Jerry Lewis: “let me say it is really impressive that the gentleman has gotten this job accomplished in this length of time. It is…”

“let me say it is really impressive that the gentleman has gotten this job accomplished in this length of time. It is very important that Americans, and also people around the world know that America is standing together regarding that for which those brave men and women gave their lives. Indeed, they sacrificed themselves to make sure that further disaster did not take place on that day. The further irony is that the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, which handles national defense, was meeting that morning. We usually have our people meet about 9:30 for rolls and coffee, because we want them to be at the meeting at 10, but we were there early and witnessed these planes flying into the World Trade Center. None of us knew what was going on in Pennsylvania. Indeed, I am not sure that we would have gotten notice if the terrorists had been successful. They could have had, as their target, the White House, or they could have had the symbol of this country's freedom, the Capitol of the United States. If that was the case, we might very well have been struck. We abandoned our work and left the Capitol, as everybody else did. But, indeed, if the terrorists had been successful, we might not have had a chance. Literally, those brave men and women set the stage that day for the President of the United States to declare war on terrorism.”