Political Quotes

“I take this time to reflect on the incidents of the past year and to discuss the next phase of our war against terrorism and our war for homeland security. Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago on this day at 8:30 in the morning I was on the third floor of this building in the press gallery beginning a press conference with our colleagues from both sides of the aisle. We had assembled before the national media to call for support of a bill that I was introducing that day asking for an additional $6 billion of defense spending. That defense spending was to go specifically for readiness for our troops, for homeland security, and for the war against terrorism. The first plane hit; the second plane hit. The media had to stop the press conference, and by 9 o'clock we realized that we were going to have to vacate the building. The Sergeant at Arms called for vacating the Capitol, and we began the orderly process of descending from the third floor of this building to the parking lot. On the way out, I talked to our Sergeant at Arms. I said, What is happening? He said, There are at least two more planes in the air, and we feel one of them may be headed for the Capitol building. By the time we got to the parking lot and looked across Washington, off in the distance we could see the black smoke rising from the Pentagon. There was total chaos on Capitol Hill that day, Mr.…”