Full interview: Former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card shares what he experienced on 9/11
september 11th 2000 and one remains the indelible moment of this century. Everyone remembers where they were on that fateful morning as the national attention turned to new york Washington and western pennsylvania. Everyone wondering what does America do next? Only a select few were involved in figuring that out. And we are privileged to have one of those people here in studio Andy card Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. Mr Card. Andy thank you so much for joining us. Adam. It’s a thrill to be with you. And thank you for allowing me to reflect on that day that we all promised. We’d never forget. So you had to deliver some of the most important news that anyone has ever delivered to an american president uh, there in florida. Uh, and as the second plane after it hit the World Trade Center, take us back to that moment. What was that like? As you entered into that room and had to deliver that message, I’m going to back up a little further than that. We woke up on september 11th after having come in the night of september 10th to Sarasota florida. We came from Jacksonville florida. Before that we’ve been in Washington D. C. But I remember arriving on the 10th when the doors to the limousine opened up in the president and the entourage. Get out of the motorcade and went into a hotel and that there was a terrible stench in the year the red tide had killed fish had washed up on the beach. We were in Sarasota florida. And I just remember being struck by that terrible stench. We dropped our luggage off into the colony resort, which was a tennis and golf resort and then piled back into limousines and went out to dinner in Tampa florida And it was not a working dinner for the president. So he was having dinner with the number of friends and it was kind of a fun night and he stayed out later than normal. And when we got back to the hotel, we went up, went to bed. I got up very early on September 11, 2001. Remember going outside to check on the advanced team and the motorcade and the Secret Service and things look appropriate. I talked with uh, advanced folks in the Secret Service about what we’re gonna do. And then I went in to greet the president and he was getting up and getting ready to go for a run on the golf course and he was putting on his running clothes and he was preoccupied with this run because he invited a reporter to go running with him. His name was Richard Dick stretch Kyle and the president found out that he had been an all american cross country runner. So he was paranoid that he shouldn’t have invited this guy to go running with him. The bushes are all very competitive. I like to say they don’t even let the grandkids beat them at checkers, that type of thing. And I knew the president was going to go out for this run, I had already checked with the doctor and said, is the red tide going to be something that I should worry about if the president goes out for a strenuous running the golf course. And the doctor said no, he’ll be fine. He didn’t want him to feel sick, didn’t want him to get sick. And Chiefs of staff worried about all those things. And so the president is getting ready to go for the run. Very preoccupied. That stretched Kyle is going running with him. And he said, I don’t know why I invited this guy to go running. I didn’t know he was a cross country runner. And I went, they did some work. He came back from the run. He beat stretch Kyle. So he was cocky and kind of got the George w bush struck. He ran 7 20 miles for 4.5 miles. So he was pretty well engaged and excited. And I said, I remember saying to him,…
Read More: Andrew Card discusses what he experienced on 9/11