Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I am not sure everyone remembers where they were 13 years ago today, but most of us remember. The vast majority of us remember. Just a few feet from here in S-219 Senator Daschle had his usual Tuesday morning leadership meeting. I was assistant leader at the time. I was first to come into the room shortly before 9. About 9-- maybe a minute or two after--Senator John Breaux from Louisiana walked in and said: Flip on the TV. Something is going on in New York. And we flipped on the television. Something had happened in one of the towers, like an airplane had hit one of those towers. We said: What happened there? And we kind of looked at each other. People started coming into the room. The TV was turned off and the meeting was started. Just a short time thereafter--5, 6 minutes at the most, as I recall--someone came into the room and grabbed Senator Daschle, who was at the head of the table, took him out and came back in just a very brief minute and said: The building is being evacuated. We all have to leave. There is an airplane headed for the Capitol. As we left that room, we could look out and see already the smoke billowing from the Pentagon. The airplane had struck the Pentagon. Now that day was a day I will never forget--never forget. I was taken with Senator Daschle, Don Nickles, who was the Republican assistant leader, and Trent Lott, and we were flown to a classified location.…”