Political Quotes

“Mr. President, it is difficult to come to the floor of the Senate on this anniversary of 9/11 and not reflect on your own experience. I was in the same room as the majority leader, Harry Reid, just a few steps from the Senate Chamber when we witnessed the second plane on television crashing into the World Trade Center and realized it was no accident, and then the black smoke billowing over the Mall from the Pentagon suggested we were under attack. As we evacuated this building and rushed outside, standing, the crowd around, not knowing which way to turn, was looking for a safe place to go. No one knew. Some tourists came up to me and said: We are new here. Where are we supposed to go next? There was no place to tell them to go. We knew Union Station was nearby and the Metro station not far away, but there was no other place to turn. I might add parenthetically that the decision was made shortly thereafter to build the Visitor Center. It took us years to do it. It is an underground facility which is safe and I am glad we have it. It has been used every single day and is an important addition to the Capitol. President George W. Bush faced that extraordinary challenge as Commander in Chief and President of the United States to deal with 9/ 11. There were some aspects of his response which I may have disagreed with, but I certainly commend him still for his leadership in that anxious moment after the tragedy of 9/11.…”