Andrew Card(I)

Former White House Chief of Staff for George W. Bush [2000-2006].

[on informing President George W. Bush that on 9/11]: While the president was reading to the students, the Navy captain who was the acting national security advisor on the trip came up to me and said, 'Oh my God, another plane hit the other tower.' I made a conscious decision to pass on two facts and make one editorial comment and to do nothing to invite a conversation because I assumed [Bush] was sitting under a boom microphone. I whispered into his ear, 'A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.' He did not turn around and talk to me, which I was pleased. I could tell he was thinking and thinking, and then I went back to the door, looked at him again, he was still - his head was kind of bobbing up and down.