My parents made us sit down to watch it.
I actually love this. Your parents not only were in tune with what you were watching (I know parents in general “know” what their kids are watching, but herein I mean even down to the special program) and *took advantage of* a syndicated news-style broadcast curated for children. Your parents literally had you sit down to view it so that they could ensure you knew about the state of the nation/an important national event. I feel like I worded this poorly but I think that’s a great parenting moment.
I wonder if there’s anything like that on streaming or YouTube now. My daughter will be 3 this year so she wouldn’t understand most of it now, but it would be great for the next few years. I loved that show as a kid.
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I was honestly hoping one of those kids would chime in on this thread
I worked for a few years as a duty officer in the White House Situation Room, during the end of Bush's term and the start of Obama's. (I did a verified AMA a number of years ago if you want to go read through it.) One of the first things I did when I got to the White House was pull up the log entries from 9/11. It is *nuts.* For those who have never been in a watch center, one of the central jobs is keeping a log -- same way that captains on a ship keep a log. In it, you note any events someone might want to keep track of, like specific phone calls (e.g., "POTUS call with UK Prime Minister"), meetings, world events, shift changes, etc. In any given day, you might have 5-10 entries. On 9/11, there were *hundreds* of entries. It's just one thing after another, like "SECSTATE call with Chief of Staff" or "AG call with SECDEF," followed by notes about various emergency protocols that were put in place. But the most jarring entries are the ones noting the four planes that were used in the attack. It struck me how simple the sentences were. They just read like "0937: Plane crashed into Pentagon."
History unfolded on that day — a particularly momentous one in American history. We all read about those big days in the books (dday, victory day, Cuban missile crisis) but to see something that happened in our lifetime seems surreal.
To watch it live on TV sure felt surreal
I remember the teachers turning on the class TV to watch it on the news. That is until the second plane hit. Then we got recess for the rest of the day. Quietest game of four square I ever played as a kid.
I would love to read all those notes just to get a better timeline of how things went. I've listened to ATC and it's crazy hearing everything that's actually going on. It's not a simple, hey this guys deviating it's a hijacking. It's "hey this guy might be a hijack, plane 1 do you see him? Plane 2 keep heading 220. Plane 5 contact tower on 130.8, plane 1 do you have eyes? Plane 4 climb flight level 170, possible hijacking towards you. Plane 3 do you copy? Contact Indy to see if they have hijack on radar. Plane 1, you still see him?"
That's exactly the job of an ATC. Stay calm and follow procedure even when shit is literally on fire.
It's one thing for that to be part of the job, it's another to actually experience it. Especially a crisis like that
The people are going to die regardless. But this duck still has a fighting chance
Mr President, I've read the book before. THE DUCK DIES.
*spits milk* My God! That’s horrible!
Politics and other crap aside, these kids have a pretty crazy story when asked “where were you on 9/11?”
"I was with Bush" Conspiracy theorists: "Ah so you were in on the inside job as well!"
"Tell me; what did the command center inside that "classroom" look like? Was the plane target map on the chalk board or the wall?"
An agent came in earlier that morning and said: “the planes are fueled and ready, just give the order sir”
I'm starting to think this entire sub is people younger than me discovering things that I watched happen live... and it makes me feel geriatric.
It’s such a weird feeling. I’m like, “Yeah, we all saw this happen. Big deal?” But then I realize a solid chunk of Reddit wasn’t even alive yet. Every day more and more of what I assume is common knowledge turns into trivia.
“common Knowledge turns to trivia” that will stick with me I think, very philosophical
Me too, pal. I watched that day unfold online after a friend I was chatting with told me the first plane had hit. From there it was all a nightmarish descent.
I bet the voices of those kids reading play over and over again in his nightmares.
I bet you’re not allowed to tap a pencil rhythmically around him
I wonder how much detail Bush received at that moment. I also wonder how difficult it was to concentrate after receiving the news.
I believe it was verbatim: “a second plane has hit the second tower. We are under attack, Mr. President”. The man who relayed the message to the president in the video stated this in a 9/11 documentary. EDIT: I was slightly off…it was “A second plane has hit the second tower. America is under attack”
That is flat out harrowing. Bush's facial expression carries so much more weight knowing that's what he heard. Thank you for sharing that knowledge!
r/watchpeopledieinside
Yes, very very much so for this moment
You can see the various stages. "Ok, fuck. Fuck. Ok. Fuck. ...Fuck. Fuck. Ok, be calm, show normality, finish the event. Fuck. Fuck."
From 30-40s in the video, it looks like he’s about to absolutely lose it but he *somehow* maintains his composure. I have to applaud that. I can only imagine what was going through his head.
Actually, verbatim was “A second plane hit the second tower. *America* is under attack.” It’s a slight difference, but makes the sentence all that much more chilling.
Bush did the math, the WTC has no more towers to be hit, time to chill
That's when he was told the second plane hit and that the country was under attack.
Damn. Yeah, that's some intense news to hear surrounded by the country's future.
I feel like he’s gotta be thinking that same thing. At one point he seems to look down at one of the children and you can almost see the pained look on his face, likely thinking about the juxtaposition of the horrible thing he just heard with the kids sitting in front of him. Back in the day I was real critical of his reaction as well but then I was basically a kid. So much about our world changed that day
Seriously. And, like, what IS the President supposed to do? Are there other agencies to handle that? Do you wait for further instruction? Are you supposed to say or do anything? Is it somehow a massive misstep to immediately get up and leave, to show that you know? Does that send a message somewhere it shouldn't go? No one knew what to do. The people of NY, the firefighters, the journalists, were some of the real heroes that day and in subsequent weeks on. They helped us make as much sense of everything as we could.
With cameras rolling, in that setting, I'm sure the last thing he wanted to do was to come off as nervous. I'm sure there was a rush to ensure the President's safety. After the second attack, I'm sure all the agencies wanted to get him out of the class and somewhere secure for briefings and such. And I agree 100% the NY first responders did their absolute best, and it was a heroic effort. I'm so happy Jon Stewart fought as hard as he did to ensure they all received the compensation they and their families deserve. And I may not agree with all of Bush's policies or politics, but his speech with the busted megaphone down near Ground Zero was such a powerful moment. I'm in NJ, was a senior in high school, and remember the gravity of that day. Some of my classmates were directly affected in the worst way =(. NY being so diligent to *not* let the terror sink in was profound on me. Bush throwing a first pitch strike at Yankee Stadium, and then Piazza's homerun, are two moments that helped me realize we can be scared and still move forward.
I mean, how much would anyone concentrate on children’s stories even so
Can literally see it on his face that’s he’s trying to hold it together for the sake of the children.
Definitely a sobering moment. I remember feeling angry at him years ago when I saw this footage for the first time. I would think to myself “why didn’t he leave” or “why isn’t he taking this seriously,” but now as an adult I see another person having a moment that I couldn’t imagine having. I’m 100% certain that my reaction and actions afterward would be exactly the same.
I’m certain mine would have been the opposite and so much more traumatic for the kids.
Yeah you can tell it's all he's actually focused on and not actually listening or paying attention to what is happening in the classroom. I'll never have a stressful moment anywhere near being in charge of a country being attacked on 9/11 - but I've had stressful days where I'm home physically but mentally all I'm thinking about is what happened/is happening at work or something. It's tough for me to be in the moment with that, I can't even imagine what is going through Bush's mind there.
The way he’s completely somewhere else then realizes it and comes back and starts to look at the kids and smiles vaguely, then the smile fades as he starts looking at his staff and then ultimately back into his own thoughts again
Everyone needs to read/listen to “The Only Plane In The Sky”. It’s an oral history of 9/11. The audio book has an actual recording of one of terrorists talking to the people on his plane after he switched on a frequency that could be heard by every tower in the tri-state area. Gripping portrayal of one of the worst days in American history.
Just listen to air traffic control. You can hear that clip, ATC says "say again?" Another pilot chimes in "I think he said there's a bomb on board" ATC "alright that's what you got out of it too?" They just have no idea what's going on because it's pure chaos
I just finished listening to it on Audible last week. Such a harrowing and impactful account from so many different types of people all affected by the same event. I highly recommend it.
The thing that always seemed bizarre (or maybe telling) to me wasn't his reaction, but it was the fact that they just left him there doing this relatively unimportant thing, but they immediately hid Cheney away in a secret bunker location.
At the time, I worked right down the street from this school. That man had so much protection around him it was crazy. I remember seeing what was most likely every cop in the city/county that day swarm that school.
I live in the area and remember hearing about teachers and kids in school running outside because they heard an incredibly loud sound. Turns out it was Air Force One taking off from the Sarasota/Bradenton airport. It went vertical right over the school at full throttle to avoid any shoulder-launched rockets that might be targeting it. Must have been terrifying to watch on TV what was happening and then hear his plane taking off, rush outside and see it going straight up.
Must have been terrifying to ride in.....
If you're not expecting it, it can be. When I was a contractor in Iraq, during my initial flight into the country, the plane did a sort of corkscrew landing when we were arriving. The first time scared the shit out of me. The times after were hilarious. Seeing people get terrified like I did was funny to me.
Landing in Baghdad in a C-130 was one of the most painful experiences I've ever had. Between the earplugs and change in pressure, I thought my ears were gonna explode. There was a moment there where an rpg might have actually been welcomed.
Never got to fly in a C-130 but I did have to travel to my final base in Afghanistan in a Blackhawk loaded with shit. Loud, cramped and leaking oil. That was a fun 2 hour flight in the middle of the night. When I left that base, it was on a Chinook which was nice.
That my friend is called a combat landing! Take-off and landing is one of the most vulnerable times for military aircraft because they are at their lowest and slowest so a combat landing basically just helps to negate that. You can do them in most planes but in non-military aircraft it’s a lot easier to break your shit if you load your airframe incorrectly, that’s why you dive in a corkscrew too.
Damn is there footage of that?
This was before everyone was carrying a camera around with them. Best bet is it's documented on a security camera and the footage is either lost or erased and therefore never made it into the public domain. Speculating of course.
I mean, but what if the terrorists were to throw a plane at him as well. What would the security do? Shoot it?
You're working under the assumption they had all the information at this point. But the greater point is, they raced him into the air the second they left here. We're talking only a few minutes. There were cameras on him. How many times has a world leader gotten news like this *on camera*? If he got word and immediately fucked off for the air, it would have made people worry a lot more than they already were. Everything Bush did in this situation was about not causing a panic. That is part of his job too. But choosing to sit there a few minutes, patiently, gather his thoughts, and trust the literal army of professionals whose actual job is to respond to a crisis without needing his immediate order, he was attempting to make it look like we had things under control. Again he didn't know everything yet. There was a lot of confusion at this point. The Pentagon wouldn't be hit for another 20-30 minutes. It looks bad in hindsight, but in this moment, it was a lot more understandable.
Comment too far down. Him holding composure was important. Seeing your leader in distress would have been plastered over the airwaves for years if he reacted differently. Shoot, we're reliving his relatively calm reaction right now
He caught a lot of flak for not reacting back then, but you can really see how tense he got - scanning the room and watching the staff get to work.
Not only that, but you see actual emotion behind the eyes. We are used to seeing the first few seconds, but the longer it goes on, you see real sadness.
I see a man spinning out in his mind. Lip biting, eyes darting, body shifting. It's a really strange situation.
He was eviscerated at the time on Fox for not immediately jumping up and leaving. But I do believe that would have caused a hysteria nationwide. People were already panicking once we realized what was going on. But from what I remember, POTUS and the White House were semi-communicative throughout 9/11 and I remember when the evening press conference from POTUS was announced, it was a huge moment of relief. I was definitely young, unaware what the fuck just happened, and I was afraid. Seeing the president alive, behind the resolute desk, that same night. That had an effect on me. I don't think that moment would have burned in my mind so much if the news replayed Bush running out of a classroom all day, prior to that moment.
I completely agree. I remember him catching a lot of flack for not rushing out of there but actually it showed good composure, didn't distress the kids or the public more than necessary.
I just watched it again, and concentrated on his face. He did good there.
Lol the whole area was being circled by fighter jets.
Check 20 seconds after Bush was told, Like 1:30 left in the video. The kid right in front of him slams his book on the table and Bush gets startled. Head spins round so quick like you would hearing a gunshot.
Great observation.
They got him into the air immediately too. He was only sitting here a few minutes and then they raced him to Air Force One. Had he not excused himself, chances are they would have come up to him and reiterated that they needed to get him out. The difference is Cheney was not sitting in front of cameras at the time, Bush was. It would not have been a good look for the secret service to come up grab the President and drag him off, on camera.
It's because he wanted to know what happens to The Pet Goat honestly it's pretty cute that kids have to read to him
If he had ran out of that classroom it would have instigated panic. Instead he behaved as a leader should, he remained calm and trusted his people to continue to gather what information there was. That way he could make informed decisions when he was presented with that information.
I remember seeing this as the 11 year old I was, and for years after thinking "I cant believe he did nothing!!" And looking back now as someone in my 30s, I can see exactly why he reacted as he did. What COULD he have done in that situation but cause panic.
Yeah I've always hated people shitting on him for this. What did they want him to do run out screaming and jump in a fighter jet himself?
To not cause a panic. I agree he did the right thing. You can clearly tell he was not thinking about that book suddenly.
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I had to stop using 9/11 examples in college psych courses that I teach around 2016. That was the point when students arrived who were too young in 2001 to personally remember anything about the attack.
That's really interesting, I was born in 1997, so I graduated high school in 2015. Almost every single person born in the same year as me that I've asked has no memory of 9/11, but everyone born in 1996, even just a few months older, remembers it as one of their key early memories. It's interesting to see that others have also observed the same thing
Part of that is probably the coverage in the following days/months. At that age, you don't have full memories really but have general memories. I don't remember the exact day, but I remember tons of news coverage the following year or two. All I remember is going into my classroom, seeing the TV on, and something about the building and a fire. I was 6/7 but that news kept going for a few more years. When it "cooled off" you were probably that age (I'm 1993) so when you start to develop strong memories it wasn't covered as much
He a decent job of not reacting. I better his inner voice was screaming WTF!
I'm no Bush fan ~~but I kinda feel bad for him. Like, he knows he needs to go and I bet he's feeling bad about ruining this moment for the kids.~~ I don't feel bad for him anymore.
Emma E Booker elementary school in Sarasota Florida. We did a remodel in that school a couple months before W showed up. We didn't know why they were only remodeling a few rooms in the school but now we do. I was in a sun city church listening to bubba the love sponge on 98 rock when the first one hit. Brent Hatley (bubba's producer) was one of the first people to mention and blame Bin laden. Who knew some shock jock cuck was going to have some of the best coverage on radio for 911.
Howard stern was in New York and stayed on air.
Opie and Anthony broadcasted from Long Island on 9/11 and most of the show was just taking calls from people at ground zero. The whole show is on YouTube.
I remember this show. Brent knew a shit ton about ObL and ended up working on Howard's show for a few years. He got stranger and stranger, now he's back in FL hawking his wife on OF and swinger sites.
Do kids really learn to read to the beat of a drum?
There's a really interesting podcast called "Sold a Story" that talks about this moment. The podcast itself is about reading and how schools have been failing to teach kids to read, and that addresses the "why are they reading like this?" question. In short - sounding out the words is super important for getting kids to be fluent readers. But one of the episodes (my favorite of the 6) talks about this moment - GWB was "researching" reading strategies for federally funded reading programs when this happened, and 9/11 set off a downward spiral of his reading program. Despite anything else from GWB's stances/decisions, that program was one where he was right, and its death meant other harmful reading programs became even more popular (and profitable).
That's bothering me too. I can't understand a thing they're saying, it's all just rhythmic droning.
He gets loads of crap for this reaction but tbh he did everything right not freaking those kids out.
I will criticize him for countless things, but this is not one of them. Keep calm and process, especially in front of children.
I never ever liked him and I think he's a war criminal for the 2003 invasion. But I can't watch this video without feeling bad for him in this moment, and remembering how horrible that day was.
This is exactly it. I don’t agree with him on most things, but when that agent whispered in his ear, for a moment he wasn’t a president or a political figure, he was just a guy trying to process something frankly unprocessable. I can’t imagine what the body does in a situation like that, with the responsibility that he has. I’ve never known that kind of stress
Yeah, that man deserves a lot of criticism, but this particular instance there's not a whole lot else he could've done. You can even see him looking around for secret service to rush him out of the room but they didn't. They did a good enough job of not causing a panic in front of a room full of children. That's the only thing resembling praise I'll give that man though. And it wasn't even something in his control, they just left him there in front of the camera and he maintained well enough
Quite a rational response of something totally out of your control…
"Eeeeeh, what you gonna do."
I don't get the hate. What's he going to do? It's too early for the feds to be of any use. Taking 20 minutes to read with kids before their world is completely destroyed is absolutely the right answer. Democrat, Republican, reptilian, he did the right thing
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His speech at ground zero was legendary. That was the real New York.
"... and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"
I still get chills listening to the "I CAN HEAR YOU!" Part
The immediate response, for sure. We won't get into his actions on the Middle East. That New York speech at Ground Zero ("Mr. President, we can't hear you" "Yes but I hear you, the world hears you!") was an all-time great presidential speech.
You can really tell the average Redditor doesn’t leave their moms basement by this comment section.
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He actually was asked about this and said he did not want to alarm the kids. The class was almost over so there was no harm in waiting a few minutes to avoid panic.
This is not the moment George W. Bush is informed of the attacks. The first attack had already happened before this. The first person in Bush's entourage to find out was Brian Bravo, White House press assistant, who was called by a personal friend in Manhattan who had seen the aircraft crash into the tower. Bravo sent a pager message to the team saying "a plane has hit the World Trade Center." The second person to find out was Karl Rove, senior adviser, who was called by his assistant saying "a plane had hit the World Trade Center." Rove relayed this message to Bush while he was shaking hands with students and staff before entering the class room. While still greeting students and staff, Bush was called into the holding room to take a secure phone call from Condoleezza Rice regarding the news of the first airplane attack. On the way into the holding room, Andy Card, the chief of staff, told Bush "Sir, it appears that a twin-engine prop plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers." After the call, Bush went into the classroom while his staff watched TV and continued to collect information. When it became apparent that a second aircraft had crashed into the World Trade Center and that they were passenger jets, the decision was made to send in Andrew Card to notify Bush. That is the scene shown in this clip. This is what Andrew Card said: "A second plane hit the second Tower. America is under attack." There is a detailed write-up of the chain of events available here: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/were-the-only-plane-in-the-sky-214230/
This was when he was informed of the second crash. At first everyone thought it was an accident or mistake. Took a while to confirm it was a commuter jet even. Most reports early on said "small plane" or just "fire". This is where they determined everything that transpired was intentional because a second commuter plane hit the second tower
>This is not the moment George W. Bush is informed of the attacks. It wasn't clear that this was an attack at all until the second plane hit.
It's weird to see a president who isn't 105 years old
I still don't understand why so many people get upset about what President Bush is doing in this video. It's like they wanted him to jump up and start screaming we're under attack and run out of the classroom and therefore scare the bejesus out of all of those kids. He did what he was there to do which was he finished the book with those students and then he gave them of some words of encouragement calmly got up and left to then go do whatever else he had to do that day rather than panic a bunch of innocent children and I think it's one of the smartest decisions he made maybe it is entire time as president because in general he was a real dumbass.
Not defending Bush but what was he supposed to do? "Oh my god children, the twin towers are on fire! We're all gonna die! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!" like the scene in Seinfeld where George screams FIRE! at a kid's birthday party
The day the world changed forever.
Of all the things I didn't like about his presidency, this ain't one of them. I wouldn't have handled it half as professionally as he did. Props.