With the president on 9/11
How former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card broke news of 9/11 to President George W. Bush
On September 11 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida as two planes hit the World Trade Center. In an image that would become iconic, the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, broke the news to the president by whispering in his ear as he listened to schoolchildren practising their reading. In interviews from 2011, Andrew Card recalls the moment that transformed President Bush’s presidency and the course of recent history.
PHOTO: President George W. Bush shortly after learning of the 9/11 attacks (AFP/Getty Images)
Last on
Broadcasts
- Fri 30 Oct 202008:50GMTBBC World Service
- Fri 30 Oct 202012:50GMTBBC World Service
- Fri 30 Oct 202018:50GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Fri 30 Oct 202023:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 31 Oct 202003:50GMTBBC World Service except Australasia
Featured in...
![]()
US presidential history—Witness History
Landmark moments in US presidential history told by the people who were there
Podcast
![]()
Witness History
The story of our times, told by the people who were there
