Hillary Clinton Post-9/11/01 Senate Floor MELTDOWN!

Joyce Comments: New Yorkers and fellow Americans and other readers, here's a reminder of a major public political meltdown former first lady and co-president Hitlery Clinton had on the floor of the Senate on May 16, 2002 -- that she incidently never retracted -- when she, sounding like her House sister in conspiracy Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), exploded this on the floor of the United States Senate:

INVESTIGATE 9-11 -- (Senate - May 16, 2002)

Mrs. CLINTON: Mr. President, I rise today out of respect for and to speak on behalf of the people I represent in New York. I am especially mindful today of the memory of those whom we lost on September 11, their family members and their loved ones who, until this very minute, grieve for those who were sacrificed in the terrible attacks we suffered on September 11.

We have learned something today that raises a number of serious questions. We have learned that President Bush had been informed last year, before September 11, of a possible plot by those associated with Osama bin Laden to hijack a U.S. airliner. The White House says the President took all appropriate steps in reaction to that warning. The White House further says that the warning did not include any specific information, such as which airline, which date, or the fact that a hijacked plane would be used as a missile. Those are all very important issues, worthy of exploration by the relevant committees of Congress. The goal of such an examination should not be to assign blame but to find out all of the facts.

I also support the effort by Senators LIEBERMAN and MCCAIN to establish an independent national commission on terrorist attacks upon the United States. That was reported out of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in March. Such a panel can help assure the people of New York and America that every facet of this national tragedy will be fully examined in hopes that the lessons we learn can prevent disasters in the future.

I very much appreciated the remarks by Senator Lieberman in the Chamber earlier today, indicating his desire to offer this proposal that he and Senator McCain have put forth as an amendment at the earliest possible time.

Because we must do all we can to learn the hard lessons of experience from our past and apply them to safeguard our future, I also support the call by the distinguished majority leader, Mr. Daschle, for the release of the Phoenix FBI memorandum and the August intelligence briefing to congressional investigators, because, as Senator Daschle said this morning, the American people need to get the facts.

I do know some things about the unique challenges faced by the person who assumes the mantle of Commander in Chief. I do not for a minute doubt that any individual who holds that responsibility is the only person who can truly know the full scope of the burdens of that office. Just the other day there was a survey about the most difficult job in America, the most stressful position. It should not come as any surprise that President of the United States ranked at the top.

I have had the privilege of witnessing history up close, and I know there is never any shortage of second guessers and Monday morning quarterbacks, ready to dismantle any comment or critique any action taken or not taken. Having experienced that from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I for one will not play that game, especially in these circumstances. I am simply here today on the floor of this hallowed Chamber to seek answers to the questions being asked by my constituents, questions raised by one of our newspapers in New York with the headline "Bush Knew."

The President knew what? My constituents would like to know the answer to that and many other questions, not to blame the President or any other American but just to know, to learn from experience, to do all we can today to ensure that a 9-11 never happens again.

If we look back, we know that the Phoenix FBI memorandum in early July raised very specific issues about certain people of Arab heritage who were taking flying lessons. For what purpose? To do what?

We know that shortly after there was at least the news report of the Attorney General sending a directive that people of the Justice Department should no longer fly commercially. In fact, the Attorney General took a chartered plane for his own vacation.

We know that in August additional information came forward, including what we learned today about the intelligence briefing provided to the President.

The pain of 9-11 is revisited in thousands of homes in New York and around our country every time that terrible scene of those planes going into those towers and then their collapse appears on television. It is revisited in our minds every time we see a picture of the cleanup at Ground Zero. It is revisited every time the remains of a fallen hero are recovered, as they were yesterday for Deputy Chief Downey. And it is revisited today with the questions about what might have been had the pieces of the puzzle been put together in a different way before that sad and tragic day in September.

I cannot answer the questions my constituents are asking. I cannot answer the concerns raised by the families of the victims. As agonizing as it is even to think that there was intelligence suggesting the possibility of the tragedy that occurred, particularly for the family members who lost their husband, their wife, their son, their daughter, their niece, their nephew, their mother, their father, it is a subject we are absolutely required to explore.

As for the President, he may not be in a position at this time to respond to all of those concerns, but he is in a position to answer some of them, including the question of why we know today, May 16, about the warning he received. Why did we not know this on April 16 or March 16 or February or January 16 or August 16 of last year?

I do hope and trust that the President will assume the duty that we know he is capable of fulfilling, exercise the leadership that we know he has, and come before the American people, at the earliest possible time, to answer the questions so many New Yorkers and Americans are asking. That will be a very great help to all of us.

I know my constituents want those answers, particularly the families who still today wonder why their loved one went to work that beautiful September morning and did not come home from the World Trade Center or the Pentagon or those airplane flights. After all, in the grieving process, it is often the not knowing that hurts the most.

I hope the President will address these issues, will do so as soon as possible, and will also authorize the release of any other information that New Yorkers and Americans have a right to know. I certainly look forward to learning of and being able to share that information with the people I represent.

I thank the Chair and yield the floor.


Office of the Press Secretary
May 17, 2002

Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:19 P.M. EDT

Q Who said these things? Who are you talking about on the Hill? Who acted in a manner, as Vice President Cheney said last night, "unworthy of national leaders in a time of war"? Who are you talking about?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think that anybody who made insinuations or suggestions that this President had information that could have prevented the attacks and did not act on them is asking questions in such a way as to create an impression that the President could have and should have done something that he didn't do.

Q -- who did that?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, I think it's fair to say that individuals in the Democrat leadership -- and let me also bring your attention to something that should be reflected on when it comes to the politics of this. And you can draw contrasts by how leaders act and leaders respond to something like this. When there was a suggestion that Bush knew about this in print, Bush knew about 9/11, Mayor Bloomberg of New York said that suggestion was ridiculous. He contacted the White House, he listened, heard what information the White House had. He called it ridiculous. He united New York City, and he led.

I have to say, with disappointment, that Mrs. Clinton, having seen that same headline, did not call the White House, did not ask if it was accurate or not. Instead, she immediately went to the floor of the Senate, and I'm sorry to say that she followed that headline and divided.

Q Ari, what's the mood of the President right now about all this? It sounds like he's angry.

MR. FLEISCHER: I think it's fair to say that the President understands that in Washington, D.C., second-guessing is second-nature to a lot of politicians. The President also understands that there are a lot of responsible people in the United States Congress -- I've just cited many of them -- and the President is going to continue his efforts to unite this nation to work in a bipartisan way, because that's what the American people expect from their leaders in Washington. He has a war to fight, and he's going to continue to fight it in a way that brings people together.


Source: http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2002/fax20020520.asp

Newsweek Editor Reveals: "The Media Beast Was So
Happy...We All Jumped Up and Down"

Pushing a "Phony, Bogus" Anti-Bush Story

The liberal media are continuing to push the canard they developed last week that President Bush "knew" before September 11 about Osama bin Laden’s scheme to hijack jets as a way to make war against the United States — equating a vague briefing about a possible hijacking with some of the worst scandals of the past two generations.

"Every President seems to struggle through a credibility gap at some stage, such as Richard Nixon with Watergate, Ronald Reagan with Iran-contra, and Bill Clinton with the Whitewater affair. What did he know, and when did he know it? Now it's George W. Bush's turn to answer Washington's favorite question, " Kenneth T. Walsh and Kevin Whitelaw declared in the May 27 edition of U.S. News & World Report.

Amid the media hype, there are some good questions about how effectively U.S. intelligence sifted through all of the real clues and phony leads last summer. But beginning with CNN’s Judy Woodruff — who on Wednesday’s NewsNight charged that "President Bush knew that al Qaeda was planning to hijack a U.S. airliner and he knew it before September the 11th" — media bigwigs have oversimplified and exaggerated the story to put the blame on Bush:

• On Thursday’s Good Morning America, ABC’s Charles Gibson promoted the cynical idea that Bush had faked his shocked reaction. The President’s vague August briefing, Gibson charged, "calls into question what happened when Andy Card, Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, that morning went and whispered in the President's ear, as the President was talking to a group of school students in Florida. Was the President really surprised?"

• ABC, CBS and NBC each began their Thursday evening newscasts with the story, ratifying its importance: "On World News Tonight, the White House admits President Bush knew before September that Osama bin Laden was plotting to hijack planes. Was there enough information to make a difference?" Peter Jennings rhetorically challenged.

• In his book, Mobocracy, Matthew Robinson exposed the media’s practice of using quick and methodologically-suspect public opinion polls to reinforce the tone of their coverage. Sure enough, on Thursday evening’s NewsNight, anchor Bill Hemmer showcased a CNN poll echoing the liberal media spin that Bush had mishandled the "warnings" he received: "This is only preliminary, it is still early on this story," Hemmer cautioned, "but when asked, ‘Did the Bush administration act on 9/11 warnings in the proper way,’ 41 percent said yes, 52 percent said no."

• Outgoing CBS Early Show host Bryant Gumbel on Friday echoed his brethren by quoting the media’s hoary scandal question: "In light of revelations that the White House had several terrorist warnings prior to the 9/11 attacks, top Democrats are demanding to know what the President knew and when he knew it."

• On Saturday’s McLaughlin Group, Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift shifted a portion of the responsibility from al Qaeda’s terrorists to the White House: "What we learned this week is the President is not entirely blameless" for the death and destruction on September 11.

• On Sunday’s This Week, anchor-designate George Stephanopoulos wrapped an accusation in a compliment when he said the Bush White House has "been very careful with their words and, I think for the most part, the White House has not lied here." For the most part?

Over the weekend, Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas, appearing on Inside Washington, dismissed the media’s idea of a Bush scandal as "phony" and "bogus." He contended that journalists were "so happy to have a scandal here that we jumped up and down and waved our arms and got all excited about it." In other words, liberal journalists put their personal desire for a Bush scandal ahead of accurate reporting. -- Rich Noyes & Brent Baker