mattis will remark on the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks. also, the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. live, at 1:00. it is online at c-span.org, or listen ♪ >> spend is your unfiltered view of government -- c-span is your unfiltered view of government, supported by these companies, including media,. -- including mediacom. mediacom supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front seat to

democracy to democracy. >> coming up, julian sanchez talks about surveillance in the years following 9/11. washington journal his next. -- washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is friday, september 10, 2021. yesterday president biden announced the most stringent vaccine requirement yet. businesses with more than 100 employees will have to mandate vaccines or weekly testing. if you support the new mandate host: give us a call at (202) 748-8000. if you oppose them, (202) 748-8001. you can also give us a text at

(202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. a very good friday morning to you. ken starr calling and now. -- you can start calling in now. " fighting gets tough on vaccine holdouts." -- " biden gets tough on vaccine holdouts." this is the president from the white house yesterday. [video clip] >> to ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once daily. some of the biggest companies are already requiring less. united airlines, tysons food, and even fox news.

the bottom line -- we are going to protected vaccinated workers from unvaccinated to workers, we are going to decrease the spread of covid-19 dean -- host: president biden yesterday on vaccination mandates for businesses, also announcing more stringent requirements for hospitals receiving medicare and medicaid. [video clip] >> already i have announced we will be requiring vaccinations at all nursing home workers who treat patients on medicare and medicaid because i have that federal authority. tonight i am using that authority to expand that to cover those who work in hospitals, home health care facilities, or other medical facilities, a total of 17

million health-care workers. if you're seeking care at a health care facility, you should be able to note that the people treating you are vaccinated -- host: president biden yesterday signed an executive order targeting federal employees looking to get done vaccinated. more from the president yesterday. [video clip] >> i will sign an executive order that requires all federal and executive branch plies to be vaccinated. i have signed an order that would require federal contractors to do the same. host: president biden yesterday, part of his six-point covid plan vaccination requirements the lead part of that plan. it also includes keeping schools open, masking requirements, and others we will go through in

this first hour of the washington journal. we are focusing your calls on those vaccination mandates for employers. (202) 748-8000 if you support them. (202) 748-8001, if you oppose. up first out of sterling, virginia on the line for those who support them. caller: i am totally in favor of what president biden is mandating. i would like to see him because -- him continue to do this because this is the only way we will get this under control. the trump death cold the -- cult , the maga more on stew not want to do the patriotic thing -- morons do not want to do the

patriotic thing and get a vaccine. world war ii, the patriotic thing to do was to send our young boys who wanted to go. we -- these morons -- host: we will try to cut out the name-calling, but we got your point. on the line for those who oppose the new mandate, go ahead. host: robert you are on air, and also in the drive through line. caller: can you hear me? i want to say, i adamantly opposed the vaccine mandate for a multitude of reasons. it is purposely deceptive to risser to this as a vaccine. this is -- refer to this as a vaccine.

this is mrna gene therapy. the vaccine nomenclature absolves the exact -- industry against -- this is not a vaccine. dr. robert malone, men who pioneered this technology set himself on multiple videos -- said himself on multiple videos he would not commend this gene therapy to be used. there were no long-term studies done. we have no idea of what the long-term implications will be. host: what would it take to get you vaccinated? i assume you are not vaccinated. caller: can i give you 3 more points? there were animal studies done.

all of the animals died. whenever the main secret ingredients of the pfizer and mrna vaccines from moderna are fatal to animals. host: this is jeff and brandywine whose parts the vexing -- in brandywine who supports the vexing. -- the vaccine. caller: just last year, just to remind the american people, you not have a vaccine -- we did not have a vaccine. the scientists got together and worked diligently to get something to save the american people into the global community. i am hoping he continues along this line. if i was biden, i would keep going.

you want to be that stern and come up with every plan to oppose this. there is no more i can do with you. we have to keep going forward, and realize when doctors and the fda approved it across the board, we say blue, they say gray. at the end of the day, children are going to suffer. those who oppose, when your kid, when it comes to not having a vaccine, then i'll of a sudden it is going to hit you, what has happened on television. people say " i oppose it," then they get hit by the virus.

host: that is jeff in maryland. this is marlene, minnesota, on the line for those who oppose the new mandates. why? caller: i totally oppose this mandate. why in the world is he mandating the american people to go ahead and get the shot, when we are letting thousands and thousands and thousands come through our border from mexico and all over the world unto our soil, our american soil who have not been vaccinated? now we are bringing over people from afghanistan. none of them have been tested. one of them have had a shot. how are we ever going to get this under control, if we do not take care of the people coming here illegally to begin with first? host: in the federal rules on

how these vaccine mandates will occur and how the biden administration is moving them, the department of labor is set to issue those work by standards in the coming weeks under an emergency temporary standard implementing that requirement for businesses with over 100 employees. businesses who do not clamp live can be -- complied can be fine d. the washington post continuing -- the new york times continuing on the process of how these roles will come down. " experts say mr. biden has the legal authority to impose vaccine mandates on the private sector. the occupational safety and

health administration has already imposed other pandemic safety precautions, such as a rule requiring health care providers to offer -- congressional reaction on capitol hill, mixed as you would expect. thomas massie, the republican, calling it unconstitutional. andy biggs, saying " i will be introducing legislation to lock this egregious route -- walk this egregious -- block this egregious assault on americans' freedom and liberty. we must fight against these attempts."

" the vast majority of people who have been diagnosed with covid-19 on vaccinated. the facts are vaccines -- " 1500 americans are dying every single day because of covid. that is one american every minute of every day. we live in such a backwards, politicized world." this is debbie out of california, supports them, good morning. caller: i definitely support that then the president jested -- the thing the president just did. people who did not get vaccinated are putting others at risk. i had blood cancer. i do not think that it is right that others put other people at risk.

pandemics kill millions of people. all who do not understand this, i think, are very ignorant and not patriotic people. they have to stand up for our country. host: this is ashley on the line for those who oppose. caller: i'm very opposed to this. being a nurse and mother, i am very educated about this virus. i have had covid and been vaccinated. i do not think that -- i think it should be up to the individual. they have put so much pressure on health care workers and the public itself. i think this should be an option. i think people were already struggling as a whole. i do not think this should make the voice in where we stand. i think things will eventually get better.

i do not think mandating this will be the answer. host: what are the roles in -- i do not know if you are in a hospital setting. what are the rules for vaccinated? caller: we are mandated to be vaccinated. we have been diligent with ppe. i was vaccinated and then became totally positive. i can't say i believe it works or does not work. i was around my whole family who i believe then became positive. i think we should have a choice. i do not think my career should be at jeopardy because of this. host:, this is ricardo in oakdale, california, supports the new federal mandates. caller: i am a recipient, and my caregivers, and a lot of them

are hanging around with drug addicts, and they do not vaccinate. services mandated about this vaccinated because they need to crackdown. there are a lot of criminals and drug addicts getting these viruses, they will give it to seniors who are recipients. host: canonsburg, pennsylvania, opposes the mandates, good morning. caller: morning. quickly, i do not believe that vaccines should be mandated. i do not believe it to be a political issue or a geopolitical issue. i see that mortality rate of this virus is less than 2% since the time the outbreak started. i have spoken with people from the allegheny health network and the cdc. the vaccine is nothing more than

a way to help your body fight. it is not going to stop the virus. . the only thing that will stop the virus is the virus going away. people who make the argument about smallpox, those are viruses that destroy your life. people who have gotten it have recovered in 2 weeks. there recovered -- they are recovered and back to it. it should not be forced on those who are not at risk. host: what about the more than 600 thousand american who have died? caller: unfortunately, the sad part -- people from the flu die every year. i live next to a place that spews toxic chemicals into the air and water. people die every day from

carracks -- car wrecks. the vaccine is not going to make you immortal. you could have the vaccine and die from something else. the vaccine might be for you, but it should be up to the individual into the person' -- and the person's dr. to decide if it is for them. it should not be forced upon those. some -- it has been over a year and a half. we have been exposed to people who have had covid. there has to be a better way than making everybody no matter what get a vaccine. host: as of last month, covid to back up to the third leading cause of death in the united states. the numbers, according to the

cdc, some 40.5 million cases since the start of the pandemic. the cdc's covid data checker there. kenneth in arkansas supports the mandates. caller: i have had my vaccination. i got mine back in march. what i want to say to america -- anytime you can have 400,000 or more people gather at a motorcycle rally and let them go back across the united states, splitting that virus, that is a -- spreading that virus, that is a problem. they should have canceled that thing. those people left sturgis and went all across the united states. look at the uptick when it happened.

when those people left, look at the date and the time after they had that rally! you cannot blame this on immigrants. what happened is the american people, most of them at that relate, those are the ones who -- rally, those are the ones who exploded this thing. you cannot have any big gatherings like that. host: if you love your comments from social media -- a few of your comments from social media. " i don't have a problem with it as long as the company pays for it. i don't like people who don't practice good hygiene." " if the vaccine protects you? why do you care if someone is in vaccinated!" " next shake be no flying for the unvaccinated.

then show your vaccine cards to enter a restaurant or shop." the washington post with the headline of her column today -- " biden's six step plan does not do enough to compel vaccinations." the biden administration needs to make clear there are consequences to remaining next made it. the white house should urge businesses to implement no vaccine, no service rules. " the president should support these efforts by providing financial and then gives -- incentives. " in addition," while i support the call for teachers to be vaccinated i wish

that all children 12 and older would be required as well." dr. leanna when in her column today. this is nathaniel out of bismarck, north dakota on the line for those who oppose. caller: sorry -- i did not know this was the line to oppose. i called and i do want to comment. what i would like to say is i do not oppose the vaccine mandate. the reasons why are because with an unvaccinated person becoming infected and then infecting others, the virus has the opportunity to mutate. that is where we get other viral strains from like the other strains coming up. though strains have shown --

those strains have shown to be more fatal. the main reason why i support the mandate is because from the very beginning this, i was on top of it looking at what happened. i would like the other listeners to understand and remember, everyone was saying " the virus came from china and it must be something they caused on purpose>" if that is the case, then every person in america, with their you oppose it or not -- whether you oppose it or not, you need to look at this as a biological weapon. even if it is not, look at it like a biological weapon. get the necessary help to get rid of bed as soon as possible. with each variant that comes out of the infected people, it is

going to get worse. host: nathaniel from north dakota. i for those -- on the line for those who oppose this new mandate is tom in harrisburg, pennsylvania. caller: i think this is pr 101 two distracts the american people from the real problem -- to distract the american people from the real problem. you know who isn't talking about the vaccine right now? the taliban. biden just told us " get water, withdraw money -- the taliban now 20 years later with al qaeda in total sub p -- support.

host: we will talk about the 20th anniversary of 9/11 for most of the latter half of this program starting at 8:00, and the security situation in the united state and how it has changed. stay tuned for that. also if you were arrested elections coming up in our last hour -- also viewer reflections coming up in our last hour. " gop governors rip biden over the new mandate," the story noting " they blasted into threatened legal action against the biden administration. kristi noem fired the first rhetorical shot on twitter, writing back 'south dakota ends will defend their freedom.'

president biden also had criticism for republican governors and those blocking mask mandates preventing educators from putting safety precautions in place. there is more firm the president -- from the president from the white house yesterday. [video clip] >> radio -- right now local school officials are trying to keep kids safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them. talk about bullying the schools! if these governors will not help us eat the pandemic, i -- the pandemic, -- beat the pandemic, i will use my powers as

president to get them out of the way. any teacher or school official whose pay is withheld for doing the right thing, we will have that pay restored by the federal government 100%. i promise you, i will have your back. host: president biden yesterday from the white house. some more governors' tweets from their response yesterday. werner brian kemp of georgia saying " i will pursue every legal option available to stop this overreach id biden -- by d biden -- by the biden administration." " we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and likelihood of every south carolinian -- livelihood of every south carolinian." caller: get vaccinated.

tech your children. protect yourself -- protect your children. protect yourself. i do not want this disease. if you people who are so stubborn, hardheaded, bullheaded, if you get sick, do not come crying to us. we have got a shots. the people i have heard this morning with their lame and silly excuses, get with it. don't you want to save this country so we can keep our people healthy? get the vaccination. it is free. it is proven that it is working. get thinking about it and do it. i have heard these people this morning with their silly excuses, and i think, if you get sick, do not come crying to me. host: this is rick, in

louisville,. ohio -- louisville, ohio. caller: this is the most incredible financial and social engineering in the history of man. since they started this, the stock market was going to 2500. there is no flu. there is no pandemic. there is no vaccine. there is no pandemic. a pandemic would be the entire society is infected. host: though who did flared covid -- the who declared covid-19 a pandemic. caller: do not hang up on me. host: we are going to move on to kathy on the line for those

who support the mandates. caller: public schools immunization vaccination, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, 59 -- 30 page -- third page, it asks questions, and at the bottom, date booster. i am so tired of people. i do not think it is just republicans trying to bring down the country by spreading a virus

that they know could potentially crash the economy again. i think that -- they think that is ok? that is not american. that is anti-american behavior. it is so mentally unhealthy. the ramifications of people who die and continue to die. the hospitals are filling up with covid patients when they should be treating people who have everyday problems that people have that land you in icu. that is the reality of it. hospitals are always under stress. dread to that -- to add to that purposefully by refusing to take shot in your arm? it is enraging. i would mandate every american to have it.

i do not know how low you can go in age, but we need to get this under control once and for all and move this country forward. we have so many problems that are global, and we are not focusing on that because we are focusing on this, something that can be controlled. host: that is kathy and michigan. it is just after 7:30 on the east coast. we are talking about vaccine mandates for employers announced by president biden yesterday. (202) 748-800o if you support them, (202) 748-8001, if you oppose them. yesterday the white house withdrew david chisholm's candidacy -- david chapman's

candidacy for atf chief amid pushback over gun control at the -- advocacy. his nomination faced concerns from a handful of senate democrats, among those named, include senators joe manchin of west virginia, and independent senator angus king of maine. then day story from the washington times -- then this story from the washington times, the biden administration filing a lawsuit against texas. [video clip] >> the act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing supreme court

precedent. does presidents hold -- those precedents hold that regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a state may not prohibit any war meant for making the decision to terminate her -- woman for making -- any woman from making the decision to terminate her pregnancy. the statute includes an unprecedented scheme to " insulate the state from responsibility." it does not rely on the state's executive branch to enforce the law as is the norm in texas and everywhere else, whether the statute appetizing is all private -- deputize is all private citizen -- deputizes

all private citizens to act as bounty hunters. the obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting traditional review for as long as possible. host: attorney general merrick garland yesterday. at the other end of pennsylvania avenue, this story -- " law enforcement officials concerned by the prospect of violence in the capital have replaced the fencing that surrounded the capital for months. senator mitzi pelosi hinted that -- representative nancy pelosi he did that extra safety

precautions for the rally by saying 'we intend to have the integrity of the capital the intact.' that is likely to be approved according to house democratic aides who spoke to the paper as well. about 25 minutes left in this depth the washington journal. we about president biden announcing new -- we are talking about president biden announcing new vaccine mandates for employers. (202) 748-8000, if you support those mandates, (202) 748-8001, if you oppose them. caller: i would like to let everyone know there is not a problem with you getting vaccinated. the end vaccinated people are putting other people --

unvaccinated people are putting other people's lives in danger. my son had covid. he passed it on to his children and wife. they got shots after they had the covid. what is wrong with you people? are you that stupid that you do not want to be vaccinated? host: tina in a castle, pennsylvania -- newcastle, pennsylvania. caller: i have been listening at the callers. i am taken aback by the language and also -- cures the thing -- here is the thing. if you do not want to take the vaccine that will clearly save your life, you have a better

chance of living. morally, the world is in trouble. it is just a very dark world right now, but if you do not care about yourself contracting this deadly virus, think about your neighbor. think about your kids, your grandkids. this is just unreal. it is nothing but -- the reason these people are acting like this is totally political. host: i've been next out of antlers, oklahoma opposes the mandates made yesterday. caller: i weighed like you to

point -- anybody that has been vaccinated for the democrat china virus ought to shut up and where -- wear their damn masks and get off their back -- our backs. host: that is i've been in oklahoma -- ivan in oklahoma. we do not condone any threats of violence. those threats of violence that happen on air will be and have been reported. surely in new york city -- shirley in new york city. caller: people do not want to

get the shot. it does not make sense. january 6, that date, i left my daughter. -- i lost my daughter, she was 58 years old, to covid. i do not understand these people. it does not make sense. when are the people going to wake up and realize that this man is for himself, and he is a liar? host: shirley in new york this morning. we have talked about the mandates for businesses with 100 employees are more, -- or more, the new mandates that were

signed targeting federal contractors, educators who dissipate in the federal head start program -- participate in the federal head start program. [video clip] >> i am announcing that we will require all of 300,000 educators dissipate in the head start program must be vaccinated to protect the youngest americans and gift. s comfort -- and give parents comfort. i am calling on governors to step up vaccination requirements and schools are nothing new. day are overwhelmingly supported by educators and their -- they are overwhelmingly supported by educators and their unions. host: if you want to watch his remarks, you can do so on c-span.com.

cap press conference with merrick garland on -- that press conference with eric garland, you -- merrick garland, you can watch that as well. carmine in the bronx, opposes the mandate. caller: i think you fudged the numbers a little bit. i am not an anti-vaxxer. it said 600,000 plus americans have died. host: those were the numbers from the cdc. caller: i understand that. the cdc said that over 47 million americans have been infected, meaning 1.62% died, meaning 99% of people who get covid survived.

99% of people who get covid survive. children -- the media is making a lot about children -- less than 1% die. my second point, very quickly, israel showed that having coveted and recovering was -- covid and recovering was stronger than 2 covid shots. why don't you please bring on dr. massey/ he is an expert on natural immunity. why won't you put him on? host: we are not keeping him from being on. he has been on in the past. the house is not in session right now, so members are not in washington dc. the senate will be in next week.

the best chance we have to get house members on tv is when they are in town. ellen in new hampshire, you are next. caller: i am wondering if any of these people who have decided to suffer through it and get through it, the covid, if they are aware that when people survived polio, there were a lot of people who developed a condition later in life called postpolio syndrome that left a lot of them crippled and in pain. gary crippled and in pain -- very crippled and in pain. what if there is some rebound for people who contract covid

and go on for a while? the other thing is president trump has always been -- was always very passive-aggressive about this disease. yes, he was aggressive -- warp speed. was also passive with his super-spreader rallies. i hope they will look at his possible accountability for this. i have had ms since i was 19 years old. i am now 65. i mean -- yeah. maybe they have a right not to get vaccinated, but we all breathe the same inner. -- same air. host: this is blake in utah. opposes vaccine mandates. good morning. caller: i just want to use a

quote from benjamin franklin. i might be wrong -- " anybody willing to sacrifice a little bit of their personal liberties for their sense of security deserves neither one." our government has been wrong on so many occasions. a previous caller brought up weapons of mass destruction. remember when that was a slamdunk and it started this cascade affected best being in the middle east nationbuilding with the promises of lower costs of fossil fuels? our government has proven not to do things right, especially when they move fast, and with regards to this vaccine, we are only getting one side of the story because one side has more money. it is a follow the money deal, i get is from the prohibition act

with alcohol -- like it is with the prohibition act with call. there was not -- with alcohol. there was not less alcohol when it was prohibited. it was a bigger money grab. in this situation there is not enough long-term data to suggest if these so-called vaccines are good for us. if everyone is so confident, why don't we give them to babies? if that question is, we do not know what happens to the baby, we do not know what happens to us! why are we moving so quickly? you mentioned the cdc's numbers. they match the numbers of heart disease, and heart disease is something that covid -- these people would die anyway. host: at what point down the

road would you be comfortable taking the vaccine? if we had data on this for 5 years? 10 years? caller: i would be comfortable if they follow the standard most vaccines follow. host: the pfizer vaccine is fully approved by the fda. they have gone through that full approval. it is no longer an emergency use approval. caller: that is not the vaccine we are taking. host: that is the covid vaccine. caller: yeah, but that is a different type. there is an fda approval for one not going into arms presently. host: no, the covid vaccine is

the one that has been approved by the fda. michael is in marietta, georgia on the line for those who approve of the vaccines. caller: i think the vaccine does have a purpose, but it has a purpose for those who do not know the difference between a doughnut and a 20. if you do not -- and a twinky. if you do not understand that by smoking and drinking you are at risk, -- it has a purpose for those who are weak and ill. the once were strong -- ones who are strong, this vaccine does not have to bother us. if you do not need it, you should not take it. if you are unhealthy, you should take the vaccine because it will help you.

for those of us who are strong, not only in our health but in our faith, we do not have to take this vaccine because the chances of they doing harm to us are almost nonexistent. it is not that we do not want to help people, it is that we do not want to take something that we just do not need. host: here is mike in tampa via our text messaging service. " my constitutional rights trump all of your hysteria. you can't force me to put anything in my body." " stop clogging up our icus. allowed those who trust in science to be treated by science. we have called enough selfishness." " anyone working in a congregant

setting must be vaccinated to support -- protect the vulnerable residents." " anyone who gets handouts from the government must get vaccinated." this yahoo! news story dives into it -- postal service workers are not subject to a rule mandating vaccines or weekly testing at companies with ever 100 workers. president biden announced that the labor department is developing rules for those companies yesterday at the white house. businesses who ignore those testing requirements could face a penalty up to $14,000 per violation. this is mark, st. peter's,

missouri, your next. caller: i. do opposethe vaccine mandate for a few reasons first of all, immigrants from all over the world are coming into our country. those are just the ones we know of, not to mention the ones who were not even taught. i think the numbers -- not even caught. why is he discounting natural immunity? metal mayhem, but you never -- not only him but you never hear it from fauci. if he can do this and mandate it, where does it stop? this he going to mandate boosters? is he going to mandate more

shots one another variant comes along? it seems outrageous. finally, why won't joe biden enter any questions -- answer any questions? he reads from a teleprompter and walks away. he just cannot seem to get out there and answer questions from the american people at all. host: that is mark and missouri. washington, d.c., the line for those who support new mandates. caller: i would like to make a few points. first and foremost, we have all the americans who have been excavated against covid. -- those who died have not been

vaccinated. one of your callers mentioned -- there is a private entity that requires all of their employees be vaccinated. it is fox news, fun fact. a lot of love the colors talking about natural immunity -- all of the colors talking about natural immunity -- all of the callers talking about natural immunity, can we translate what that means? 600,000 americans died. those who survived have natural immunity. this is a vaccine. this is a cure. this is a step forward in our society. we need to stop watching youtube videos from people who do not

have any experience and to start believing scientists. this is not a political issue. this is just common sense. host: these vexing requirements we are talking about are part of the new six point -- vaccine requirements we are talking about are part of the new six point plan announced yesterday. it focuses on the economic recovery and improves patient care as well. on mask requirements, the tsa will double fines on passengers who refuse to wear masks. [video clip] >> i'm announcing the tsa will double the fines on travelers who refuse to mask. if you break the rules, be prepared to pay. and by the way, show some respect.

the anger you see on television towards flight attendants and others doing their jobs is wrong. it is ugly. host: president biden from the white house yesterday. about five minutes left in this segment of the washington journal. diedrich has been waiting in gainesville, virginia. opposes vexing mandates for -- vaccine mandates for employers. caller: you have got everyone yelling about freedom, etc.. do not mandate it, but let these people who talk about natural immunity, and all that stuff, they are not getting it. it is not about the people who die. it is about the long-term effects. you have all types of stuff. you do not know the aftereffects

of this stuff. for anybody to be talking about mandates. you play sports, you turn in your shot record. you go to school, you turn in your shot record. if you get it, you should not be allowed to go to the hospital if you are unvaccinated. if you get covid, you should stay at home. if you turned on the vaccine, stay-at-home. do not set up a gofundme page either. that one guy who was mr. anti-vaxxer who went by that nickname. i wish families would stop sending out apologies. if you let your family condone it, the consequences are yours. host: this is dennis in

williamsport on the line for those who support. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. i fully support. i have had my shots. i cannot wait to get my booster shot. i have already got my flu shot for this year. i know people who have had covid, and i will tell you, it is nothing to be full with. these people -- fooled with. we still have people standing on the market street bridge in williamsport holding up signs saying " covid is a hoax." i will not name what the people are in this area. the insurance companies need to step up and put a surcharge on insurance for anybody who is not vaccinated, because they are costing billions and trillions

of p dollars and strain is put on hospitals. host: like michigan, terry, good morning, you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to say i support the mandates. my wife was one of the first rounds to get the vaccine. she had the 2 pfizer shots and never had a problem. i live with her, just me, her and the two dogs. i have not gotten the vaccine yet. when she got vaccinated it was like " she is not going to bring it back to me the day care." i'm hardly around anybody.

that kind of went out the window when people around the traverse city, michigan area started to get it. i know 5 people sick at home now. host: do you think you will get the shot? caller: i have not gotten it. i do not drive and i have a bad back and stuff, and i do not have anybody around during the daytime. i want the shot now that i know more about it. i did not want to be first. i was just thinking -- my ma was telling me there have been several things when she worked at health care. she had to get a flu shot or lose her job. it was mandated.

we went through a series of shots for hepatitis. i think my biggest thing is it got so over politicized. social media does not help. you can sit there and read all day about reasons to get it, reasons not to get it. for somebody who was maybe -- about 6 to 8 months i didn't hear about anybody getting it, but now it is all around us here in michigan. i support the mandates before people start traveling around too much and spreading it. host: our last caller in this first segment, but stick around. we turn

we turn to the up coming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and we will discuss the evolution of the government surveillance programs in the past 20 years. stick around. ♪ ♪ >> this year marks the 20th anniversary of the september 11 attacks. join us for live coverage from new york, the pentagon, and shanksville pennsylvania starting at 7 a.m. eastern saturday on c-span. watch online at www.c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> weekends on c-span2 brings

you the best in american history and nonfiction books. this weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. saturday at 9:10 a.m. on eastern -- on c-span2 we will tour the national memorial near shanksville, pennsylvania, hearing the story behind the hijacking as passengers attempted to take control of the plane from terrorists who were headed for washington, d.c. at 2 p.m. eastern on the presidency, president bush's oval office address to the nation on the night of september 11 and at 5:30 p.m. eastern, former white house chief usher recalls events within the white house walls after the terrorists crashed into the twin towers and the pentagon. we feature leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. on sunday at 2:55 p.m., we will continue our look back on 9/11 with historian garrett grant and his book.

an oral history of 9/11. and at 4:15 p.m. eastern, pulitzer prize-winning offer lawrence right in his book. watch american history and book tv every weekend on c-span2. find a full schedule on your program guide or visit www.c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joy sanchez is back with us on a conversation about how 9/11 change the world of government surveillance. he is a national security technology expert at the cato institute. describe what the u.s. approach to surveillance was before 9/11? guest: the framework for

national security surveillance is provided by a 1970 state you -- statute called fisa. until the passage of the patriot act which has expanded the number of authorities, there were a couple of features that defined that. the first -- some of these things are consistent so it's an authority that permitted and established oversight of intelligent surveillance for the first time in response to abuses of surveillance power in the 1970's. it provided for a specialized secret court to authorize surveillance of persons believed to be agents of a foreign power. there were authorities for both full wiretap surveillance, full electronic surveillance as the statute called also a number of

other authorities to get things like telecommunication records and financial records which can be extremely sensitive and revealing and intrusive. following the usa patriot act, the decision was made to significantly widen the aperture of those surveillance authorities. one thing that was done was to enable them to be used in a greater variety of cases. previously, this had been suite of authorities to be used when the primary intelligence was foreign surveillance. these were permanently covert surveillance, unlike ordinary search warrants in wiretaps where they have to tell you after the fact that you were targeted step because these are somewhat broader authority, there had been concerns. you don't want people to circumvent the restrictions of

ordinary surveillance by using these intelligence powers for a regular criminal investigation step the patriot act said it no longer has to be the primary purpose of surveillance for foreign intelligence. it has to be a significant purpose so now you can use these permanently covert foreign intelligence tools for investigations were maybe the primary purpose is ordinary criminal prosecution. another significant thing is that to broaden the people targeted by other authorities like national security letters and the authority we had in section 215. these are authorities that previously permitted with respect to a fairly narrow range of types of businesses for communications records to be obtained or bank records to be obtained. it was for targets who are believed to be an agent of a

foreign power. the standard proof of that was lower than a full-blown search warrant or wiretap order but the idea was these were authorities to get sensitive records for the target, someone you thought was a foreign spy or terrorist. the really big change that was made with this is these authorities will be available for any records that are relevant to a national security investigation, and authorized investigation. the definition of that broadened as well. that meant you had an enormous and very quick increase in the use of these authorities, national security letters don't require any traditional approval and section 215 we now know was used for programs disclosed by edward snowden. the nsa collected all domestic telephone records.

in norma's number of people and their information who were not suspected of being spies or terrorists or having any connection to terrorism. they were now swept in on the premise that you need to collect this kind of haystack of information and it's an inversion of the classic model of what we think of as law enforcement investigation and surveillance. you have a suspicion associated with particular people and then you obtain authority to confirm your suspicions by investigating those particular people. the idea was captured in an nsa slide that was part of the files disclosed by the edward snowden contractor who described their new model as collect it all. you will gather large amounts of information about people's

communication networks, internet networks, financial networks and use that pool of data to try to get a picture that would help you. host: as we talk about the change to that collect it all mentality, we want our viewers to join the conversation and focus on government surveillance programs since 9/11, julian sanchez is joining us for that discussion. you mentioned the usa patriot act of 2001. viewers might not know that it's an acronym of the uniting and strengthening america by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism act of 2001. it was passed in the house just about six weeks after 9/11 and passed in the senate the next

day and signed into law by the president on october 26, 2001. this is president bush signing the patriot act into law and his remarks from that day. [video clip] >> we are dealing with terrorists that operate with highly successful methods and technologies, some of which weren't available when our existing laws were written. the bill before me takes account of the new realities and dangers posed by modern terrorists. and as importantly, we are changing the culture of error variance agencies that fight terrorism. countering terrorist activity is the number one priority for both law enforcement and intelligence agencies. surveillance of communication is an essential tool to stop terrorists. existing law was written in the year of rotary telephones. this new law that i signed today

will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists including emails, the internet and cell phones. as of today, we will be able to better meet the technological challenges posed by this proliferation of communications technology. host: president george w. bush from october 26, 2001. this idea of opening the lens of collecting it all, is this something that congress just came up with in the six weeks between september 11 and the usa patriot act being signed into law? how much had the idea been in the discussion before september 11 happened in this giant new law moves forward? guest: the nsa has always engaged in a fair amount of all collection. part of what changes here is it

used to be a fairly clean division. the fbi has a mandate to do both law enforcement and intelligence investigations domestically. bulk collection might happen abroad but there was a relatively clean distinction between the kind of methods you would use overseas with foreign targets in the message you would use them -- and the methods you would use domestically and this became somewhat blurred as you started dealing with the global internet where you have the communication facilities that may be based in the u.s. that would be used by people all over the world step ordinary american civilians in foreign terrorist were using potentially the same communication facility. it's important to stress that the kind of collected all model is not what congress had in mind. some of the most fervent supporters of the patriot act

and its original inception were shocked and appalled when they discovered that the statute they had defended was being used for this large-scale indiscriminate collection. while congress was authorizing the usa patriot act, it turns out that nsa was secretly at the same time allocating itself with george w. bush's blessing that congress had not authorized. there was the warrantless collection of telephone and internet content as well as essentially indiscriminate bulk collection, telephone and internet metadata. none of that was authorized intentionally by the patriot act. what happened over time is that

pieces of this began to be reported. the new york times began reporting on warrantless wiretapping which is one component of this stellar wind program. as that disclosure started making telecommunications companies skittish, essentially this program of bulk metadata collection and targeted warrantless content collection that was outside of fisa started to move into and be shoehorned into patriot act authorities that had not really been intended for that purpose. something ended up needing new legal authorities because they could not find a way to put it in the patriot act. the indiscriminate bulk collection of telephone records was not what congress thought they were authorizing.

as company started saying we want the judge's signature on a, these authorities got repurposed to take over the burden and provide legal cover for components of this stellar wind program that originally existed really outside of any kind of statutory authorization. as host: host: we talk about the evolution of surveillance, we want to bring in some callers. kyle is from buffalo, new york. caller: good morning, how are we doing today? host: what is your question or comment? caller: my comment is sadly, usually start off the school year always starts off about 911 and that's when of my ways -- that's one of my ways that i introduce the students slowly about our constitution and rights in different stuff.

the one thing i will say which i will focus on today is surveillance. during that time, there were a lot of groups targeted, drug dealers, people who spoke arabic and that's how they tried to use the patriot act to kind of surveilled them. there was a lot of drug dealers arrested that had not been before. other than that, go ahead and give me some information like -- that i can add to my curriculum today. host: what grade you teach? caller: high school. i teach criminal law, business law. business law and criminal law, i always start off with the constitution and our rights and the bill of rights and a lot of that stuff and then i kind of move our way into caselaw and different stuff like that.

9/11 has always been a good way for me to introduce the legal issues because of the patriot act. it's one of those things that we kind of lost a lot of our rights and more surveillance and cameras everywhere. host: thanks for the call. guest: i think that's a very astute point. it is a pattern we see repeated that authorities that are justifying just -- investigating terrorism are being repurposed for more mundane types of crimes and investigations. there is a non-fisa authority that was part of the patriot act. the fisa authority is only for the fbi and now sometimes in cooperation with nsa step there was an authority that was usually referred to as a sneak and peek aren't that was more

broadly -- warrant that was more broadly available. when you execute a physical search, you are supposed to present the warrant to the person whose property you are searching. there are rare exceptions. this part of the patriot act was to make it easier to engage in this kind of sneak and peak search where you do the search secretly and you only notify the person whose property you search after the fact. this was sold on the basis that you need to make this easier because investigations can be done without tipping off terrorists if they are investigating a terrorist cell. by a huge margin, this is an authority that was used to investigate ordinary drug crimes and a tiny number of terrorist investigations. it's hard to quantify this exactly but we know that a common practice in these kind of

investigations is something called parallel construction. it is hidden from courts and criminal defendants. nsa or some other intelligence agency will pick up information related to a non-intelligence crime and then usually, they will funnel that information to a local police department who will then, in order to protect the intelligence source, essentially gin up a fake account of how they became suspicious and white is they thought it was worth looking into the activities of a particular person or group. for obvious reasons, this is secret so it's hard to make a direct connection but we know this is a widespread practice where you have huge amounts of information being collected under intelligence authorities but it then ends up making its

way to local police or local law in force and who use this information for routine criminal investigations. they are supposed to be governed by ordinary criminal process but it's to protect sources and methods. they fabricate a story about where their information came from all step it's hidden from courts and hidden from defendants. host: from enid, oklahoma, max, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking michael. c-span metadata because they knew who i was and where was calling went and i didn't give that information on the call. the point is, i know about the cato institute and i am on your mailing list. what you are trying to say is that the federal government is not allowed to collect data that they don't have warrants or suspicion on and they do anyway. the organizations that do it,

they lie about it to congress and they lie about it to the intelligence community and they lie under oath to the american people they don't suffer any consequences. the people who expose the lies and give us the information that's the truth, the journalist like edward snowden is in jail which is internationally appalling step that hurts our country by putting journalists in jail or capturing them in absentia. just to tie this back to 9/11, this surveillance is obviously possible but the pentagon apparently had no surveillance of what happened on 9/11 in 2001. there is one photograph and so everybody knows in 20 years, the trade towers fell down and a third building fell down. thank you and i will take your comments off the air. guest: that's right.

he was expressing doubt as to whether these attacks happen. i don't share that and clearly there wasn't this there was an attack on 9/11. i think that story is accurate but otherwise, most of what he said is effectively true. we see a pattern of authorities being used for purposes that congress did not intend. we see it as a constitutional matter. we see surveillance without a warrant and sometimes without any kind of statutory authorization that constitutes a search within the fourth amendment which should be authorized. and we see very frequently officials in the intelligence community either lying to congress as the former director

of fbi intelligence james clapper did when he denied congress that there was any kind of bowl program collecting data about hundreds of millions of americans and he knew there was. more frequently, using extremely misleading or technical terminology to effectively say things that are technically true if you know the definition of the terms they are using. these terms are extraordinarily misleading. sometimes they will talk about collection. they say we are not collecting information and until relatively recently, that was a way you could shave the truth because they were not counting information as collected until a human reviewed it even if they were sucking up huge quantities of data sitting on a computer

waiting to be reviewed. host: what was the usa freedom act? guest: we need to talk about the fisa amendments act because this is something that happens in between those two. host: go for it. guest: in 2008, some of the stuff we were talking about comes a little bit later so there are 2000 for additions like the so-called lone wolf authority to essentially use pfizer for suspected terrorists who are not to a terrorist organization. as far as we know, it's never been used but remains on the books. in 2008, as more and more of the components of stellar wind are exposed, it becomes clear that one part of stellar wind, the targeted but warrantless collection of certain

international communications traffic is not really something that you can adequately shoehorn into these existing brought authorities. in 2008, the pfizer amendment act is passed. the most significant part is section 702. what that does is authorized what our founding fathers would've pulled a general warrant. the premise behind 702 is that it creates a kind of authority that could be used to target non-us persons who are residing overseas and intercept their communications as they transit or the united states even when those people are talking to americans. it used to be if you had a foreign target and had a phone call with the u.s. person in the u.s., you would need a warrant to listen to that communication domestically. if you weren't listening to overseas.

under section 702, what's now authorized is instead of having to get a particular warrant, as the fourth amendment wires, -- requires, you would establish broad targeting and minimization procedures. the director of national intelligence and attorney general would develop not a particular target and a particular justification or rubble because for surveilling that target but broad procedures for how you choose the target and how you limit access to the information once you collect it in the pfizer court would sign off not on an individual target but on this kind of general warrant, this broad set of targeting procedures. then nsa would choose who the targets were under that doherty. you would have one warrant that would now be used to target, the

most recent numbers, about 200,000 foreign targets. they are intercepting a huge number of u.s. person communications. anytime though target just those targets talk to someone in the u.s. and people sometimes cross -- talk across international boundaries. once the data is collected, the intelligence agencies are retailer -- routinely clearing his database for the u.s. side of that. you have authority that's being sold on the premise that this is just an authority to target noncitizens outside the u.s. as their communications happen to flow through google or yahoo! or microsoft servers or u.s. telecom wires. once this enormous quantity of data is selected, they are saying we will not search the

database for the american person side of that. even though a probable cause or particular search warrant if i wanted to target that person on the front and. it's an authority that's sold as , is really about foreign terrorists and spies and people outside the u.s. and don't have u.s. rights but we know it's routinely used with an eye toward specifically searching for u.s. person data that could not have been targeted under the authority, at the front end. host: let's stop the story there. i will take a couple of calls we will come back to you and you can respond. rich in hickory hills, illinois, go ahead. caller: thank you. thank you for your show and your soup or on the topic.

the question that comes into mind for me is the price that we pay. it's like trying to find a balancing act with her second -- with protecting yourselves with surveillance but using that surveillance to take away the right of the citizens that we lose by trying to protect us. the thing that bothered me was when i manipulated the election between jimmy carter and ronald reagan i think it was. we wanted our people back and he took the iranians took that situation to actually manipulate ronald reagan getting elected because he had this tough stance on that particular right.

it was manipulated and now suddenly, they manipulated our election and ronald reagan be name elected president. these policies and politics then became an active because of who was elected. host: this is mike in glendale, arizona, good morning. caller: i am 70 years old and i think the biggest ring i have learned since i was 17 years old is nobody really is protecting the citizenry and is not just the united states stop its china and russia and britain. it's all over and i think the real shame and the limited time i have left in my life is that we are being manipulated on such a level now. we have a guy who's president

now who has cheated on tests. this is the best that america can produce, the best. i don't feel safe for my kids future anymore. host: one more call from dennis in dundalk, maryland. are you there? caller: yes, sir. host: go ahead with your questions or comments. caller: i understand that the president cares and wants to protect everybody and i work in a place -- host: we are going to hold off on the mandate for the vaccine because that was the first hour of our program. we are talking about the evolution of surveillance in the united states is 9/11. you heard from the first two callers and if you want to respond to those and pick up on where we are today. guest: the question about trade-offs is important.

one pattern we have seen over time is that as various aspects of intelligence surveillance programs are disclosed, we see very ambitious claims made about their efficacy or necessity that under scrutiny over time really turned out not to be true. we know when the warrantless wiretapping component of stellar wind was first exposed in 2005, we heard vice president cheney and the attorney general claiming that this had been essential to saving thousands of american lives. and foiling various terrorist acts and then many years later, around 2000 nine, the inspectors general of the intelligence community did a declassified version of their analysis. what they found was more modest. they said they were really unable to pinpoint any

particular counterterrorism set that was attributable to this quite large-scale warrantless wiretapping and surveillance and bulk data collection program. we saw that repeat itself with the telephony program nsa was operating. it was disclosed by edward snowden and we heard initially that this had been essential to thwarting terror activities on dozens of occasions and save lives. in two different independent reviews from a presidential commission and the civil liberties oversight board, they concluded that this enormous collection of hundreds of millions of american's private telephone data had been useless. they really could not find an instance when it provided important non-duplicates of information that was information the fbi wasn't already getting

under traditional targeted court orders and other kinds of authorities for telephone records. it's not surprising. if you have authorized a fairly intrusive method and people will find offensive or an intrusion of civil liberties, it's difficult to admit that we did that for no reason step these robust claims of efficacy are made and once you find out they turn out to be not true, there are other expenses of authority where it's a closer call whether clearly is some intelligence benefit and it's harder to weigh the equities and could you get the same benefits and a way that's more protective of silver liberties and more protective of privacy -- of privacy. the consistent pattern is sometimes you are authorizing early intrusive methods and the

game is hard to identify. there is this impulse to justify it and no one wants to say we wasted millions or billions of dollars and gathered a lot of private information and it turns out we didn't get anything for it. host: about 10 minutes left with julian sanchez from the cato institute. this is michael from miami, thanks for waiting. caller: i am actually in broward county which you have seen a lot in the news. we are basically under attack by our governor desantis here. we are trying to protect our children. what you are talking it hits at the center of libertarianism, federal versus state issues. we are focusing on racketeering action down here.

they are putting out what the marching orders are for the governor. basically covid libertarian eugenic genocide. what the governor is doing is following cpac and there is a further push using children. host: let's let julian sanchez respond. guest: that is not related to surveillance. i have personally written quite critically on a couple of occasions about governor sanchez and his policy. -- governor desantis in his apologies and his prohibiting private businesses for providing vaccination proof is not a move to protect freedom but is an unjustifiable restriction of freedom of association, freedom

of business individuals to attempt to protect themselves by exercising their private choices. that's something i was harshly critical of. cato is not giving ron desantis marching orders. cato does not usually take collective decisions. many of my colleagues and myself have been critical of ron desantis. i would very much like it if he were taking his marching from us but i see very little evidence of that. host: back to the issue of surveillance, rich things for waiting in baltimore. caller: good morning, i have a comment. it's the day before 9/11 and you guys are speaking about surveillance and what this country did wrong in response to the terrorist attacks. it's just disrespectful in my view that you are not doing more of a tribute. i'm sure you'll do more things

with tributes and things that happen on that day. to criticize this country on the day before 9/11, i find it quite disrespectful. it's more to c-span for the comment for having this talk today. host: in our last hour and 15 minutes of the program, we are turning the phone lines back to the viewer to get your memories of 9/11 and programming throughout the day will cover all of the events tomorrow from new york to d.c. and pennsylvania. you can watch it all live and call in about it all day tomorrow on c-span. there will be plenty of that. but we are running out of time in this segment and i want to give you a chance to finish the story on surveillance and where we ended up today. guest: we are starting to see a little bit of a rollback of some

of those authorities in a way i would not have thought possible a decade ago. in the aftermath of the edward snowden disclosures and the revelation that some of these patriot act authorities had been used for large-scale collection that was not anticipated by congress and the discovery of a number of compliance problems with authorities like the usa freedom act in 2015 which started paring back some of those authorities. section 215 and other powers now require specific selection terms, meaning you can no longer say we just want everyone's records or every phone record for a call to chicago. it needs to be a specific identifier that these are the phone numbers we are interested in. there was an attempt to preserve a version of the bulk nsa

telephony program but that's basically now defunct. collection under 702 has been somewhat narrowed by the fisa court. certain kinds of collections that were prone to over collection have been reined in. the usa freedom act created a panel calledamici within the pfizer course of the secret court is not only hearing from the government post there are now advocates for civil liberties and technologies -- technologists that have a countervailing perspective in cases where the court asked for that. there have been improvements and we have a statistical transparency report that gives us not lots of data but it gives us much more information than we were accustomed to getting about the use of many of these

authorities. the trend is in a positive direction. surprisingly, several key patriot act authorities effectively expired about a year ago. used to be that when sunset rolled around, these authorities weretemporary and had to be renewed . you would see this panic about going dark and we will be blind in our intelligence agencies will be helpless if you don't reauthorize these authorities with little debate. several of them have expired about a year ago and there doesn't seem to be that level of panic. it's probably because there is a grandfather clause that allows many of them to continue to use. it's part of a seachange where in part, republicans have become a little bit less unreservedly trusting of the intelligence community.

there are trajectories in a healthy direction but we also see in an enormous number of people being surveilled under these powers and routinely, we keep discovering compliance issues where the fisa court has not really been adequately informed and searches are improperly performed on these vast databases. the trajectory is maybe in a more positive direction than you would have anticipated in the context of the climate of panic in the years medially following 9/11. host: we will end it there but thank you for walking is for the surveillance history 20 years in the making. it's cato.org if you want to read his work at cato institute on twitter. always appreciate your time. guest: a pleasure and thank you for having me. host: up next and for the

remainder of the program, we will take your calls, your memories of september 11, 2001 as the nation marks 20 years since the attack. you can start calling in on phone lines for those in the eastern and central time zones. first, as you are calling in, one snapshot of that day from someone who lived through it at ground zero. this was the first caller of our september 12, 2001 program on c-span talking to c-span. founder brian lamb. >> our first call comes from new york city, good morning you are on the air. what would you like to say? >> i didn't think i would get through. on rector street when the first plane hit i was there. >> where is that? >> it was two blocks from the world trade center. >> two blocks south? what were you doing there? >> believe it or not, i was

meeting a deputy commissioner of the tlc which is the limit -- limousine commissioner to get a job as an instructor. it was amazing. everybody was looking up and i didn't see what was at first. that looked up and i saw what looked like a huge hole in the world trade center. i was trained as a paramedic and i my currently licensed but i started walking toward the world trade center on greenwich street. i saw arms and legs and pieces of bodies and a lot of bad stuff. i put on my latex gloves and i walked up i got to the front door and there is this guy from fema who was -- i said i'm not license but i'm trained as a paramedic and he said that doesn't matter now, come on in. we went in and went under the basement to the other side of the building and basically,

people were coming down the stairs in the fire department was arriving in groups they were going up the stairs. there was a group of us and people were leaving out the exit and they were getting killed by debris that was falling. we would corel people and groups of 50 or 100 and go out the door and look for debris. and we would tell them go and they would run out in groups we did that maybe 15 or 20 times when the second plane hit. at that point i started cursing i turned to the fbi agent. i said we are supposed to be prepared for this. two guys in the bomb squad cayman and i said are we looking for secondaries? my first thought was that they missed the first time and they will definitely bring it down. my thought was that the planes were just a distraction and they

probably had bombs in the garage or whatever and that's what their main intention was. it was during the low - l andu i turned tol one of the fbi agentl and i looked him in the eye and i said you know these things will come down, don't you? he said yeah, they are. none of the federal agents knew the building was going to come down and they just stay. i don't think the fireman, the looks on their faces, i don't think they thought they were going to get out either. we were just trying to get out. >> how did you get out? >> there was an nypd captain with intelligence and he came up to me and said you're a paramedic? and i said yeah. he said this is for police and

paramedics are at church and fulton. that's the very east entrance to the trade center. he said go there and help. i said i will stay with you. he said no, go. i went out the door and across the street i came up to the paramedics who were there i said do you guys need help? they said are you kidding? we startedtriage peopleing and then there was an explosion. i looked up and it was falling on us, the whole thing was coming down on us and we all ran. host: that call on c-span from september 12 of 2001. 20 years later, we are spending the rest of our program hearing your memories from september 11,

2001 on the terror attack from washington to bc and pennsylvania and wondering what you remember from that day. here are the phone numbers. out of dover plains, new york, jan where were you 20 years ago tomorrow. >> let me you my teething. i was working in an elementary school right outside the new york metropolitan area. my daughter was attending dutchess county community college and her class was scheduled to go down to the towers that day.

i found out at 2:00 in the afternoon that she had missed the bus and nobody could get any communication through. it turns out that the bus broke down off the taconic parkway and everybody was fine. i found out and she called my school and left a message at 2:00 p.m., saying she was ok. on a secondhand personal note, my future husband was working in the -- on the 110th floor for a tv station out of new york city and he was scheduled to go down and work on that. this is pre-cell phone. he got a call the night before saying that the meeting was canceled. he was supposed to meet with his employer and the tv executives. there was a crew there and two of them got the message and two of them did not.they

went down in the towers. it was very emotional for him. i did not meet him until a few leaders later but it was extremely emotional for him and he had a rough time of it. subsequently, he went with his boss -- even thinking about it, to look for people, possible survivors in the rubble, he was there for three days and his boss stay there for i don't know how long. kathy later ended up with medical problems -- and he later and up of medical problems that i'm sure were related to it. host: thanks for sharing your family story from that day. jack in california, your next. caller: hi there, i was born in 1997.

september 11 happened when i was barely four years old. i don't really remember a whole lot about it. everyone i talked to, remembered the exact time and place where they were. nowadays, i feel there is a generation and the generation before me that will not grow up with the severity of what happened because they themselves did not really experience it. i would urge people to do their research and find out what happened because it's a crazy thing. i'm sure it's more intense for people who saw it live on television. i don't think it's as severe for people who didn't really experience it themselves. i thought it was an interesting point that we are seeing generations now growing up without the 9/11 experience.

we can sort of remind people what happened that day and remember the sacrifices that people made. from that day and 20 years later to keep ourselves safe. thank you. host: jerry also in california, you are next. caller: good morning, yes, i remember when it happened. it was kind of strange because the way that they had done it in anyways, the morning i came into work, the person i was relieving when i stopped to tell him i was here, he said a plane just ran into the world trade center he

said go park and hurry and come in because we had cable tv. when i went and parked and when i finally came in, i said is this it? he said no, this is something different. it must be a different plane. i'm like no way so we watched the second plane run into the second building live on tv. we couldn't believe what we were -- and we were just in shock. right away, we were like no, this is crazy. the field that we are in a security and the next thing you know, we started getting calls like that and down the hatches and everything. it was weird because it happened in new york but affected all of us throughout the united states. host: where did your security

job take you in the years afterwards? caller: i am still in the same spot. i am still doing it but not in the same account but still here in california. i -- it did kind of make me realize different things especially common sense wise. i kind of knew things and i put two and two together. we had one of our residents who had a company and they had over 100 -- the people who work for no money? what are they called? the kids that work for money out of college.

host: interns? caller: there were over 100 interns up there and they were going to funerals almost every weekend for that stuff another guy that lived there, his brother was one of the copilots on the plane that went into the ditch. host: that was jerry in california. here is the timeline from that day, september 11, 2001. 9:59 a.m., the south tower collapsed and it 3:00 a.m. come united flight 93 crashed in shanksville, pennsylvania and then the north tower collapses. the deaths at the world trade

center at the pentagon, 125 deaths of 59 additional abort american flight 77 and in shanksville, pennsylvania, the 40 men and women aboard united flight 93. the front-page newspapers from that day, here is a few of them for you and putting the reprint this morning from the wall street journal of their front-page the next day on september 12, 2001. from the chicago tribune from the next day this is the herald sun front page.

also the boston globe. several more newspapers we will show you through this last hour and 15 minutes ofthe "washington journal" but we want to hear from you. along with hearing your stories, we want to show you a few interviews we have done with long time members of congress in washington on september 11, 2001 in their views from that day. among them, congresswoman jan schakowsky. here are some of her memories from capitol hill that day. [video clip] >> i remember being in the capital jim and one of the office buildings. i was working out and the woman who is in charge called me and said you have to look at the television. i came over and i saw the first plane hit the twin towers and i

thought to myself, what a horrible accident that was. then we continue to watch and saw the second plane hit. that was the second tower and we knew this was an attack on the united states. this was no accident. i quickly got dressed and ran back to my office and looked out the window of my office and saw smoke rising from the direction of the pentagon step that was the other hit. we didn't know at the time about that plane that had landed, that had crashed in pennsylvania and the incredibly brave people who took that plane down. we did hear that a plane might be heading for the capital but at first we didn't hear anything. we didn't know what to do. we began to have a discussion -- do you think we will have hearings? should i go to the financial

services subcommittee hearing? and there was nothing from the capitol police until there were voices running down the hall and it was the capitol police thing get out of here evacuate, leave now. the staff ran out of the building and i said we need to leave the capital complex. let's get in a car and we went to the apartment of my chief of staff's mother. we all stayed there for a while. there was very little communication. this is the days before blackberries. communications improved as a result of 9/11 and we all got blackberries and mitigation devices. i did hear about the meeting on the capital steps were members joined and sang loud and clear,

god bless america. it wasit was such an incredibly traumatic and stirring day. host: congresswoman jan schakowsky from a week ago. that last moment she talked about that meeting of members on the steps of the capitol, the singing of "god bless america." here is that moment from september 11, 2001, starting with the moment of silence asked for by dennis has to. [video] >> our thoughts and was injured and those who are casualties of today's attacks. we asked now we all bow our heads for a moment of silence in remembrance.

thank you. [crowd talking] >> are you ok? >> ♪ land that i love stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans god bless america my home, sweet home

god bless america my home, sweet home ♪ ♪ [applause] host: members of congress on the steps of the u.s. from september 11, 2001. taking your phone calls this morning, getting your stories and memories from that day. carrollton, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i -- it was my freshman year of college. i was working at a local grocery store.

in carrollton. , and i started my day around 8:00 that morning. everything was normal. then about 9:00 i was walking in the back. i saw the receiving clerk in the back. she was crying, like bawling her eyes out. what is going on? she is like, america is under attack. i was confused. we did not have tv's. we did not have -- she had a radio that she listened to music. it was playing news at the time, which was kind of unusual. she said america is under attack. she had already been told her son, who was in the military, had been put on standby.

so, what was interesting about that day is while everything started out normal, the rest of the day it was like we at the grocery store, like the business just completely dropped off. no one was coming into the store. people, the other employees, we were all like -- no one could speak to each other. we were all there. we did not really know what was going on. it wasn't until i got home or got back to my dorm at about 4:00, 4:30 that afternoon i actually saw the videos of the planes hitting the towers. i can remember looking at my

roommate and saying, oh my gosh. because i did not realize how bad it was until i got back that day. it still is burned in my memory, the first time i actually saw that video once i got back to my dorm and turned on the tv. host: kevin in georgia. this is petra out of virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have lived in virginia for 30 years. i love this country so very much. on september 11, i was greeting some customers, some guests. a lady went to the phone and she came back and said something happened in new york. an airplane just flew into the twin towers.

i was shocked. the only thing i said was if that is true, there will be a war. over 17 years, almost every time i was driving by the most beautiful flag of the world, the american flag, constantly i was contemplating what happened to the world. i am an artist. a friend of mine who is an artist as well, we created a video which is at the september 11 memorial in new york. everybody globally can see it. the title of it is, "remember 9/11." if it comes to the end of august, september, my heart is beating every time so badly because emotionally it is too much for all of us and for me as

well. we hope we can share this video. i'm not sure if i'm allowed to mention it here. we hope we can share and people can look at this nice, beautiful, healing and meaningful video and ask for contemplation. thank you very much. host: drake from maryland, you are next. caller: hello. host: go ahead, drake. caller: 9/11. it is significant in my life. i was active duty, stationed overseas that day. i was a boatswain's mate in the united states navy. i got off early that day. it was significant. boatswain's mate's never get up early. it was significant. i remember getting off around 2:00.

going through them all. , called the -- going through the mall area, the ginza. it was filled with military police. master at arms. u.s. navy. it would -- that would never be the case on an ordinary day they would never be there at 2:00. i was buying beer. i was going to go up to a mountain, the top of a mountain to my buddy's apartment. i recall someone tagging me and following me up the mountain on that day. you know, by the time it happened, because of the fact japan is 12 hours ahead, it was about 9:00 at night. i beat my friend at madden. the tv turned off because he got mad. we thought it was a movie.

we saw the planes hit. it was all in kamji, -- kanji, in japanese. we did on the what was going on. host: how long did you stay in the military after 9/11? caller: about three years. the people came to get us from there. nobody knew we were up there. ever since that day, even though it was 20 years ago, it has been that shaving with the jet mechanic school to figure this thing out. can jets do that? i don't know. is that possible? i have completely -- not lost my mind. i just wanted to figure things out on my own. host: that is drake in maryland. robin in california, you are next. caller: good morning. i was in africa, in kenya.

i had taken a group of women on safari. 50 of them. most were from new york. i decided to rest and catch up on paperwork. people came out of a ten. they said america has been attacked. how do you know it is not a joke? i listened to the radio. then i went to the the lodge manager. they had on -- they had a television, not for the people but in the back. it had been attacked. they came back from safari. i had a meeting. i said to them, i know you think i'm telling you a joke but i'm not. i'm not kidding. the united states has been attacked. it was like [gasp].

something had come from the state department about the attacks. that is what happened. the first thing we did was they had one telephone. we lined up people to see if they could call back to the states. some of the people did get through. they lined up and called for about six hours. we could not get back. the state department ordered us to go on. we went on to my boss a -- mumbasa. you cannot fly back for days. we spent the next few days trying to get our people to amsterdam. later we got them to answer dam. then they went -- the amsterdam. then they went back to new york. how do you tell them it has been attacked? so many of them were from there. it is the hardest thing i have

ever done. host: this morning just getting your memories of september 11, 2001. 20 years later. plenty more coverage of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. most of the day tomorrow here on c-span, our live coverage starts at 7:00 a.m.. you can watch it here on c-span, c-span.org, and listen to coverage of the memorial ceremony from the twin towers site, the pentagon memorial outside of washington across the potomac river in arlington, virginia, and from shanksville, pennsylvania. your calls as well. our covers going well into the afternoon. we hope you join us on c-span. this is virginia in waldorf, maryland. good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well, virginia. caller: my daughter is in new

york, right down from the twin towers. so was her apartment actually. the devastation was really bad. after the towers fell it put them down in the basement of the building until the air could clear out. unfortunately, i'm in d.c. i worked at 1710h, right across from the white house. we lost one employee. we had employees that came out of the pentagon with their hands on their knees. you could feel the repercussion of the building, the pentagon when he got hit. our building in d.c. it was just a devastating day for anybody that has to experience it. the city was locked down. the buses could not come in. you had to ride the subway, and only certain lines. it was mass chaos.

we had sharpshooters on top of our building. we had -- with the white house is, they blocked it off. you cannot get anywhere from vermont avenue to the white house, over to about g street, i guess. almost 21st. it was mass chaos. it was terrible. host: thank you virginia. from twitter, howard morton digging into the archives. looking at the scene in d.c. what traffic was like trying to lead capitol hill. take a look here. [video] >> irs. did they evacuate the building? >> [indiscernible] >> what did they say? >> get out of the building. >> do you know if they are evacuating other government buildings? >> [indiscernible] >> ok.

are you trying to head home? >> driving out to virginia. >> thanks. where are you coming from? >> maryland. >> not coming from work? >> [indiscernible] >> you are trying to get home? where do you work? >> [indiscernible] >> what did amtrak do? >> they evacuated. >> is the whole thing evacuated? >> i last i saw people were going to the train. i think it is still operating but i don't know. >> you are heading to maryland? >> yes. >> thanks. [bells ringing]

where you guys heading? >> maryland. >> you are in the capito,? >> we work at the u.s. senate building. there was an explosion at the capitol. they let us go. >> they evacuated all the office buildings? >> after we left the building, that's when it went off. >> there actually was an explosion? >> yes. they said it was a false statement about a car bombing. >> they did? >> the state department. >> when did you hear that? >> [indiscernible] >> the thank you. -- thank you. host: seen scene from the c-span archives.

the last caller talked about feeling the vibrations in her office and washington, d.c. of the airplane hitting the pentagon. usa today wrap up of september 11 by the numbers with some of the numbers about that tragic day. the south tower of the world trade center collapsed at a magnitude of 2.1 on a seismograph. the north tower for the magnitude of 2.3 according to columbia university. the san francisco bay area earthquake in 1989 had a magnitude of 7.1. some of the other tragic numbers from that wrap up. the youngest passenger on the hijacked jets with christine hansen on united airlines 175. she was two on her first trip to disneyland. the oldest passenger was robert norton, an american airlines flight 11. he was 82. there were some 2000

children who lost a parent. 146 lost a parent at the pentagon. nancy from altoona, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i was working at a local hospital. i can remember that there was such disbelief that is happened. what could it be? the feeling that started to spread word-of-mouth. the tv was on whether patients gather on our floor. somewhere watching it. what could this be? the feeling was disbelief at first. could it be an accident? it is something we have never

experienced. the tv was on and things were developing. then the disbelief turned to the second attack knowing it was an attack. how could this happen was the feeling. these are the feelings that everybody experienced in different ways. some people started crying and some people just stared like, what is going to happen next? it put a heavy heart into that whole day. how could this have happened stop helplessness for america. how we are experiencing such a thing that sort of woke us up to how precious our freedom is and

our way of life that we just have it. we always feel we don't experience things like this. host: how long did that feeling last of the preciousness of life and what it means to be an american? is that something that continues to last two today? t -- to today? caller: we need to spread it more. the ones that did not live it. the helplessness. i just wanted to buy -- i went and i got -- that said "we will

never forget." it had 9/11. he lived with you, that you are an american. we have that vulnerability. we should treasure our way of life and our freedom. it never leaves you. it is history. we have to pass it on, because it keeps that alive. that there is too much fighting amongst ourselves right now. this attack brought to life that we don't allow things like this to happen. we all stuck together. host: you said you had a connection to flight 93? caller: no, it was not any kind of family member. right away i just knew how brave the -- he felt that feeling of

the people on that plane trying to stop it from going somewhere else. they had their cell phones, talking to people and letting some things known. it did not happen until afterwards. that feeling of those brave people. that is what america stands for. that just as well sticks in my mind, that flight 93. host: thanks for that call. george and whiteside, missouri. your next. caller: good morning. i was not in the -- i wasn't around it but i seen it on tv. that was 20 years ago. the united states better once

again what's happened. that guy down it mar-a-lago, he has caused all this stuff and it will happen again. just keep it up and keep it up and keep it up. they better do something about that man. i'm telling you, it's going to happen again. host: hank from south carolina. where were you on september 11? caller: thanks for taking my call. i was fixing to go to work. i have been told to come in a little late that morning because we were going to work late to work on some equipment. hi did not have things to do so i was just watching television. i saw the first plane hit. i did not know. i kept watching. when i seen the second plane, you know, i can't remember

exactly what was going on. i just kind of lost it. i remember going to work. when i got there my supervisor and my other bus jumped all over me. what are you doing late? you were supposed to come in here. man, turn on the radio. we are at war. i don't want to hear it. just turn on the radio. then they came down and apologized to me after they found out what was going on. i will never forget that, as long as i live. watching and listening on tv today brings back all those memories. host: plenty of programs throughout the week that have already happened touching on the 20th anniversary this year of september 11. it was yesterday at the national press club that home into kitty secretary may august -- homeland

security secretary talked about the survivor tree that came from the attack on 9/11. what it means now for the folks who work at the department of homeland security. this is his remarks from yesterday. [video] >> shortly after 9/11 in the aftermath of that tragic day, amidst the rubble a tree was found that was struggling but still alive. it was a pear tree. the new york city department of parks and recreation took us to the tree and rehabilitated it over the ensuing weeks and months and years. it was termed the survivor tree. when it produced a seed, a seed

would be distributed to a community or town that had unfortunately also suffered tremendous tragedy and loss. sadly, there are many of them. the seeds have been distributed to them. whether it be orlando, newtown, boston, las vegas, and many others. the seeds of that survivor tree have also been distributed to places of tribute and honor and memory. we in the department of homeland security for extorting of the privileged to receive a seed and plant it yesterday. it speaks to the resilience of our country and to the fact that that resilience is born of the work and dedication of people

across the country, including those in the department of homeland security. at this time in our country, two days from 9/11, we think of course of the lives that were lost on 9/11, 2001 as a result of the tragedy. we really doubled down in our commitment to ensure that this country, our american way of life, our principles are everlasting. we dedicate ourselves to that. host: homeland security 60 me -- secretary mejorcas yesterday . about a half-hour love to hear your memories of september 11, 2001. also looking for your comments on social media as well.

this was lucian. i was watching washington journal. they had a segment with the secretary of education. i had an eight-year-old daughter. i changed the channel to cnn and they were talking about the world trade center burning. jersey girl. my partner was a social worker and spent weeks working downtown. so glad he has not had physical health problems but her mental health has never been the same. diana says her husband saw the attack. the next day these union guys answer the call to help with the wreckage. thank god he has not gotten sick. the air was toxic, we have learned. i was in florida. it was my birthday. i was listening to the radio at work. i thought it was a remake of the war the world's radio show, then realized it was real.

it was the worst birthday present ever. taking your phone calls. we will show you some more of the front pages from september 12, 2001. what it looked like on the front pages of america's newspapers next day. ann is new york. caller: thank you for taking my call. i love retiree for united airlines. i was on my way to the office where i would meet up with another associate. we had a 10:00 meeting at the same building, building number 2. building 7. it was with a big company i will not name. it had been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. as i went into the elevator to go up to my office another person joined me and said it seems like a little plane has flown into one of the towers.

i replied, i hope it is not going to be catastrophic. i have a meeting there at 10:00 a.m. i really don't want that to be canceled. when i walked into the office there were people standing around looking at this -- the earth had just fallen from underneath their feet. did you hear about the plane that ran into the tower? they said yes, but we can't find one of our flights out of boston. we cannot locate it and we don't know what happened to it. the rest of the day was -- i cannot even describe how sad it was to see what happened to our company and our country. in particular, flight 93. i knew the captain. i had flung with him from new york to l.a. in august. what a gentleman he was to all the corporate people that i was

accompanying to l.a. so sad. i will never forget. i am grateful i did not go down to the world trade center, because my life would have been taken. i thank you for the time. host: how long did you stay with united after that? how long did it take for you to get on an airplane again? caller: i went right back. i was in sales. i had to travel quite a bit. my total years was 30 years. later after that i was supposed -- closed to retirement. it was not because of 9/11. it was just time to retire. no, i have no fear of flying. as a matter of fact, united airlines employees, the captains, they were excellent. i have been all over the world. i really put a lot of pride into

the company and what we stood for. host: was flying different after 9/11 then before 9/11, the experience of flying? caller: yeah. security was different. the airlines did not have security. that was not the reason this happened. after that everything changed. it definitely made a change. host: thank you for sharing your memories. scott, seattle. you are next. caller: good morning. i was thinking about that 20 years ago. we had a small television. seattle is a long way from new york city. i worked at the main seattle tacoma airport. we had this little 13-inch little magnavox tv. sometimes we would watch it.

as a mechanic there was a deafening, super loud noise on all the time. it was eerily quiet when they started shutting down the airspace around the whole state. every once in a while he would see some national guard playing flying close to supersonic across the sky. as far as normal civilian air traffic it was completely shut down. it was so strange and eerily quiet. drive around the airport. no planes taxiing. nothing landing or taking off. we had some mechanics across the border up in canada working on a broken plane. they were stranded for five or six days. it was a hassle for them. but nothing like what the people in new york experienced. thanks for taking michael. host: it is the quiet you were never the most?

caller: you could hear birds chirping. it's funny how fatiguing having noise around you -- it can be tiring. it was so weird. after the first plane hit, we were discussing it. this is like a blue sky day. no american airlines pilot is going to have that problem with that building in the middle of the city. the second one hit and we knew it was obviously a terrorist attack. i saw the second plane hit. i did not see the first one on tv. we were gathered around this little tv, this maintenance area with a small crew of mechanics. we just kind of -- the planes on the ground stayed there for like the next five or six days as all the airspace was closed down. we would go and check the oil on

them. yeah, did some paperwork on them. it was a weird time, that's for sure. i think a lot of people will remember what they were doing at the time. i was up bright and early doing my job. my thoughts go out to the survivors and the families affected by this, that's for sure. thanks. host: thanks for that call from washington. here in washington, d.c., some recent interviews with members of congress, including christopher smith of new jersey. his view from capitol hill that day. [video] >> i was in my office on 9/11. the television was on. we saw the attack, the first plane and the second plane. my entire staff was gathered around very concerned about the

loss of life. no idea the twin towers would fall. we were very concerned about those -- a lot of people in my district worked in the towers. i was concerned about them in a special way because i knew a lot of them. i was getting ready for a committee hearing. i was chairman of the house committee on veterans affairs. we have the national commander for the american legion coming to testify at 10:00. i walked over to the canon office building, convened the hearing and sure enough in came one of the police officers who said everyone has to vacate the building immediately. the pentagon has just been hit. there was concerned it might be another plane in route to the capital. very, very calm way the members of the american legion walked out of the building and away from what we thought was a threat. i got in my car and left to get out of the building.

watched as the pentagon was burning. i felt such a sense of sadness coupled with anger as to who would do this. i was very worried about my own brother who was a captain with american airlines, who often did logan to l.a. flights. the flight that flew into the towers. i was worried he might be the pilot. every month they would get a different bid as to where they fly. after about two hours i got him on the line and saw he was safe but he knew the people who were piloting that airplane and what a sadness he felt as well. host: congressman christopher smith. taking your phone calls until the end of our program today. karen at east lansing, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. that day or the day before i had driven down to visit -- or of

from virginia where i that that the time to visit my girlfriend in nassau county, new york. i stopped at a hotel just across the river, the hudson river from manhattan, expecting to take the hudson tunnel the next day. when i was checking out -- of course, in my room that turn -- i turned on the television and saw the second plane going into the towers. live. i had not seen the first. i don't think it was on tv because no one expected it. when i got down to the desk i was told the hudson tunnel was closed and they were cutting off

all the people coming into manhattan. i thought i would go down -- drive down from where i was to the verrazano bridge to take it from staten island into brooklyn and get the nassau county where i was headed. i got down there and that was closed. i went further north. i don't know the name. i think it was new jersey parkway or something like that. i went north. finally found the -- further north. they would not let us cross there because there was a bomb threat. they thought there might be a bomb under the bridge. i stayed there overnight. i could not make any contact with my family.

i am 90 now. at the time i was 70. all my grandchildren felt i should not have made the trip in the first place. they were back in virginia. i could not make a call to them to let them know i was safe. all the lines were so busy. in the next morning i finally got a line to virginia to let them know i was ok. they thought i was in manhattan at the time. they do my route to nassau county. i told him no, i could not get there. i finally got up above the bridge when they discovered the bump that was just -- it wasn't really a threat. i could not get across the whitestone bridge into queens. i had to go out to the frog's

neck, which took me further east. i was able to cross and get the nassau, and finally to visit my friend. all my friend's family -- i'm sorry. the neighbors in the area, well, not all of them but quite a few of them were police and firemen that worked in new york. host: we had a caller earlier, a gentleman who said it was a couple of years old on 9/11. he was worried about how people remember 9/11. as somebody who lived through the pearl harbor attacks and 9/11, which of the younger generation, people who were not born yet for 9/11 remember about those events in american history?

caller: well, at the time -- never take anything for granted. be on your guard. this was a terrible attack. i did not realize the extent of it. of course, pearl harbor. yes, i was alive then. i was quite young. it was such a big surprise. i think everybody thought we would go to war. i don't think we expected an attack in hawaii. just be on your guard. it is really a shame the fbi,

cia -- and the cia had so little contact. we have to work together more in our security. host: 90-year-old karen this morning with her memories. kenyata out of l.a. caller: i was getting ready for work. on the west coast it was quite early. i was a single parent. my daughter was two at the time. i put her in her high chair to give her some thing to eat. i went downstairs to grab a tie. i got back downstairs. we had a large television in the thinning room. cnn was on. i think it was aaron brown who was -- there was a shot with the building, the first tower on fire behind him. as he was talking about what

happened i was not sure what was going on yet. he did not know this was happening. the other plane hit the tower. i guess someone told him in his earpiece. he turned around and at that point in time he said something akin to, i think we are under attack. i think the united states is under attack. although i was surprised at the nature of the attack, i remember -- the first thing i said after realizing what was happening is i was not surprised at the attack. i was surprised at the mode of the attack. the first thing i said was, i wonder what took so long. it seems as though the united states is socially and morally dyslexic. we keep repeating the same types of things that led to that attack. we always talk about what, but never why. why were we attacked?

no one flew airplanes into skyscrapers in china. still we engage in these wars. we go terra people's things. we have generations of people in places like iraq who have not been schooled because all the infrastructure was destroyed. these kids are now my daughter's age, in their early 20's. i have to believe they are very angry at the united states. i am wondering when will this country learn. host: this is jesus out of florida. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, jesus. caller: things are taking michael. -- my call. i just took my son to a private school. i went to a coffee shop where we normally went. someone said, a plane hit the tower. you know, i knew there was

another incident before. they said that happens because they are flying too close and taking pictures. all of a sudden all the television sets were off. all the phones went off. the lady changed the channel to the spanish channel. they had a different tower. they broadcasted from new jersey. that was on. they said, well, we are under attack. i went to school. i see all the kids on a break. everybody was looking at each other. my son was six years old. that was his first year of school. he said, daddy, why are you

here? i used to pick him up. it was real. i could see the towers from new york were used to live. host: does your son rumor that day? -- her member that day? -- remember that day? caller: he does. that was his question. why are you here? what happened was from there, i took him home obviously. the phone was working. the land line. then i called my wife she was working in wayne, new jersey. it was like everything was so quiet.

we were near newark, new jersey. you can see an airplane every five seconds. what happened here? it was not pretty. right away we started -- we had to retaliate and all these wars begin. host: this is juliet of amsterdam, new york. caller: good morning. i lived in the bronx at the time. i got up, turn on the tv, so that the first -- saw that the first plane hit. i freaked out because my friend's husband that in midtown -- lived in midtown. all the phone lines were dead by this time. i ran up to her house. she lived on the 12th floor.

from one part of her terrace you can see the twin towers. all you could see was smoke. the silence became deafening. you are used to the horns and people on the street. it was almost like a dream state. everything became so quiet. from the other side of her terrace you could see the major deacon. they shut it down. in both directions it was stopped traffic. all military equipment, fire trucks, ambulances, emergency people trying to get to the city. the air traffic started back up but it was all military aircraft. it was really like a dream. quite bizarre to live through and watch it unfold. the one thing that strikes me 20 years later is the feeling of the military presence afterwards. every corner there were armed

guards. every corner in the bronx had armed guards on each corner. it was something i will never forget. like i said, it was like a bad dream stop i could not believe it was unfolding like that. host: back here to d.c., we have been showing you some longtime members of congress, there memories of that day. gerry connolly, the virginia democratic congressman was not in congress at the time. he was a member of the fairfax county board of supervisors. we sat down with him and asked about his memories from that day. [video] >> i was getting ready to go to my supervisor's office. i was a member of the county board of supervisors in fairfax county. my office was shared with the fire station. fire station 30. i got a call from my chief of staff saying you need to turn on television.

i was irritated. i was in a rush. why do we have to turn the television on? i turned it on and of course i saw what was happening in new york. i was horrified. immediately i made my way to my office, because i knew that with a terrorist incident we were going to get flooded with calls. schools, businesses, we needed to be there. i remember the juxtaposition. it was a beautiful september day. it was warm, blue skies. the beauty of the day contrasted so much with the horror unfolding in new york here at the pentagon and in shanksville, pennsylvania. i also remember the gritty determination of the firefighters at fire station 30

where i was located at. they were back up for the arlington firefighters. the pentagon would have been the second worst terrorist act in american history but for the world trade center. there was enormous care was amended termination. the stories were horrifying. in terms of the death and destruction. finally i guess i was struck that day and subsequent days by the, however temporary, unification of the country. we came together as one. we shared grief. we shared determination to respond. we felt as one, as a country, as

a community. that was very striking given the fact most of our local political time has been characterized by the absence of such unity and common values and shared concerns. in an ironic way 9/11 brought us together, however briefly as one. obviously that memory is seared in my mind to this very day. something i will never forget. i did have constituents who died. or had family members who died that terrible day. we provided as much comfort and concern as we could. it is the sort of think you never thought you would live through in america. it reminded us of our own

vulnerability and the air was him encourage demonstrated that day as well. host: congressman jerry connelly in a recent interview with c-span. a few menace left in this program to hear your thoughts and memories from september 11. the 20th anniversary tribute continuing on television, newspapers. here are two special sections side-by-side from the wall street journal. 911, 20 years later. there picture of the twin towers burning. on the right side of the screen there, usa today. a picture of the rubble and the wreckage at ground zero. anthony from detroit, michigan, you are next. caller: thanks for taking my call. that was especially seared into my brain. that morning i had been released from the hospital. the birth of my oldest grandson.

as i walk in and turned on the television i just happened to see the first plane collided into the building. -- collide into the building. the level of approach you came towards the building i knew it had to be a terrorist attack. that tore my heart out. at that they are no democrats and republicans. the individuals that perished were all americans. this is something i think should always bring us together as one country. the second attack, i lost all feeling. i knew i had witnessed the birth of my grandson.

to see this horrific attack take place -- host: at what age did you tell your grandson about what happened on his birthday? how old was he when you had that conversation? caller: he was around three. i could not tell them until he was old enough to really understand the gravity of what had happened. i had to explain to him that those were americans. there was no separation. no good, no bad. there was people that had occurred, that had taken place. i don't think we get enough credit to those individuals on flight 93 that took the plane down. to stop them from causing more

havoc. i believe they are heroes. they should be worshiped and there should be more of a tribute to those individuals who prevented the horrific attack. the attacks on the world trade center and i saw them come down, i could not believe it. host: just a couple of minutes left this morning. several colors waiting to get in. max from new baltimore, michigan. go ahead. are you with us? aaron, alexandria, virginia. caller: good morning. briefly my members of september 11. i used to live in arlington. driving into work, this was before they made the dynamic changes to the area surrounding the pentagon. i drove past the pentagon.

i worked for the washington post and newsweek in iraq. in the courthouse. of arlington. -- in the courthouse area of washington. i saw people watching the program as the first plane hit. then as the second plane hit. being in shock and disbelief at the time. working for a news organization, the digital component of washingtonpost.com, our leadership told us if we need to be with our families, do that. we also had a job to do. it is amplified leadership. i believed all of those that worked there at the time, we were bonded in the experience of working for the washington post and the media outlet during that time. there was so much going on. we slept at work in shifts to ensure the information got out to the rest of the country and the world of what happened there.

that moment, those days afterwards leading up to 9/11 are seared into my memory. a lot of the callers said the weather was beautiful. it was a quiet morning getting to work. you could smell the smoke coming from the pentagon. the pentagon is not that far from where we were. you could file change. looking 20 years later where we are and how divided we are -- in that time period we did pull together. the world sort of pulled together to help understand what was going on. look at where we are and how divided we are. it is sad. this is an opportunity for all americans to rally behind why we

are here in this country and what this country means to us and what it means to the world. host: thanks that i call. we will endmessage from brian ws morning, "i have been following your program on 9/11. i was at work that morning at the washington hospital center. while waiting, i looked up at the tv to learn of the first plane going into the world trade center. the second plane flew into the other. we learned of a plane flying into the pentagon. the region's major trauma and burn center went into mask as a team mode. we opened the emergency response center. shortly after, casualties started arriving. of the arrivals were bad burned cases. our families -- our phones started raining with family members searching for loved ones. the first donator was d.c.'s

cardinal. shortly after, flight attendants arrived to give blood. president bush came to the hospital to meet family members. there were so many acts of lovingkindness for those foes -- first days of the center including two moms from the richmond area who had driven 100 miles to drop off 500 to 600 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made by the students at a catholic elementary school. " brian this morning with his text message. that is where we will end today. we will pick up tributes tomorrow morning starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern. you can watch it live here on c-span, c-span.org. listen to the tributes throughout the day on the free c-span radio app. 7:00 hour am eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. have a great friday. ♪ [singing] >> from the mountains to the

prairies to the oceans white with foam god bless america my home sweet home god bless america my home sweet home [applause] announcer: president biden and first lady biden will talk about the fight against the coronavirus in our nation's schools this morning. the remarks are set for 10:20 eastern. coming up at 11:30 eastern, the white house coronavirus response team is set to brief reporters. we will hear from dr. fauci and dr. walensky. live coverage immediately follg