07th Sep 2005
Recalling Bush Meltdown at Post-September 11 Press Briefing
Reading accounts of the Katrina disaster, I’ve seen several articles make a comparison to how brave and commanding President Bush was after the terror attacks of September 11th 2001 in contrast to how absent he was for days after the Katrina disaster. This baffles me, because my impression of Bush in the immediate aftermath of September 11th is that he was a complete wreck.
In particular, I vividly remember one press conference, when I was glued to the TV for days after that event, where Bush, quite soon after the attack (the 11th, the 12th, the 13th, somewhere around there) was unnerved that he could barely form sentences (far worse than usual), and at one point he simply stared off into space for what seemed like a minute or two, nominally in response to a question, as if he were re-reading My Pet Goat in his mind.
Finally, he just lost his shit and with tears clearly in his eyes suddenly fled the stage in mid-conference, simply unable to deal with it.
In the years since, I’ve Googled my heart out trying to find evidence of that event again, to no avail. In particular before the 2004 election I thought if I could find the video clip of it, it might really have an impact. I failed in that mission, and the rest is sad, sad history.
I’m just wondering if anyone else out there remembers this incident. Better yet, do you have details like the exact date, the transcript or (I quiver at the thought) a video clip? Needless to say, the WhiteHouse.gov press archive for September 2001 fails to note anything about “President blubbers like a baby at press conference.”
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