What the M
What the M
Episode 70 - Brian D. Montgomery
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In this special episode of “What the M,” Steve and Kent are honored to welcome Brian D. Montgomery as a guest. While Brian is well-known throughout the mortgage default servicing industry for his distinguished career in housing finance and public service, he also has a unique firsthand perspective on one of the most consequential days in American history: as the Director of Presidential Advance, he was traveling aboard Air Force One with President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001. For the 25th anniversary of that fateful day, Brian was kind enough to visit with us and answer questions about the events, the aftermath, and the moments he most vividly remembers.
Brian D. Montgomery is a former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and two-time Federal Housing Commissioner. He served in senior leadership roles under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, becoming the only person to lead the Federal Housing Administration twice. As Director of Presidential Advance, Montgomery traveled extensively with President George W. Bush and, in addition to being aboard Air Force One with the President on September 11, 2001, he helped coordinate presidential events and logistics in the days that followed, including visits to the Pentagon and Ground Zero. He later received the September 11 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for his service. With more than 30 years of experience in government and housing finance, Montgomery has played a significant role in housing policy, mortgage finance, disaster recovery, and regulatory reform.
We are honored to welcome Brian to the podcast.
Hi, this is Steven Laddock. And I'm Kent McPhail. Welcome to What The M, the podcast about the mortgage default servicing industry.
SPEAKER_01What the M is a bi-weekly podcast with episodes dropping every other Monday. Welcome everybody. This is Kent McPhail, co-host of What the M podcast with my fellow co-host, Mr. Stephen Laddock. How are you today, sir? Couldn't be any better.
SPEAKER_02Kent's great to be here. We're down in Dallas for the Five Star Conference. It's nice and nice and warm outside in Texas, I've learned. Uh what is it, over a hundred again today? But it's great to be here. Great event. And uh we're just really happy to be able to present a very special episode today.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's definitely very toasty down here, and I love it because we get to see a lot of our industry friends and very important individuals, and it's always a good time to reconnect, you know, on the personal side and the professional side. But um, as Steve said, we do have a very, very special guest today on a very important seminal topic. Uh Steve, you want to introduce our guest on the show? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02We are thrilled today to have with us Mr. Brian Montgomery, who many of you, and all our listeners in the industry know who Brian Montgomery is and how much he's been for decades now, just uh part of our government, part of our industry, and totally, totally revamping and modernizing and doing so much at HUD that you've done. But a lot of people might not realize that Brian was right there for a first, firsthand seat and view of 9-11. And that's what makes this episode special, is that we are coming up on Friday, 9-11 will be the 25th anniversary of that day. And I know, like everyone out there, that's one day in your life that you always remember right where you were. Mine wasn't exciting as as Brian's was. I was in the car and I turned on the news radio to find out if the Yankees had won that night because they were on the West Coast. And I turned on the station, and then all of a sudden I started getting this news about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. And I was like, what is going on here? And I grew up about 20, 25 miles from New York City, and my parents still lived in in our town, very close to the city. And I called my dad from the car and I was like, What's going on? And my father being so typical of my father, he goes, What do you mean? I'm just sitting here reading a book. And I'm like, put on the news, turn on the TV. And he was just like, Oh my God, when he when he put the TV on. And uh while we were talking, I could hear the uh fire sirens going off from my town of our trucks leaving. And there's actually uh at least four or five people from our town that were in the Trade Center that day didn't make it out. So it's uh it's quite a day, and we have a great show. I do have to tell my favorite Brian Montgomery story. Uh, my favorite one you've heard we've probably heard me tell this one before, and I've told it a million times. So we'll start with a little levity is that a number of years ago at this conference, the band Styx was playing. And I happened to be standing on the side of the stage with a group of people, and Brian was standing right in front of us. And Styx finishes this song, and Brian just took turns around and looks at us and with a straight face, he says, These guys rock.
SPEAKER_00So they did. I think they they killed it despite their you know their advancing age.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was entertaining. So people thank you for being with us and in all seriousness.
SPEAKER_02Glad to be here. Good. We really appreciate you taking the time because we know how busy you are and how much you're going on.
SPEAKER_00It's an important topic. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02So let's jump right in. As you were the director of presidential advance under George Bush back in 2001. So your office was responsible for planning presidential events outside the White House, including the vis uh the visit to Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, which was taking place on the morning of September 11th. Take us back to that morning. What do you remember and what were you first told? You know, and we were told a plane it struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, absolutely. Again, thank you for uh having me here today. So just a little background. I worked in the uh Office of Presidential Advance for George, uh President George Herbert Walker Bush. And uh, of course, we lost and and Bill Clinton took over and I moved back to Texas. Little did we know, eight years later, of his son would be running for president. So when he was elected, I'd worked on his campaign and to get back in the advance business that I'd gotten out of and uh ran his advance office during the campaign. And when he selected presidents sworn in, they said, you know, the president wants you to run the advance office. So some people maybe say, well, what is advance? So the Office of Presidential Advance is responsible for every presidential event outside of the White House. If it's, you know, you're throwing out a first pitch, you're touring a factory, you're going overseas, uh, you're doing domestic policy events, advanced plans is we send out a team of five or six people, more if it's an international trip. They go a week out, there's a Secret Service team, White House Communications Agency, and we essentially put the event together. Well, that's exactly what we did in um in Florida. The night of the during the day on September the 10th, we'd been in Jacksonville, Florida, to an event of what was going to be Bush's sort of signature domestic policy event, which is No Child Left Behind, which is education reform. And as you recall, his younger brother Jeff was governor, and he was equally invested in education at that level. So we did an event in Jacksonville, and then we flew over to Sarasota, the other side of the state, and spent the night there at this really sort of be brutally honest, kind of a crummy resort that's since been since been torn down in Sarasota. But so we get up the next morning, and it's not unlike any morning on the road of the president of the United States. You know, we got the motorcade lined up and Secret Service ready, go, and we take off for the um for the school, Emma Booker Elementary School, which is um it's about a 15-20-minute motorcade. So we're slowing down as we get closer to the school. Presidential motorcades tend to be pretty long. And I I always rode in the front seat of what was called uh control. And um someone from the White House communications shop was Dan Bartlett was sitting behind me. It was a van that time, and he leaned forward, he goes, A plane just at the World Trade Center. If he's on the phone with someone back at the White House, I said, What? He goes, A plane just hit the World Trade Center. And I immediately thought, you know, I'm not a pilot, although I took ground school years ago. I said, planes don't just fly out of the World Trade Center. Um I immediately thought something bad. As it turned out, or anything as it turned out. So we slow down and hop out of the motorcade and run up toward the limo, and the head of the White House Military Office, who was a friend of mine, General Mark Rosenker, said, Did you hear what's going on in New York? And I said, Yeah. He goes, It's bad. And I went, he said, Dr. Rice is holding on the phone in the in the uh holding room. So everywhere the president goes, they have what's called a holding room, has a secure telephone and some privacy. So the president, you know, before they do an event, go over their notes one more time. And I'll admit it's pretty rare they have to get on a secure phone in the holding room. Well, this was that gonna be that kind of morning. So the president got out of the limo, greeted the principal, and there was a handful of students there. And the the school's kind of open air. The halls, there's not halls per se, there's like a cluster of buildings. So you're walking outside a lot, going from sort of building to building. So we're actually standing out on this covered sidewalk outside of the room, his holding room. So he finishes the greeting. No one from the school had any idea what was going on up in New York. So we go into the holding room, he gets on the phone with Condoleezza Rice, who at the time was his national security advisor. And she later became Secretary of State. And we had two mill aides with us, you know, the military aides who carried the football, because we had brought the one with us from Jacksonville on the plane, and he stayed with us that night. So by luck, we had the Marine Corps military aid and the Air Force military, we had two of them. And uh, and we had extra White House medical unit personnel. And um so we're in the holding room, he's talking to Dr. Rice, Secret Services says, you know, to state the obvious, we gotta get out of here. I said, you know, look, you know, we've got people outside figuring out what's going on, um, looking up in the skies. And um I said, Well, look, you know, we we have to do these two events. You know, there's a room full of press on the other side of this wall. They know what's going on. And we had asked someone from what was called WACA White House Communications Agency to go find a television. So it it it it it wasn't funny at the time, but I just remember when I was a little kid, they had the A V cards with a big box TV. That's what he rolled in. I'm thinking 40 years later, they're still using this. Well, it turned out that was helpful because it had antennas, rabbit ears, and we we could get a signal, and literally seconds later, the second plane is the other tower. Now, the president had already gone into the to the classroom, and we're all watching that. And the event started, the the kids were reading to him. A lot of people always say, Well, Bush is reading to them. No, they were actually reading to him. And Andy Carr, who normally didn't travel with us, he was traveling with us that day, uh, just says, That's it. That's it. I gotta go tell the president. So he walks over there toward the door, and I just I told him, I said, if you go through that door, you're gonna be on on camera. And he he just looked at me, he didn't say a word. And uh he walked in there and walked over the president, leaned forward and said, second plane, it's at the other tower, America's under attack. So meanwhile, we're in the holding room, and uh Ari Fleischer is writing out a statement because we were gonna do a second component to the visit to go talk about education reform in the auditorium that was full of teachers, students, faculty, some parents, but a lot of press. We just had a small press bull in the classroom. And um so we we we we finished that. He comes back into the classroom after he sat there. Ari flies her hands on the statement. I mean, literally Ari's writing it out over the course of five minutes. And uh so we we headed over to the auditorium, which I don't think they were aware of what was going on up in the sitting there waiting.
SPEAKER_02Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00No, especially elementary school. And uh so Bush basically says there's been a terrorist attack in New York. And I remember there were some kids, students sitting near where I was standing, and they just looked like they got this like shock look on their face. I just realized, oh my god, we just scared these kids with uh I didn't mean to, but so Secret Service is like, all right, we gotta get out of here. So we headed toward the motorcade and uh we were flying down the highway. It was about 15 minutes to the airport. We get out there, the engines are already revving, and uh we barely had time to get up in the plane. They pulled the stairs back, buttoned it up, and we're rolling. We're not even on our seats yet. So when we we we took off, we took off almost like an F-18. I mean, 747, but we went pretty pretty steep pretty fast, and uh that's when we uh started heading toward points unknown at that point.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're just in the air at that point. So, Brian, once Air Force One departed Florida, did you know where you were going or at what point did you understand the president was not immediately returning to Washington? Can you walk walk us through that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so you know, there's a series of uh small meetings occurring between different groups and then a larger conversation with the president. And the president, as we know, and I saw it firsthand that morning, he wanted to get back to Washington, D.C. immediately. And Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney and Chief of Staff Andy Card both said, we it's too early, as did the Secret Service. We can't get back to Washington, D.C. we yeah, we need more visibility to what's going on. Because remember, while we were at the school, the Pentagon was was hit. That's right. And um and then there's in reports that Cam David was hit, and you know, which of course turned out to be false. And um so there's there's contingencies for a lot of different scenarios involving catastrophes. The worst being, of course, you know, nuclear war. So there's various sites around the country. Some of them, as we turned out, over the next two years when they modernized some of them, they were like extremely outdated. Like some of them had phone books on them, but some of them had rotary phones. Um but the decision was made, let's go to a a strategic a sac base, because there will be nuclear weapons there, and a lot of security. So we kind of meandered our way over there for one. There was still a Continental Airlines then, and they had some for some reason or other turned off their transponder. And we were we were you know, we were worried someone may try to fly into us, and uh so we we uh landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreeport, and um they barely had time to prepare for us. I mean, there's a couple of Ford L T Ds with U.S. Army and a Humvee and uh a van for the press. Because, you know, we we by the way, there were some people we left behind in Florida, including the Secretary of Education uh Paige, because he he's in the line of secession for the presidency. Oh my goodness. So we couldn't have him with us. And we she totally understood. And um so we land in Mark Rosenker, the the head of the White House military office that we call WAMO for short. He and I go off the back of the stairs, the back stairs first. We run around to the front. The president hasn't come down the stairs yet. And uh the base commander, you know, he reminded me, have you ever seen the movie Doctor Strange Love? He kind of reminded me of the of the George C. Scott character, Buck Turgison, I think. And he kind of looked like central casting. And he goes, Who's in charge? And I said, Well, you know, the president. He goes, and there's a bunch of B-52s sitting out there and their engines are running. And I'm thinking, wow. Uh he goes, You see those airplanes? You say, Yeah, he goes, every one of them is loaded with nukes. Just tell me where you want them. Oh my he said that to me and Mark. I'm going, well, that's not really our decision. I said, that's you can tell it to him. And of course, he ran over there to greet President Bush. He was coming down the stairs. I saw him, talk to him and point to all the points. I thought, uh, as it turned out, there was a a um rehearsal, if you will, called Global Guardian, where they had all the United States strategic nuclear forces on alert. It was a drill. It just happened to be that morning, which is why all the B-52s were sitting there with the engines running. So we go over to the base commander's uh office, and Andy Card said, call your loved ones, don't tell them where you are. Of course, you know, like had answering machines everywhere. And uh, because I knew my parents would be freaking out, which I found out later they were. And um, so we didn't stay there long. And um we we got airborne again, and again, President Bush was saying I want to get back to DC, but instead we headed toward uh Stratcom, which is at uh Offit Air Force Base in Nebraska.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, a couple of things, yeah. I actually had a fraternity brother that was on the ground at the base in Shreveport when you all landed, which is kind of a strange, strange incident, isn't it? That he was there, and then you left there and you're in Nebraska. Uh, but let's talk about when you get to to Nebraska. I mean, uh what do you remember about the scene at StratCom and the decision to bring the president there? And at what point do you make the decision to go back to Washington then?
SPEAKER_00So we we we land uh one interesting thing about as we were landing at StratCom, Air Force One didn't yet have direct TV. See, the only time we could pick up a signal was flying over a populated area, and for maybe 20, 30 seconds we could get a TV signal. Now, even though we couldn't get a TV signal, we have full interoperability, full connectivity with the operators on the plane in the in the sit room back at the White House. We completely knew what was going on. But so we're landing at StratCom, and we could pick up a TV signal on the locals, local CVS affiliate, and we're we're looking and it's showing Air Force One landing live on TV. It's like, well, so much for secrecy. So as it turned out, we're just speculating that okay, 9-11 happens, you're a TV reporter in Omaha. What's the perfect backdrop for your live report? You're gonna go to StratCom and park by the gate and have it behind you and report from there. That's what I would have done. And apparently that's what they did. And to this day, I tell myself, I'd love to find the cameraman that all of a sudden realized holy cow, that's Air Force One's landing here. Um so they had obviously more time to prepare for us. They had put together a better motorcade. Still no limo, no armored limo, but we're on a heavily guarded base. But every 15 feet there was an airman with full weapons, you know, hundreds of them lined our route to the to the to the base headquarters. So we we pull up to the headquarters building, and at the time the commander of it, it rotates, was actually a Navy Admiral. And uh so we hop out of the motorcade, we start heading toward this four or five-story office building. He says, No, no, no, go this way. So we go the opposite direction, and there's this concrete building about the size of a bedroom at a house, and uh, it's the fire escape for what's underground. So we go in the fire escape, because there's you know, uh even though we had shrunk the footprint, we're still still quite a few of us, 20 or 25 of us. And we go down and down and down and down. And I remember getting to the bottom asking somebody, I said, You do have an elevator here. So we go to the, you know, I'll just call it the war room, and the doors open up. I I briefly stepped in with President Bush. I wasn't gonna be part of that briefing, didn't need to be. And uh I just remember looking around going, How in the hell did I end up here today? Just we're supposed to be in a classroom. We're supposed to be in Sarasota wrapping up an education event, and I'm in the war room at Stratcom and off at Air Force Base. So I stepped back out of the room, and the public affairs officer said, Do you think y'all gonna need to talk to the nation from here? I'm thinking, well, that's a good question. I don't know. He goes, Well, let me show you our operation. And I'm thinking, well, is it far? He goes, I don't know, it's just right around the corner. And yeah, we're way underground here. But it's you wouldn't know it. It's like a bustling city almost. So he takes us around behind the war room, if you will, and it looks like the set of Good Morning America almost. Wow. Blue backdrop, lights, TV cameras, presidential podium. He goes, We got everything you need here. If he needs to go live from here. So meanwhile, the president came out of that and gone to another room. And you've seen the photo, but it literally Condoleez arise. It's what's called a civic secure video teleconference. And there's 15, 20 squares of people on this massive screen, about half the size of this wall. And again, I didn't need to be in there for that. So I stepped outside about 20, 25 minutes later. So they had just real quick, they had uh they had stocked the airplane just in case. And there's been some articles about that. And you know, they had radioed in for like a hundred pounds of bananas and apples and oranges and lunch meat and bread and water and because you know Air Force One can be re mid-air refueled, and they've done it, but they've never done it with a president on board. Interesting. And uh so you know we we stocked the plane up just in case, and uh we had started heading back to Washington, DC, and we had these F-16s escort us almost the whole way, one off each wing.
SPEAKER_02What what time of the day are we at now?
SPEAKER_00So we're we're um 233. Okay. Because when we landed at Andrews at 6.40 Eastern time. I think it was about a three-hour flight from Omaha. And earlier because we did an overnight, we had the gentleman from the CIA who does what's called the PDB, President's Daily Brief. And he's been on several interviews on several channels talking about that day. And he went later went on to be the deputy director of the CIA. Interesting. And his name is Mike Morrell. I said, Mike, who did this? He goes, UBL. And I said, UBL? He goes, Usama Bin Laden. I said, Well, I'm thinking Osama. He goes, no, it's Usama, UBL. I said, you're that's her. He goes, a hundred percent. Okay. Now later he's done some 21 called The Hunt for Bin Laden on Netflix that came out early this year. And he talks pretty openly about how CIA failed and did a fine. Um and that's not a knock on Mike. Mike's a good man. But I just remember him just being so certain that it was Osama Bin Laden.
SPEAKER_01Well, let me ask let me ask you a question because I understand that when you were on your way back to Andrews, that one of the physicians on the plane did interviews with everybody that was on the plane. And what was that about? And and when it was happening, what did you think it was about?
SPEAKER_00So Dr. Richard Tubb, uh who was a major then, when he retired, he was a general, great guy. We all called him, you know, Tubby. And uh I could see him going around to each staff person, because I'm in the staff area. And he'd sit down with them, kind of lean in, talk to them, maybe kind of put his hand on their arm, take some notes, and then handing them a little packet, a little like vanilla-colored little envelope. And um he'd hand it to them and and then he'd get up and walk over to the next person. So he finally makes his way over to me. He goes, Monty, how you feel? I said, Well, other than the obvious, you know, I feel okay. He goes, any um pains, uh any fever, any nausea or anything? I said, No. He goes, Are you allergic to any any antibiotics? I said, I said, I'm allergic to penicillin. He goes, Oh, okay, he's writing it down. He said, Have you ever taken Cipro? I go, not only have I never taken it, I've never heard of it. I said, Well, for what's it for? He says, Well, there could have been some biological agent at the school, we just don't know. Like anthrax. And I said, So why are we taking this? He goes, Well, in case there was anthrax. And I remember thinking to myself, when I talk to my parents tonight, I'll probably leave that out. And it just fast forward when we all met for Thanksgiving and I told them the whole story of Thanksgiving. I saw in one other thing, and I told them about the anthrax. My mom got mad. Why didn't you tell us? I said, Well, mom, I didn't know. And I didn't want to say, Hey, mom, I may have been exposed to anthrax. Have a good day. Talk to you later. So I waited until we were way out of the woods on that one before I told them. And um mom's getting worried. Yeah, mom's worried. Uh may she rest in peace. Um, but uh, you know, and by the way, I had we we had these little schedules called minis that were about this size, and it was the president's schedule for the day. We could stick them in our pockets. So I had made notes. Ari Fleischer got love of them. He took literally like recording almost every other minute. And um I wasn't that thorough, but I just made some notes and stuff, like the conversation with Mike Burrell. And I later had to give the notes to the 9-11 Commission, and they wanted the original, and then they eventually gave it back. But uh so I remember I wrote down 6 40 p.m. wheels down, Andrews. And normally the the president back then if we had two helicopters with lift to go to the White House, one of which was a decoy. The it's they upped it to three, and they still do three. And but this time do I I didn't know that. Yeah, and you'll see them approach the White House and they do this sort of ballet and then two peel off. And the one with the president keeps going to the South Lawn. Interesting. And uh, but this time we all loaded up in helicopters, except the South Lawn only accommodate one helicopter at a time. So we landed at the 11th. So we had never done that before. You know, you didn't know that. Yeah, and I mean coming in on a staff helicopter like that, and we land, we go into the White House, and of course it's bustling with activity, but there was army Marines, you know, Humbees, soldiers everywhere, just you know, around the White House. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, tomorrow's things gonna be completely different from here on out.
SPEAKER_01That's right. So, Brian, it's my understanding that you led a survey of the Pentagon craft site on the morning of September 12th, ahead of President Bush's visit that afternoon. Uh could you tell our listeners what did you see when you were running what do you remember most vividly about that morning?
SPEAKER_00The night before we got back to the White House, of course, President Bush addressed the nation that night. And then we all stayed there late. And uh but I I did go home. I'd managed to get two, maybe three hours of sleep. I was back at the White House about 5:30. And about 6:30, my boss at the time called me up and says the president wants to get over to the Pentagon. But before we do that, you need to get some Secret Service agents, White House Communications, and go over there and do a site survey. And we and we knew, I knew that that call was was coming. I knew if I was the president, I'd want to get over to the Pentagon. And um so we get Carpet, that's the White House motor pool, and call Secret Service and said meet on West Executive in about five minutes. And they were like, I mean, they knew it was going to be crazy the next few days, a few months, a few years. And um so we get it, we get a team together, it's about 10 or 12 of us, head over to the Pentagon. Of course, you know, they had we all have complete identification. They knew we were coming, but they weren't taking any chances of running bomb dogs all over the all over the vehicle. That's fine. We we totally understood that. So we entered on the on the east side of the Pentagon, which is called the River Road entrance, and we went to the Secretary's office, Secretary Rumsfeld. Now he wasn't there. He was at a you know soon to be the new term, undisclosed location. So the chief of staff, Larry DeRita, good, good, great, great guy, works at a Bank of America, I believe. Um, he was Rumsfeld Chief of Staff, he and a few others were there to meet us. And we met in the secretary's office, even though he wasn't there. And they were describing to us, you know, the previous day. The building shook, and everybody looked at each other like, what the hell was that? And uh so he said, What that president coming over? I said, I don't know yet. It's gonna depend on what I see on the other side of the building. So they didn't go with us, but they they sent one person with us. So we load back up, we're driving over to the other side of the Pentagon with a plane crashed. And I just remember thinking, I'm I'm just kind of running on adrenaline thinking, you know, this is a place a plane crashed. You know, there's a lot of fatalities, and I just kind of put it out of my mind, I don't know what to expect. So we we pull over there, and there's tents everywhere, people everywhere, firemen and hazmat suits, medical personnel, and uh and I just remember you know there's signs they put on these tents, they'd worked all night. Hazmat clergy, morgue, you know, provisions, just it's like a little city built overnight. So Secret Service walk around. I mean, there it's it's an horrific site, but in terms of planning stuff, it's like, you know, look, we're just gonna, this is gonna be an audible. Because we'll pull the motor, the motor limo up over here, it'll stay there, and then we're gonna leave from there. And I said, well, we'll walk the president toward the cross site, which is literally 75 feet from where I'm standing. The smell, you asked me when I remember, it was the smell, and uh, and and I said I could guarantee he's gonna want to shake hands. And uh so you know we're we're we're looking at there's I remember there's FBI agents everywhere picking up debris, putting them in these plastic bags, tagging them. There's probably 15 or 20 of them. There might have been 50. I just, you know, so in some ways it was kind of like a blur because there's just this is a situation you normally not thrust into, the plane crash. And uh, with 184 people killed. And uh so this FBI older guy comes over to me, he goes, So uh uh are are you the guy in charge of the president's visit? I says, Yeah. He says, Well, when's he coming? And I said, I don't know yet. He kind of looked well, he says, Well, um, he says, Well, I said, Well, is there something you need? Just, you know, tell me. He says, Yeah. He said, Well, you see that crane? And he pointed to it. I said, Yeah, he goes, We're gonna probably knock that wall down there. And I said, Okay. And he goes, and I don't think the president should see what's behind it.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_00And I said, Okay. I said, what do you need? I said, I mean, at that point, when I go back to the White House, I knew if I told them that, they would say, okay, we'll go later. He goes, I can you give me three hours? I said, I'll give you four. He goes, Thank you. So we load up, we were there maybe 30 minutes, you know. And it was pretty gruesome, to be brutally honest. But so we get back to the White House, and uh, I went to Joe Hagen's office, and uh he said, you know, so what's the word? I kind of gave him a rundown. I said, but the FBI had one request. Uh he goes, what's that? I goes, they don't they need like three hours. And he looked at his watch and goes, okay. Okay. Anyway, this is probably 11 a.m. We didn't end up going till late in the afternoon. So we uh we motorcate over there. Rumsfeld was with us. We pull up and of course he steps out of the limo. You know, people are being respectful and it's a sober setting. And I can I just remember looking at Bush while he's looking at it, you know. Because I mean you say it's pretty sober when you think what had just happened twenty-four hours beforehand. By the way, the plane is nowhere to be seen. You know, the the Pentagon has these five rings, and the plane burred its way into the third ring and uh been largely disintegrated along the way and then potfired. Everybody on the plane was reduced to bone and teeth. It was horrendous. And um so he's walking toward the cry site, and then all of a sudden, I'm looking up on the roof, and I see some firemen and some soldiers, and all of a sudden they unfurl this huge flag right adjacent to the where the plane crashed. We had nothing to do with that. And the press are going, Did y'all do that? I said, No, no, we didn't. I said, I'm glad they did, but they're kind of looking at me suspiciously. I said, We had nothing to do with that. They're like, okay. And of course, everybody starts chanting, USA, USA. I mean, you just feel you get goosebumps. And uh, and then as quick as it went up, it died down. Bush is way close to the impact site, and here in Brunswick did a quick little media, just gave you know statement about you know, America, and you know, we'll we'll you know get the bad guys, and then on his way back to the lemma, he was just shaking hands and hugging people, and of course all these people in fireman gear and hard hats and you know policemen, uh just everything. Of course, a lot of military personnel. And um anyway, we loaded up and went back to the White House.
SPEAKER_02That's September 12th. Let's fast forward two days after it's September 14th. President Bush travels to ground zero in New York City, and you were there. So take us back to that visit. What do you remember about the president, the firefighters, the rescue workers, all the people around? I mean, it's such a classic picture of Bush standing there on that mountain with the uh the bullhorn somebody handed.
SPEAKER_00The bullhorn. So we uh a lot of people forgot there was a memorial service that morning at the National Cathedral. Um interesting thing about that morning, I'd walked over to his office to leave something at for the secretary. Remember, I'm the guy in charge of everything on the road. So normally I would pre President Plus on Air Force One or in a holding room. It was pretty rare then back then, later I I did, I'd actually go into the Oval Office. So he sees me standing out there and he says, Money, what's going on? I said, Well, you know, we're leaving soon. He's yeah, come over here and run me through everything. I don't know why I always felt uncomfortable when it was just the two of us alone. Really? Yeah, I don't I mean, I think uncomfortable is not just the right word, it just felt weird. I said, He's a president of the United States, and it's just the two of us. And so I ran I ran through. Well, I I you know, I I guess, but I definitely so you know anyway, we I ran through everything and went back. We did the event at the National Cathedral. If you ever get a chance, it's it's good to watch it again on TV. Uh but then we um headed out to Andrews Air Force Base to fly into McGuire Air Force Base in uh New Jersey. And we got on helicopters there to go land at what's called the Wall Street Landing Zone on the East River.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say Maguire isn't exactly close to New York City, though.
SPEAKER_00I know. Well, we had helicopters and but even Maguire is a little ways out, but I remember within 15 minutes of lifting, you could smell. And I don't know why it smelled different than the Pentagon. People say you can't describe it. I go, I can't describe it. The same the smoke at the Pentagon smelled different than the smoke at Ground Zero. And people that had smelled both that I've asked agreed with me. So we circle around Ground Zero, this sort of ballet of helicopters, and there's photos of Bush and Marine One. I wasn't on Marine One. We um we landed first because only two helicopters of of that size can come in at a time. So we land, we had Schumer with us, Hillary Clinton, Adler, you know, Pataki and Giuliani Mass there. Everybody was, you know, on the same page back then. And uh so we land, our two helicopters left, Marine one and Marine Two come in, or night ought to. And um every time the president lives in the Hilo, there's always a fire truck there just in case. And this was no different. There's a fire truck there. Whatever we would do it at some other event, the firemen would always be spit upon this plane in their fire gig. Like, hey man, yeah, we're gonna we'll be there for Marine One. We want to look good. Well, they didn't look good this time, they were just covered in dirt and soot. I remember asking the police, I said, Did they just come from grounds here? He goes, Yeah, they haven't slept in days. Just came over here to do that somewhere. I remember looking at them there to swim there. Uh say anything to him. But so anyway, we load up and we headed over to Seven World Trade Center, which was the last building to fall that evening. Yeah, which a conspiracy theorist always talk about go down that path. But the Secret Service headquarters had been in there, the New York Fields office. And of course they keep a lot of memos there because they get as a state at the UN. And you know, everything was destroyed. And uh so we do that and then we move up to go over to ground zero, which is about five minutes later today. And it had rained that morning. So you remember those violence of the until the towers came down. The rain had just turned it into this thick, almost like plaster of terrace. Really thick, chalky paste. And it was all over her shoes. And um so Bush gets out, and of course everybody's cheering, he's shaking hands, and was really sort of on a note plan, right? Make your way through the crowd, Secret Services all around them. Not that we were worried about them, it's just you know, there's a high ground problem around there. And um so I I had Carl Rove and I had were standing over by this FDNY vehicle that was about this tall. And it was it was a suburban, it was red. You could see the red paint through the through the mud. And there were about four firemen standing on it, and they're watching everything. So we head closer to the president, which is about 30 feet away. And Andy Carr says to Carl Rov and I go find a place for the president to stand. And he had a bullhorn. And um, so Carl Rov and I go back over to that that flat SUV, and I said, Gentlemen, can you all step off? And they could see behind me the president's like 20 feet behind me walking that way. Yes, sir, they just started hopping off, except one. And he was older, turned out he was retired, and he just Down there to help. And he's having a little harder time. And literally, President Bush is right behind me. I said, just stay. Just stay. He goes, Oh, okay. So President Bush hops up there, and Carl Truscott, who was the head of the Secret Service detail, good man standing there behind him. And he starts talking. You know, he puts his arm around the fireman. He's just talking, you know, America's on bending knee and praying for all the, you know, he's kind of moving, you know, with his head. And um finally somebody screams, we can't hear you. And then Bush puts the bullhorn up to his mouth and just out of the clear blue, he goes, you know, I can hear you. The whole world can hear you. The people that brought down these buildings will hear from all of us. So and the place just erupted. Just cheering USA. And I'm just immediately thinking this is going to be talked about for hundreds of years. Um I have a photo, I'm standing about eight feet away. And you want to blend in in that setting. You don't want a bunch of guys in suits with all these firemen and construction workers and big burly guys with a lot of anger in their eyes. Firemen, you name it. So we we were wearing FEMA jackets and hard hats, like a blue FEMA windbreaker. And uh so we finished there, and we headed over to the Javit Center to meet with families of first responders, and uh and we met with some of the urban search and rescue teams. They were at the Javit Center, probably 15 of them from you know, Cincinnati and Houston and Philadelphia, you know, Milwaukee, you name it. And uh so we go to the sort of cordon area there in the Javit Center where all the families are, and and uh I stepped in there for about 20 seconds and talked to his personal aide, Logan Walters, and said, You have this, right? You go, yeah. So I just stepped out. You could hear her crying, you could hear laughter, you could hear. So he was in there. I would go in there maybe every 30 minutes, spoke my head, and there was about 75 people there, maybe more. And one mother of a uh Port Authority policeman who was missing, presumably killed, which she was, gave Bush one of his uh badges. I think his last name was Howard, and Bush wore it in his coat pocket the rest of his presidency, carried it with him everywhere. So when we loaded up in the motorcade, we're heading back to the landing zone. And I don't I think we went through it wasn't Times Square because that was way north, but we rolled the street we rolled down was just covered with thousands of people with candles. And as we rolled by, they were applauding. And I remember just going, my God, you never see that in New York City. And um, so we get out, we helicopter back to McGuire, and the two big planes are sitting there and two little ones, two Gulf Streams, with the United States of America L'Hreal. Because we were going to the small airstroke by uh Camp David, and uh and the there it's too small for the sub-47. So we took two golf streams to Camp David and I wasn't on the one bus is on, I was in the in the backhoe. And we land and uh there's a mo there's a helicopter there waiting. I remember looking at him. We were gonna go back to Andrews and go home and rest. He was gonna go rest at Camp David but get ready for a war cabinet meeting the next morning. But uh just you know, the the the fun note to that day is you know, I I'd started dating this young woman, later married her, and uh she was at her at her, I was went to her house, and I remember going up there and I'm sitting on the edge of the bed. I'm just exhausted, my shoes are covered with that paste, and just you know, and you know, I I I say this every time that I don't know what it was, I just couldn't bring myself to clean the shoes. And I tried, I tried several times, and I just one day I just said, you know what, something inside of me is told them not to clean them. And um so I remember stopping at a bed bath with beyond a few days later, buying a big plastic shoe box. I wrapped them in a plastic bag, put them in the box, wrapped them in duct tape, and haven't touched them since some things are sacred. I mean, we when you think about what's on those shoes, you're probably right. Um so you know, I don't you know, what are you gonna do with it? I said, I don't know. Uh some things are sacred. Some things are sacred. So in any event, so it was um I slept pretty good that night, not because I was relaxed, I was just completely exhausted. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So how long did you go without sleep?
SPEAKER_00I mean, it had to be Oh, I would get two, three, maybe four hours each night. But it was restless sleep because you don't you know you got a lot more work ahead of you and you just a little bit of the undone. You know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can't imagine. I couldn't sleep.
SPEAKER_00I was like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Wake up at 11. Yeah. So let's fast forward to September 20th. Uh just before President Bush addressed the session of Congress. You and the President shared a private moment, uh, if you're comfortable doing so. Can you tell us what happened and what you remember about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, it's it's it's chapter one of my book, but maybe when the book's published, so people say, Oh, I remember that's program. So, Bush, we were Congress invited us to come speak and to join session of Congress, which is pretty rare. You know, State of the Union comes to mind, obviously, but this is a special event. And uh Prime Minister Tony Blair had come with us, and this was the famous speech, which I encourage people to watch some evening before September the 11th, where he basically drew the line in the sand, told the world you're either with us or you're with a terrorist. It's time to start choosing sides. And uh most of the world was with us to some degree or not. But this was he was going to make a bunch of announcements during the speech. Um, and when you go to the Capitol for State of the Union, and in this case, everybody kind of peels off because you have to be pre-seated, including Mrs. Buzz, Tom Ridge, who I'll talk about in a second, and Prime Minister Blair. And the personal aide, who would normally stay back, went with a teleprompter operator and what's called the staff secretary. They're responsible for everything the president reads and writes. And so they're at the teleprompter, so it's literally Secret Service, medical unit, and me. And I yeah, I'd say we're kind of on autopilot at this point. He's in a in what it's I don't know the formal name of the room, but it's like a the speaker's office, which is behind the chamber. And it's kind of a Victorian-looking setting and furniture, and it's maybe three times the size of this room. And um we're running behind schedule just because of the layers of security and a whole lot of reasons. And I felt like I need because Bush was a stickler for time. I'm sitting there thinking, he's probably looking at his watch, going, All right, what's the holdup? So I felt like you know, I think I need to go there and tell him what's going on. So the agent at the door said, I'm gonna let him know we're running by its schedule. He goes, Yeah, go ahead. So I kind of gently knock on the door. He's in there by himself. So I walk in and he's sitting about 12 feet from me on a little like a love seat. He has his legs crossed, he has his hands and his laugh and his eyes are closed. He's just sitting there, just you know, thinking. Like I would be. I'm getting ready to go tell the world. Um and I got ready to say something, and he just goes like this. He sticks his finger up in there, like, wait. And he holds it there for about five, seven, ten seconds, then he lowers it. I took that as a signal to say don't say anything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I just kind of wow. So I turn and I'm walking back toward the door, and he goes, Monty. Okay. I turn and I said, Yes, sir, he goes. And he opened his eyes. He goes, You've been there since the beginning, right? Yeah, sir, and he goes, Well, I hope you're there to the end. So they're thinking, we're gonna go tell the world. You're either with us or you was a terrorist. History was gonna go this way. Now it's gonna go that way. And when I've talked to people about that, he goes, you know what? He was probably thinking if he talked to you, it'd kind of take him back to in time when things were a little less crazy. You know, the world was a little more certain. And he was thinking about this is what they tell me, they may be right, maybe back when he was governor and just you know, enjoying owning the Texas Ranger. So I walk out, and I mean I had tears in my eyes. The agent looks me good at you. Okay, I said, I said, I'm fine. And I say this in the book, I said, you know, watch out, world, here it comes. You know, reiterated, watch out world, here it comes. And that's in the speech again where he drew the line in the sand. He announces, you know, Tom Ridge is gonna head up this new Homeland Security Council, which later became a cabinet agency. That's right. Our governor. Yeah, and he right he had resigned. Who resigns governor for you know for something other than a scandal? Like, no one. But Rids is a great man, and that's just you know, didn't surprise me. And of course, Giuliani's there in Pataki, and and uh you know, he rallied the nation and uh made it very clear this is this is how it's gonna be going forward.
SPEAKER_01Amazing.
SPEAKER_00No ambiguity because I told people there wasn't room for it at that point.
SPEAKER_01So it was my understanding that President Bush did not visit the Shanksville, Pennsylvania Crass site of United Airlines 93 until the first anniversary of September 11th. What was the the thought process behind that? What do you remember about it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, two words, crime scene. So the white public national office reached out to the governor's office and then reached out to uh the county coroner because they came back and said it's it's a crime scene. And you know, we're still finding body parts and he says, you know, there's not a lot to see. It's a big hole in the ground and we're picking up pieces of the plane. And we just said, Well, what do you think we could visit? He said, Two to three months, because they want to get all the fuel out and out of the ground, out of the dirt as quick as they could. And so we just said after three months it wasn't me, but we made the decision, let's just wait until the white air. And we just said that oh that'll be a good thing to go early to do the site survey and dirt and fuel and debris they had um dirt in. And they planted grass around the impact site where the impact and the plane crashed, grass would die. He said, We plant it, we water it dies. I said, Was it fuel? He goes, No, it's new dirt. We got rid of the fuel. I remember going on, maybe someone sending us a signal and just sort of went like that. Big pieces of pipe sticking out of the ground to vent out what around the perimeter, what fuel might have been left. And the advanced team did a great job, you know, all the families were invited. We had the Navy choir there singing very moving songs, and we were doing a big wreath lane, and President Bush was going to speak. And so, as usual, you know, we told the White House florists, you know, we need a wreath. Or like, oh, yeah, no, no. Well, and they were very good florists, as you could imagine. Then we were presented with a problem. How do we get the wreath there ahead of the president? So if we put it on Air Force One, it'll look weird to hold the president because there's nowhere to hide in the middle of the field. Have people come run it up with a wreath, it would just look uh it looked unofficial, right? And uh so these two women who work for me in the advance office said, we'll drive it. And I always noted that it was the two women who said, We'll drive it first. I'm Charity Wallace and Carrie Nelson. I said, Are you sure? They go, We'll drive online. I said, Okay. So God love them. They wreath and like around midnight and headed toward Thanksville. It took about four hours. I said, Don't speed, but if you get pulled over, I'm fairly certain you can get out of it. You know, just why are you speeding? Well, we have the wreath for the uh but they didn't get pulled over. I could say the skeptical highway patrol. Yeah. Well, they had white eyes identification. So the other sort of outside hero that day was was uh Major Jim McAllister of the Army military aid. And he's the one in all the photos with the wreath of the president. This is Bush. He's at attention, they have their heads bowed. And he stood there by the wreath for an hour, hour and a half at attention. That's a long time. Yeah, that was a long time. And they that was very moving, you know, people cried. But just back it up a little, the day before we did the side survey, the county coroner, uh, who really treated the ground with a reverence. It was it deserved. And uh he took it personal, which he should. And uh we walked around the the primitive plane and impacted upside down at a critical angle. And he said, you know, everybody stop where you are. He goes, kick the ground. He says, Well, he goes, just kick the ground with two of your shoes. And when you start kicking the ground, you'd all of a sudden see little pieces of a little bit. And uh now there were bigger pieces, but I think the biggest piece was six feet long. But um anyway, it was a it was a moving event, and uh you know, it was the right thing because to wait a year. It was more it was more special, you know, being able to, you know, that they were able to remediate the site. But uh but the family, even after the crash, they would let them visit the site, even though it was guarded 24 hours a day as a crime scene for months, not a year.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_02I've driven by it and I keep saying I've got to stop. I still haven't stopped in the site.
SPEAKER_00Nor have I. In fact, that's on my list this year, this fall, to drive out there to see the memorial.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Well, let me ask you this. You worked for President Bush for more than 15 years. You saw him before, during, and after 9-11. So, in your view, how did September 11th change George Bush, not just as president, but as a person?
SPEAKER_00In his instance as president, but you don't know whether or not you're going to be a wartime president. Well, we have domestic priorities. Well, after 9-11, it's like homeland security went to the top of the bus. Like, how do we keep because Americans are going, you know, can I get on an airplane? Can I go to the mall? Can I get on a train? Can I get on a bus? You know, meanwhile, there's terrorist incidents, you know, the train explosion in London, the train explosion in Spain. Terrorists are bad people. And I try to explain it to my kids. I said, they say there's this bad people on this planet. Most of them aren't. But you know, they just have some crazy mind and ideas in their mind about how the world should be, and they don't care who they kill. And um I have very little tolerance for what happens to terrorists. And um he became a homeland security wartime president. We still have the domestic policy initiatives, as we say, you got to be able to fly the plane and fix it at the same time. But it was always front of mind for, you know, and for all of us. It's like homeland, of course, then Iraq and all that, but we don't need to go into that topic. But the wartime president was, you know, we were doing these clandestine operations and in Afghanistan, but the world knows about now. It knew a little bit about back then. But there's been movies about it now and and books written about it. But back was, you know, I think it's Operation Jawbreaker, but it was pretty, pretty hose in building alliance to get the Taliban out of Kabul. And uh so yeah, that that was and our whole lives changed. Remember, you know, the the different colors of readiness and alert, and you know, you go to the airport and be piping over the speaker and telling people, oh, you know, build your own kit at home, and you know we all flew to this conference, and every one of us went through layers of security to get to the plane. Yeah. All of that. Well, that wasn't a TSA. No, and look how lax the security was, the private security that allowed box cutters and fake explosives to get out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Incredible. So it it changed the the trajectory that cross with the city. There's no doubt about that.
SPEAKER_01So let me ask you, we normally have one final question. I'm gonna have two questions. But the first You've led an extraordinary life and you've had incredible life experience, and we asked this question of everybody, but if you had the opportunity to sit out with 20-year-old version frying your country today, what advice would you give that game?
SPEAKER_00Well, first it might seem dude, you have no idea what's happening your way. Trust me on that one. See you later. You know, that would have been the very true statement. But you know, I I I like to say many ways I'm the same person I was back then. I mean, I worked hard and two great parents and you know, great siblings. And um just you know my dad, I talk about this in my book, you know, he just gave me taught me to do the right thing, and you know, and you know, Reagan, I think he used to say it's it's amazing what you can do, you know, when you don't care against the crowd. And you know, he'd always treat people, you know, he's always telling me, be nice to your HR people, you know, because they can make your life easier. He said, any security people, so at the White House that always, you know, and even at odd, you know, it's always very dominating to any security and just thanking them. And yeah, they have tough jobs. And so, yeah, I I think like I said, in some ways I'm kind of the same person. It was just at a different level. Uh, because I back then I had no idea I'd be working for one president, much less four, and uh as a political appointee, and that's the way it turned out. No progress whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01So the last question the shoes that you boxed up, do you know where they are?
SPEAKER_00They're baseball miles.
SPEAKER_02I you know I was gonna ask you that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're you know, I someone asked me, I said, you know what, when I die, I'll probably be buried with them. I said, Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Um hopefully. Yeah, no, they're uh they're they're a mystery.
SPEAKER_01So Brian, I what an amazing story. Um several years ago, I had the the pleasure of of getting to sleep with you uh over a nice glass of something, and I started asking you to be on the podcast, and then I started pursuing you like uh college girlfriend, you know, kept showing up on your doorstep. And but the reason why none of those happened was because it made that thank you for coming to this. This is amazing.
SPEAKER_02We appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It's an incredible story. We do remember a lot of people out there on the 25th anniversary. I'll certainly be looking back and uh remembering some things come Friday the 11th, but thank you for taking the time.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. I mean, some part the other day we all reflect. And you know, I tell people, I said on that day, not only reflect and think about those we lost, and since then, by the way, I said, but maybe talk to someone who's too young to remember it. And I kind of figure that's probably somebody 30 and under.
SPEAKER_02That's about right.
SPEAKER_00And there are 125 million Americans, 30 and under. So more than one-third of us have no recollection of 9-11. Firsthand. They're aware, of course, but it's kind of like you know, Pearl Harbor, you know, for for us.
SPEAKER_02You know, my kids were two and one, you know.
SPEAKER_00They have no recollection of it. Uh mine weren't even born. Um, so that's what I would ask people is hey, no memories too small, no stories too uninteresting. Just, you know, it was significant for all of us because everybody remembers where they were.
SPEAKER_01I remember exactly. In my car on Jabonica, and he just dropped my daughter off for school.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you. God bless America.
SPEAKER_02Amen. If you like what you hear on our podcast and want to hear some more, please rate, review, and subscribe to What the M on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to visit with us on social media, we can be found at WhatThe M podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you.
