Harriet Miers, staff secretary: We were in Florida. The day couldn’t have been brighter, the surroundings were beautiful, everything was happy. You had little kids and the president was reading with them.

Ari Fleischer, press secretary: We were getting out of the motorcade at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota and I received a page. Back then there were no BlackBerrys, just an old-fashioned pager. It said, “World Trade Center has been hit by an airplane.” Like everybody, my first reaction was that it must have been some terrible accident.

Dan Bartlett, communications director: Bush said, “The weather must be bad up there or something.” I said, “No, it's a clear day.” He said, “Well, that doesn't make any sense.”

Ari Fleischer: He went into the schoolroom and was reading to the kids. I received a second page telling me the second tower had been hit, and I instantly knew it was terrorism.

I received a second page telling me the second tower had been hit, and I instantly knew it was terrorism.

When Andy Card whispered in the president’s right ear, “America's under attack—second tower's hit,” I was 15 feet over the president’s left ear. I had gotten the page moments before Andy came in. . . . I took my legal pad, where I take my notes, and I wrote on the back of it, “Don't say anything yet,” in big letters and maneuvered over, putting my back to the press and held it up. And Bush gave me a nod. I didn’t want him to say anything until he had had a proper briefing. The last thing you want is the president speaking without facts or more knowledge, especially now that it was terrorism.

I started to write what I thought President Bush should say, because he was going to go to the gymnasium, where he had been scheduled to give a big speech to everybody outside the classroom. … But I had a hard time writing it; nothing was coming to me. The president started to write, Dan started to write, and it was just cobbled together. It’s one of my regrets. I wish I could have done more that morning to have written something. Part of it, I guess, was that I was out of practice, maybe part of it was just the magnitude of the day.

But the president went to the gym and was talking basically off the cuff. He called [the terrorists] “those folks,” and his remarks, in many people’s eyes—I think deservedly so—weren’t terribly strong. That “those folks” line raised eyebrows about why he was so informal about it, and then he also said, “This will not stand,” which is what his father had said [after Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990]. At a time when people were still questioning whether Cheney was in charge and whether Bush was smart, for him to say what his father had said created more doubts in the minds of cynics. Can our president stand on his own two feet?

The president started to write, Dan started to write, and it was just cobbled together. It’s one of my regrets. I wish I could have done more that morning to have written something.

We went in the motorcade, [where] the president heard about the third plane hitting the Pentagon and went aboard Air Force One. Instead of going to my usual seat, I spent almost the entire day in the president’s cabin.

The first thing the president said when he got on board was to Eddie [Lorenzo], the lead Secret Service agent, “Are my wife and kids safe?”

Dan Bartlett: I remember we were taxiing down the runway. Again, typical procedure, it’s a pretty steep ascent, but this was a dramatic ascent into the air. Pretty quickly we bank west. And we’re headed not to Washington.

Ari Fleischer: On Air Force One back then, you didn’t have satellite TV. As we flew above major media markets, the TV would come in and go out. Over rural areas, it was totally out. It was remarkable how poor Air Force One’s communications turned out to be. . . .

He said, “We're at war, boys—that's what we get paid for,” and “They're not going to like me as president.” 

The phone was cutting out on occasion—again, bad communications. The president was talking to Rumsfeld. He said, “We're at war, boys—that's what we get paid for,” and “They're not going to like me as president.” I was at his side when he gave the order to go to DEFCON 3, which was the first time we had been at that level of readiness since the Yom Kippur War. . . .

At 10:32, he turned to the mil aide, who said they had just received a report saying, “Angel is next.” “Angel” is the code name, at least it was back then, for Air Force One. The report came to Bush, “Angel is next.” When we got aboard Air Force One, the word was that there were six unidentified aircraft that hadn’t responded to the order to land. The Secret Service believed there were still six missiles in the sky at a time when we were hearing there was a car bomb at the State Department, the Mall was on fire, a plane went down south of Pittsburgh, and six missiles—six airplanes—hadn’t responded. “Angel is next.” This was the environment in which we were operating. Much of it later turned out to be wrong, but I am a firsthand witness to what the president of the United States was hearing. This is what he was hearing.

The “Angel is next” report ended up being [an error]: Somebody said to somebody in the Situation Room that they had some type of report [that] Air Force One was next. . . . The Sit Room then passed it to the bunker, . . . and they changed the phrase “Air Force One” to “Angel,” speaking code-speak. The report that originally came in did not use the word “Angel,” but in using the word “Angel” [from there] it made people fear it could be an inside job. The Air Force actually posted its own guy at the bottom of the [cockpit] stairs, who wasn’t going to let anybody up to the cockpit in case there was an inside job on Air Force One.

“Angel is next.” This was the environment in which we were operating. Much of it later turned out to be wrong, but I am a firsthand witness to what the president of the United States was hearing. This is what he was hearing.

The Secret Service said it wasn’t safe to return to Washington. Bush wanted to return. There was a bit of an argument going on about whether it was safe enough or not. Andy Card, the mil aide, and the Secret Service agent would leave the president’s office to go into the president’s bedroom, adjoining, and hash out these things. They all agreed he couldn’t go back to Washington. He just couldn’t. One of the president’s quotes was, “I don't want some tinhorn terrorist keeping me out of Washington. The American people want to know where their dang president is.”

We only had sufficient fuel to come back to Washington and not a whole lot farther. We needed to top off and get Air Force One totally full of fuel because we didn’t know how long we’d be up in the air, or where to go. . . . The decision was made then to go to Barksdale Air Force Base [in Louisiana].

Dan Bartlett: We get fighter-aircraft escorts. There was a misreport about the ranch being a target. The president is trying to track down his parents, his daughters, and his wife. It’s a pretty hectic swirling activity on Air Force One.

One of the president’s quotes was, “I don't want some tinhorn terrorist keeping me out of Washington. The American people want to know where their dang president is.”

Q: You’re one of the few people on the planet who can shed light on what George W. Bush seemed like at this point.

Ari Fleischer: Just steady. No emotions.

Dan Bartlett: The president really was the calm at the eye of the storm.

Ari Fleischer: We flew out to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. Offutt was chosen because it’s kind of like the movie WarGames—incredible communications facilities where the president could convene a secure video teleconference with anybody around the world, many different places all at one time, and was an ultra-secure facility. We landed at Offutt and Air Force One taxied up. I’ll never forget this: as we pulled up, right next to us was the “Doomsday Plane.”

We walked off the plane and I brought my overnight bag with me, thinking we might spend the night here. Who knew? There was this little brick outhouse, kind of, not very big, 10 feet by 10 feet with a door, and that’s what we went into. Down. Down. Down. Down. Down. Deep into the earth.

At Offutt, that’s the first time that he is truly able to convene what is now being viewed almost like a war cabinet.

And then—whoosh. We were in something like a WarGames movie set and the president went into one side of it to convene a meeting of the National Security Council. Only Andy [Card] went in with him. Karl, Dan, and I stayed out. I was able to watch TV at that time. I saw Karen do her news conference that day. I don’t even remember how long we were down there. An hour? I don’t remember.

Dan Bartlett: At Offutt, that’s the first time that he is truly able to convene what is now being viewed almost like a war cabinet.

Josh Bolten, deputy White House chief of staff: At that point we were able to get on the secure video screen. I think I and many others were in more of a stunned state than anything else, managing our different roles but not really fully comprehending what had happened and what it meant for the country.

The president seemed to get that right away. The very first thing he said when he got on both that conference call and later a conference call with the relevant members of the cabinet and the FBI director and stuff like that was that he had a pretty clear sense that everything had changed, that the United States was now entering a war that was likely to be a protracted struggle against a grave threat to the homeland. …

The very first thing he said when he got on both that conference call and later a conference call with the relevant members of the cabinet and the FBI director and stuff like that was that he had a pretty clear sense that everything had changed, that the United States was now entering a war that was likely to be a protracted struggle against a grave threat to the homeland.

He addressed [FBI director] Bob Mueller directly and said, “Your job has now changed. You're not trying to catch people after they do bad things; your job is now to catch them before.” . . . You almost saw the president physically get bigger and more serious and more determined, because I think he knew—he knew instinctively and very quickly that he was going to be a different kind of president.

Q: So how is the decision made that he is going back to Washington?

Dan Bartlett: They had the opportunity to finally get everybody together at Offutt, got the review from the secretary of transportation and the FAA that the US airspace is under control under the command of the military. Once that was determined, that was the big turning point to say yes.

We got back to the White House. It was probably one of the more surreal images I’ve ever seen, coming into DC airspace with two F-16s on each side of Air Force One. He was so close. There’s a picture. We’re all looking out the window and the pilot’s giving the president the thumbs up. The president salutes him. You pull into DC airspace, and it’s abandoned. There is no one except for the emergency personnel around the Pentagon. Smoke is billowing out of the Pentagon. You think, In America, in 2001? How? It looked like a movie. I could not believe it.

You pull into DC airspace, and it’s abandoned. There is no one except for the emergency personnel around the Pentagon. Smoke is billowing out of the Pentagon. You think, In America, in 2001? How? It looked like a movie. I could not believe it.

Ari Fleischer: The helicopter banked right to land on the South Lawn and the Pentagon came clearly into view. The president was in the front left of the helicopter. I was on a bench right across from him. Just then the president said out loud, “The mightiest building in the world is on fire. That's the face of war in the 21st century.”

John Howard, deputy congressional liaison: I remember going back in the White House that night, and it was really eerie because we were the only ones there for the most part. I remember Karen [Hughes] was walking around yelling out, “Hello? Is anybody here?”

Ari Fleischer: Then the president addressed the nation and I walked with him to the PEOC, but I didn’t go into the meeting at the PEOC. That was now the national-security team. But what I do remember, I still can’t believe this, but I remember: The Secret Service agents are armed with their regular guns, but there are places throughout the White House where they have long rifles set up. If they need them, they grab them. And leaning against the wall was a long rifle. It was just there, in the safest spot, the bunker underneath the White House. The Secret Service was so trigger-ready, in case. . . . In case of who knew what?

Just then the president said out loud, “The mightiest building in the world is on fire. That's the face of war in the 21st century.”

We were all told that there would be a second wave, and you saw the people whose job it was to protect the president doubled at all their posts. You saw weapons out when you had never before seen weapons out. You saw the perimeter of the White House pushed back to the other side of Lafayette Park. E Street on the south side of the White House was closed. It remains closed. Physically, things changed. Emotionally, things changed. Everything changed.

Excerpted from Inside the George W. Bush White House: An Oral History published by Oxford University Press ©2026