Today marks the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. And we should never forget how another Republican president failed to heed warnings about an imminent deadly threat to the U.S. and take decisive actions to protect the country.
“Bin Ladin determined to strike in US” — that was the title of the President’s Daily Brief given to George W. Bush by the CIA on Aug. 6, 2001, while he was vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
The PDB warned of terrorism threats from Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, including “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for a hijacking” of U.S. aircraft.
This followed several reports issued earlier in 2001 by CIA analysts warning of imminent attacks by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, which were questioned by both Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Bush later acknowledged that bin Laden was not a central focus of his administration in the months before 9/11. "I was not on point," he said in an interview for a book by Bob Woodward. "I didn't feel that sense of urgency."
At an April 14, 2004, news conference — a year after the invasion of Iraq — Bush said: “We knew (Osama bin Laden) hated us. But there was nobody in our government at least — and I don't think the prior government — could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale.”
Later at that news conference, Bush said: “Had I had any inkling whatsoever that the people were going to fly airplanes into buildings we would have moved heaven and earth to save the country.”
Two years earlier, when Bill Clinton was president and Al Gore was vice president, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) conducted a training exercise in which it simulated a civilian airliner being hijacked and used as a missile to crash into buildings in the U.S., including the World Trade Center. In October 2000, the Defense Department held exercises simulating a plane crashing into the Pentagon.
The parallels are striking in the failed responses of these two Republican presidents to a deadly threat to the country. But tragically under Trump, every few days, more Americans are dying of COVID-19 than died on 9/11.
Just imagine how many lives would have been saved had the popular vote winners in the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections — Al Gore and Hillary Clinton — been elected. Let’s not make the same mistake again this November. That’s why I’m With Joe.