Jerry Nadler: “Yes. This was a bipartisan Commission that was appointed by the President after the President and the Vice President and…”

“Yes. This was a bipartisan Commission that was appointed by the President after the President and the Vice President and the Republican leadership in Congress continued to oppose its creation but eventually flip-flopped. Now, in fact, the House Republicans bowed to White House pressure in resisting creation of this Commission, and I quote the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss), who is now the President's nominee for Director of the CIA ironically. He stated, and he was quite honest, in the Baltimore Sun on June 14, 2002, I am very much aware that we have a good working relationship with the White House. Access to information is working well, he said, and I do not want anything to interfere with that. The White House is not interested in this Commission; hence, I am not for bringing the subject up. Then they bowed to pressure; they supported it. Finally in late 2002, after opposing it for a year, President Bush flip-flopped and finally agreed to support an independent investigation into the 9/11 attacks after the congressional committees that were looking into this unearthed more and more examples of intelligence lapses. But then, having been forced to accept the creation of the Commission, a bipartisan Commission, five members of either party headed by former Governor Kean, a Republican, and former ranking member Hamilton, a Democrat, they tried to stop the Commission's work.”