Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency Bush White House Chief

On Public Affairs in their entirety on our weekly series, reel america saturday at 10 00 p. M. And sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv. Next on the presidency, former chief of staff johnson you do offers insight into why cass responds to major events, such as the collapse of the soviet union and 9 11. He served under president george served and mr. Card under president george w. Bush. They compare father and son. I want to welcome you to knollwood farms. I am pleased to have governor in here. Tonight, were making history to learn about some of the interworking. Have been pundits and professors. There was a professor a couple months ago. He is the professor pushing back the dates of the pyramids and the sphinx about 10,000 years. There has been a famous writer by the name of Samuel Clemens and my father remembers that as andy he sat with other kids mark twain would read some of his latest work. Of course, most special of all, the white house connection was the 300 pound president. William howard taft secretary of house inury built the 1902. Visited,e times he they invited the whole town. Those days it was 600. The good president shook hands with 600 people. My grandfather was one of the guests. He brought along his 12yearold son, my father. Daddy bought the place. He bought literally a some. By theening is sponsored dublin area gop. We have a wonderful chairman that is full of energy and good ideas. Want to introduce her with great pride. We are the little engine that could. It is such a pleasure to share this evening with such great people like you guys. I am the chair of the republican committee. Thein is located in beautiful region of southern New Hampshire. We refer to ourselves as dagop, which is widely recognized in our party. We welcome you to our second fund reader fundraiser. All funds raised will go to our republican patriots running for office. As you can see, cspan considers tonight so important that they have decided to come up and videotape event for their programming. Young and growing organization. We may bene is, small, but we are mighty. Citizensrs are dynamic who generously give their time and talents in a fight to restore america to our foundational principles. Thank you. Recognized by our peers as setting the bar and committees and we welcome to talent and your participation on our team. Theuld like to introduce executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party to serve as the moderator. I know that we know who these gentlemen are. I will do a quick introduction. Governor sununu was a chief of during george w. Bushs administration. He was elected as the 75th governor of the state of New Hampshire, serving in that role from 1983 to 1989. Following his public service, he served as chairman of the party. Gop took back control of the legislature with super majorities. He holds a phd in mechanical engineering. Thank you for joining us. [applause] evening isuest this secretary andrew card. Prior to serving as white house chief of staff, he served as the 11th secretary of transportation. Sec. Card has worked in the reagan, bush 41 and 43 administration and following his at texas a mved university and is the fifth president of Franklin Pierce university up the road in New Hampshire. We will start off tonights discussion. To ask ay wants question, please flag me down and i will bring the makeover. But was ituestion, like to be chief of staff . Is a hard question to answer in an unemotional way, but i had the privilege of serving the president , George Herbert walker and i really considered him a close friend, certainly someone that i respected and cared for. I initially told him i did not want to go to washington, someone eventually persuaded me and my wife that it would be a good idea to try it. Me most interesting thing to was the process that the president undertook on all of his decisions. Listened,resident who a president i could discuss things with, sometimes not agreeing with him, but certainly someone who solicited opinions and tried to find all of the views before he firmed up and solidified his position. For me, it was an experience that i call the most fun i ever had in my life. Bewas a wonderful time to chief of staff. The world was changing before our eyes on a daily basis. Driven primarily by the astute leadership of George Herbert walker bush. Fun and fornating, me, one of the highlights that i constantly looking back on i constantly look back on. You do not apply to be the president s chief of staff. I was shocked when i was invited to be part of the staff, when he was asking me to be his chief of staff, i thought he was asking me to run his transition into government. A thursday morning before election day in 2000. He had asked me to do some things and i had breakfast with him. This . D, i have any to do i am talkingsaid, about the big one. That is the term that he used. I knew what he was talking about. Election night came and did not go away. , he formallying asked me to be his chief of staff and i was flattered. I think he asked me because i had served under every chief of staff that served Ronald Reagan and george h w but george w. Bush. Then he had done begin and , andd baker, then kenny then we changed president. I had the maybe it was not the privilege, but in honor to serve. 100 e way, this is substantiated. He is one of the most intelligent people i have ever met. He was remarkable to work with and i learned so much from him. Why george w. S bush asked me to be the chief of staff because i worked under so many fabulous chiefs of staff and i learned from all of them. Remember that television show, cheers . Was, a placeg where Everybody Knows your name. I wanted to be the opposite of that as chief of staff. I wanted to be a chief of staff where nobody knew my name. On september 11, 2001 with a picture of me whispering in the president s ear. I was a staffer in charge of the staff and allowing other people to be recognized for the job that they were doing. It was a great honor to serve. I grew up in a family where politics was not a dirty word. Suffragetteer was a. She said the most important word in the constitution was weak. It is our government. I was brought up to believe that if the president asked you to do something, you find a way to say yes. If the president needs you, say yes. I was privileged to be invited by three president s to serve at the white house. So when i was asked to be chief of staff, i said yes. Can you go through what it was like on 9 11 and some of the events that happened that day . It was a day that i guarantee all of you said that you would never forget, but unfortunately, if you are a High School Senior this year or a freshman in college, you were not born then. There are a lot of people in our society who do not know enough to remember. Please do not forget. Tell your children and grandchildren about it because it was a day that changed the world. The president woke up in sarasota, florida. I remember waking up very early the morning and reading president s daily brief, going and doingconomic data the next and bolts of the job. I went outside to check on the i also knew and that the president was getting ready to go for a run on the golf course. I was struck by the terrible stench. The red tide had killed fish and it stunk. Up toorning, after i got see what the advance team was doing to move the motorcade around, i was struck by the terrible stench in the air. I was worried the president might get sick, so i went and i might getpresident sick if he goes for a run. The doctor said no, he is tough. This will not bother him. Completelynt was preoccupied by something he had done a couple days for. He invited a reporter to go running with him on the golf he was ad found out former crosscountry runner. They are unbelievably competitive. They never let the grandkids beat them at horseshoes or checkers. George w. Bush was just as competitive. Thoughtonsumed with the. N he got back from the run as he was walking out to go for the run, i said, do not worry about the red tide venture. I checked with dr. And he will not get sick. He looked at me like, you are an idiot. That is all right. The run and heom was doing the strike. He was quite confident. He beat stretch kyle and he was full of himself. He could not wait to go to this elementary school. Asking ar two people hear aboutid anybody the plane crash in new york city . We drove to the school and the president went to a secured phone. I did not hear that conversation. I went into the classroom to see if it was set for the president. Standing at the door to the classroom was the president and the principal of the school. A woman said, it appears a small plane crashed into one of the trait trade towers in new york city. The president , the principal and i all had the same reaction. The door tol opened the classroom and she and the president walked into the classroom. As the door shut, the captain came up to me and said, it appears it was not a twinengine prop plane but a jetline. Was they must have known that the plane was not gaining altitude. The captaind later, came up to me and said, another plane hit the other tower of the World Trade Center. My mind flashed to three initials. I knew about the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1992 and i knew about al qaeda. That is where my mind went. I performed a test that we had to do a lot every day. Does the president need to know . No. Of the time, it is this was an easy test to pass. Yes, he needed to be told. Was sittinge underneath the microphone, where everything that was said could be picked up. I knew that he was sitting in front of second graders and a press pool. I decided to pass on the facts but not invite a dialogue. I opened the door and walked into the classroom. The teacher of the second graders was conducting a dialogue between the president and the students. Say good morning to the president. In the prospal and she saw me. It was particularly awkward for me to come in from backstage, up to the president. Looked at me and said the teacher told the students to take out their books and as they were reaching for their books, they were reaching under their desk for the books up and that is when i walked up to the president. And i whispered into his right here, a second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack. That is all i said to him. He did not say anything to me. I could see his head bobbing up and down. He did not turn to me. I went back to the door of the classroom and i can still see his head bobbing up and down. The students were particularly attentive to their books. The press pool was not looking at the president but the press secretary. I saw the principal of the school, the secretary of education and a white house staff working on education issues. They were mouthing, what is up . I opened the door to the command center and i said, get the fbi director on the phone. Get the crew back on air force one. Need to get out of this place. To the secret service, i said get ready to turn around and depart. I said, get some remarks written for the president. Anything that we do not know to be the truth. The president walked into the room and i did not realize he had taken about nine to 10 minutes to do so. I was pleased with how he reacted because he did nothing to introduce fear to those second graders. He did nothing to demonstrate fear to the media that would have translated it to the satisfaction of terrorists around the world, and he gave me a chance to get ready for him. Room. Ked into the staff the first thing he said was, get the fbi director on the phone. He had only been fbi director for 10 days. I went into the back of the room where the president would be addressing the crowd that had gathered. He stood in front of the crowd and he began his remarks saying he was going back to washington dc and i cringed because i did not think we were going back to washington dc. It was something the president had just said, but after the president gave his remarks, he did not declare war or anything like that. He just explained what was happening. We then drove to the airport. The president was frustrated and i was right behind him in the limousine. The pentagon had been hit. I got to plane in sarasota. I was struck how the engines on the plane were running. Pilot reallyat the wanted to get out of there. Thean up the gangplank and plane starts rolling. We took off at a steep incline and flew up to about 48,000 feet , in a serpentine way. I witnessed a president perform the responsibilities of a president. 11, 2001 on september is when george w. Bush realized what the real job of a president was. He gave his inaugural address, but the real job is living up to the oath of office. Thats a remarkable leader day and i have great confidence in what he did. That story. T tell your children and grandchildren. [applause] you both served as chiefs of staff during times of great change. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about your time in , something about the times changing. Tooks when george bush office as president of the u. S. , it was really a time of opportunity that had been established by the reagan and Bush Administration having we build our defense structure. Eight years earlier, when Ronald Reagan took office, the defense structure was in shambles. They had cut the budget over and over again and Ronald Reagan made it a high priority to make sure that the defense structure was back in a position where she could talk about it, peace through strength. When george bush took office, he he had seen the , who wasrom gorbachev running the soviet union at that time, that he had made an assessment that economically, they could not keep up with the newcomer returned military strength. George bush realized that here was an opportunity to try to take advantage of the reality that gorbachev was now aware of, tensions reduce the between the u. S. And the soviet union. Think president bush gets enough credit for what threeertook over the next to four years in dealing with this opportunity. Began by bringing people into find out exactly what was going on in the soviet union. In terms of the personalities there. We started the administration before inauguration with Henry Kissinger coming in. He was going to be going on a and theip pretty soon president wanted to hear what and to reallys ask kissinger to Pay Attention to a few things, to come back and report to him. He brought in members of experts inenators, the soviet union. Academics andwith trying to absorb as much as he could. I remember the thing that struck is the press started writing these obnoxious editorials that george bush did not understand the opportunity in front of him, that he was blowing the opportunity, that he was taking too long to act. The New York Times and Washington Post were the most egregious. Most but the process started with the president wanted to make a very strong proposal. That proposal turned out to be one in which he talked about a dramatically duction of u. S. Of naton europe as part , which would allow the soviet union to pull their forces out of Eastern Europe. The thing that struck me was how the president was constantly looking for information. In the Bush White House i served in, the most important meeting of the day was the meeting at president andvice we would need for about an hour and a half, starting with cia briefing about what was going on around the world. The president would come in and ask questions, always pointed at trying to get a sense of how far he could take this opportunity. When he put that proposal on the table. He had already spoken at length on the phone to margaret andcher, helmut kohl consulted with brian mulroney. He invited they, president of france to come to Walkers Point. He proposed it in one of those morning meetings, we looked at each other and kind of rolled our eyes because francoise was this classic european patrician for whom the information he of Walkers Point, we felt it would have been anathema. But george bush had hidden there. George bush treated him with the respect that the senior president , because he had been elected before, deserved. Allowing him to talk about the historic opportunity and historic lessons that he was giving to george bush started about 250 years and explained why europe was doing what europe , but he had ended up with a bad place with Ronald Reagan. What george bush was doing was rebuilding the relationship. When he left, he had his support as well. The proposals went great. Our european allies bought into them. Two of three things happened over the year, which were extremely significant. Polandone, we went to right after they had an election to change their legislative body and elected virtually all reformers. They had been allowed to have this election by gorbachev and it was a strange situation. The legislative body was now the new Freedom Group and the was at that time perceived to be the puppet of the soviet union. Me, this ise and to a classic George H W Bush. We had no idea how we were going to deal with this slight conflict in governance and poland. Answer was, lets have a lunch. He directed the ambassador to have a lunch. Sizes a room about this and we had invited some of the reformers. Members of the catholic church, who were very important in the transition. I was sitting at a table with about eight of us there. We started conversing and the gentleman across from he stood up and pointed his figure finger at the person who ran the police and poland and said, i do not know if you remember me, but you put me in prison. To his credit, the minister paused for a second and said, yes, but remember, i gave you a very good cell. [laughter] ,s he looked around the room the conversation started with a little bit of an edge and was drifting to a point where they all recognized that they were poles. The last thing i remembered where the people standing in a corner, talking about how they were going to come together to govern. The punchline of that part of the story is that a month later or two months later, he was reelected as president with his support. Bush bush, if you will, catalyzed that change in poland