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of tomorrow's 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. the nation getting ready to mark this difficult milestone with tributes at the three sites where nearly 3,000 americans lost their lives. terrorists using planes as missiles, crashing into the twin towers at the world trade center in new york and here at the pentagon. their mission thwarted by passengers in a fourth plane who fought back, crashing down into a remote field in shanksville, pennsylvania, instead of the intended target, the capitol hill. in shanksville lanterns will be lit and placeed alongside the wall of names commemorating the 40 passengers and crew members. president bide listen visit all three memorial sites tomorrow. we're also expecting to hear from him in a few moments where he's expected to talk about how his administration is keeping students safe in the classroom during the pandemic. we're going to bring that to you live. this hour will be a busy one for us here. we'll look ahead at the lessons

learned and look to history to remember the two decades since those 9/11 attacks. our nbc news team is here for a day of special coverage. ron allen at the 9/11 memorial in new york city. kelly o'donnell is at the white house. here with me on set at the pentagon is helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for the "new york times" and nbc news presidential historian. 24 hours before the ceremonies are set to begin, ron, what are you seeing and hearing? >> reporter: so many people have remarked how it's a beautiful day here, blue skies, a bit of fall in the air, just like it was 20 years ago and all of that is just fueling the memories, painful memories of what happened here and a short while, they'll open up this area, ground zero, the sacred place to the public, and they expect that thousands of people to come to pay their respects, of course family members who lost loved ones, first responders, people from abroad, people from all

over the country to take part in what's going to be perhaps the largest gathering here ever. we'll have the traditional ceremony that begins at 8:46 tomorrow, with a moment of silence and then the reading of the names of those lost which will last for about four hours or so. today people are coming already and reflecting and here is some of what folks had to say on their thoughts on this occasion. >> i think about the people that lost their lives that day and hence why i wanted to make this walk and recount that and feel maybe what they were feeling. >> schools should do a better job teaching kids what happened on 9/11. >> reporter: why do you say that? >> i feel going through high school, i know it because my mom taught me. >> it's really surreal. i mean, i walk by this every day to work and it just becomes part of the view, but when it hits 20 years, it really makes you reassess and think about what

happened. >> reporter: everyone of course remembers where they were on that fateful day. the ceo of the museum and memorial heres asaid that this anniversary marks something of a shift from 9/11 as a memory to it as a historical moment and for that, people who lost loved ones hope that that does not signal they should be forgetting about what happened and moving on. of course there's been a lot of attention on 9/11 because of afghanistan and the tragic loss of 13 servicemembers but again today, tomorrow, a moment to reflect, a moment to grieve, a moment to mourn, a moment to process what all this means and hopefully a moment for the nation to come together as one. hallie? >> ron, thank you. kelly, you are across the river from us at the pentagon and the white house. president biden will leave the white house later tonight and head to new york. he has plans to attend all three memorials at all three sites. i don't think we're expecting him at the moment to deliver remarks yet, right? >> reporter: that's correct. this will be a different sort of

observance where we are so accustomed to presidents taking a front stage role and speaking on big days. that is not the approach the biden white house is taking, instead the president will be among the mourners and those remembering and he will lay wreaths at each of the three locations and the white house felt it was important for him as president to visit all three sites. every year presidents mark this day but they have at times done a service here at the white house, for example, or visiting one of the sites, but to visit all three on the same day is something that the biden white house felt was important. president obama did it as well on the 10th anniversary. he will be laying a wreath, for example, at shanksville, where the former president, george w. bush, who was in office on that fateful day, will speak. we are told that the president, current president has recorded a video that may be a part of his potential media presence to

honor and remember and think about this day, but not a planned speech at this point. more of a somber kind of day and a chance for the country as ron said perhaps to come together, to be reminded about this, but it's also the obvious sort of difficulty that the president made it clear he wanted 9/11 to be the marker of the end of the afghanistan/u.s. military involvement. there was a time when a few months back when that was described that even the 20th anniversary still didn't feel quite that current. here we are, and now given the events of the chaos of the departure and the terror attack there at the kabul airport, we're giving breathing space between those two things. it's clear exiting afghanistan was an important policy piece from this president, something he's wanted for a long time. there's plenty of controversy around that, and how it was handled and so they're putting a pause on that for this commemorative time to focus on

the attacks themselves and those who were lost and all americans who were touched in some way. a different tone in that respect. hallie? >> kelly o'donnell an important day for you as well 20 years ago, you were in new york covering the aftermath of 9/11, thank you. ron allen thank you. helene and michael here, and i should note for our viewers we're at the pentagon, not too far from the airport so if you hear planes overhead in the audio, that's why. helene, this is your beat. you cover this beat. kelly and ron both mentioned the timeliness of the withdrawal of afghanistan, time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the chaos over the last few weeks, whats that meant, the confluence of these two events to the servicemembers who devoted so much to this country since. talk about the resources about this day and the last three weeks lead up to it. >> and the 20 years leading up to that. >> sure. >> this is a building i think that's probably, people are in a world of hurt right now because

of the not because of the exit from afghanistan, not the withdrawal but because of a, we lost 13 servicemembers, i think it was two weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago. the states are running together in my mind now, but also because of what the scenes you saw at hamid karzai international airport, the afghans who many of the people in this building worked with, the worry they have over translators and interpreters, drivers who were left behind and now in danger in afghanistan. there's that. also it's such a weird thing to work in a building that is a site of a mass casualty event. >> i should note for them we're on one side. it happened on the other side of the building. >> it happened on the other side of the building and when i first started covering the pentagon in 2014, that was the first time i walked into the building, and the first thing i asked was where did the plane, can you show me where the plane hit?

it's near where army public affairs is on that side of the building, and i went and there are quilts and you know, it's not the remembrance room is not ostentatious by any stretch of the imagination, and i quickly forgot about it. i come in here day in and day out and i don't think about it, except for when i'm doing my laps and everybody who works here does laps around the e range of the building. this building you get a lot of steps in, and whenever i walk by there, i stop and i do think about the moment, but the military was attacked. the pentagon was attacked on 9/11, september 2001 and american servicemembers woke up the next morning at war, and they have been at war ever since. people in this building wear fatigues with enthey come to work because the military is at war, and the weird thing about

it is they continue to come in every day, american troops continue to deploy. they've lost thousands and thousands of troop lives in both wars in afghanistan and iraq, in our forever wars and yet they keep reporting in to work every day, keep coming in and a mark of resilience when you reflect back on the last 20 years. the military has shown and now you see it's so weird, because ten years ago when barack obama was marking the ten-year anniversary, he could say a few laden. president biden can say we withdrew from afghanistan but it was painful, chaotic, there were lives lost and it's a mixed bag right now. >> helene is giving us, michael, a view on the ground at the pentagon. give us the view a little bit from 30,000 feet.

jeh johnson was on this network this morning and he talked about the political divisions in this country and what might happen where there to be another terror attack. >> i worry very much today because of the polarized nature of our government and our nation, that if we were to have another 9/11 crisis, our government would be incapable of effectively responding and bringing about a national response among the american people. >> can you talk about the political climate 20 years ago, right, the political climate today? >> jeh johnson took the words right out of my mouth, a totally different world in a totally different country. just 20 years ago but think of what it was like and sort of poignant because here we are sitting in front of the pentagon almost the same hour 20 years ago minus one day with the planes roaring overhead.

it's almost an other worldly experience. >> the first thing you said was wow the weather today. >> exactly as it did on 9/11. i was in d.c., and brings it all back. but the day before 9/11 the world has largely at peace. america was not at war. we were in a boon, a fairly united country on the main issues. the two parties seemed to be in conflict, george w. bush had run against al gore but you look at the differences between them, compare that the differences between political leaders now in 2021. this moment of bliss it seems in retrospect is interrupted by what was called one of the bloodiest days of american history, battle of antietam, a little more than 3,000, 9/11 just about the same number of people ahead. >> ron allen had an interview at the top of the show with a young woman who talked about teaching

9/11 in schools. anybody under the age of 20 doesn't remember. what should people know about 9/11 who were too young to experience that day who weren't born yet? >> one event in history can change almost everything. because of 9/11, just as helene was saying quite properly we were involved in wars in afghanistan and iraq that we argued about until the end of time. changed our lives. a period of 20 years where americans did not feel as protected by a competent government as they did before 2001, they thought that one thing that the american government had managed to do all the way back not only through the cold war but world war ii was keep americans safe. they no longer felt that way. we're living in a different climate that might not be the way it is today if it were not for 9/11. >> helene, quick final thoughts as we show some of the polling

we had taken at nbc news the moments after 9/11 in 2001 and now. >> i remember it clearly where i was that day. i worked for the "wall street journal" at the time and i remember being september to the white house as streams of people are leaving the white house and the reporters were going in, of course, and the feeling in washington, d.c., and what i really remember, hallie, is working until about 2:00 that morning and driving home to my house, which is just two miles from the pentagon and coming across 14th street bridge and still smoke coming out of the pentagon building, the building behind us and you can see the fire trucks, you can see this, and i had been removed from it because i was across the river in washington and now i'm face to face with this and it was an ams.ing and i remember pulling over to the side of the road as soon as i got off the 14th

bridge and i started crying and i couldn't stop crying because it was such a personal attack on us as american. michael is completely right about the feeling of safety that's now gone, immediately then gun gone, something we've been dealing with for 20 years. >> so good to have you both here to start our show today and share your reflections and analysis. thank you. we'll have more coverage in the show and talk to some of the people who were leaving the white house, somebody at the pentagon in this building behind me and the national security impations now. tonight is the premiere of michael's new series. "fireside history with michael beschloss" explores the path to afghanistan and the war. tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern, streaming exclusively on peacock. we get to breaking news out of afghanistan. a second even vac wags flight has taken off from kabul in the last few minutes. i want to show you video, the passengers boarding the plane

that is now en route to doha, qatar. just yesterday you saw that first commercial flight, we talked about it right here on this broadcast as it was in the air, leaving the afghan capital for the first time since u.s. forces pulled out of the country in late august. raph sanchez is in doha. as we've been talking about, the withdrawal of troops from afghanistan very much tied to the moment we're in now. these reflections on september 11th and the 20 years since and as we speak the evacuations are continuing. what can you tell us about this second flight? >> reporter:s flight taking off from kabul to doha a couple minutes ago. it's a similar setup to yesterday. everybody has an international passport beyond an afghan one. there are british and french citizens on that plane and we believe we are trying to confirm that there are americans, too. yesterday's flight ten u.s.

citizens, 11 green cardholders and the biden administration's hope is that flight by flight, person by person, it can whittle down the number of americans still trapped in taliban controlled afghanistan. now we spoke to some of the folks getting off the flight yesterday at the airport. hallie, they had just finished one very long, dangerous journey but they're also at the start of another different complicated one, we spoke to a canadian man who was there with his 6-year-old daughter nabila but his wife wasn't able to get on the plane. she had to cross by land to pakistan. he does not know how, he does not know when, but he is opening their family will be reunited one day. now, this is clearly good news that the international flights seem to be taking off regularly from kabul. hallie, we talked about yesterday, one big test is will people without international passports, will afghan allies who served alongside the u.s. or

who are at risk under the taliban regime, are they going to be allowed to go to the airport and will they be able to get to safety? >> raf sanchez reporting live from doha, thank you very much. we're expecting president biden to begin speaking in about the next five minutes or so about his new plan for fighting covid, and keeping students safe. we're going to head there next. plus later in the show a retired army sergeant who was a cook at the pentagon on 9/11 shares his emotional story about the rush to save lives in the wake of the attack and why he says he'd do it all over again.

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we are back from the pentagon on this day, the day before 9/11, with our special msnbc coverage, marking 20 years since those terror attacks. that coverage will continue in

just a moment but right now i want to send it over to garrett haake who is going to catch you up from our washington newsroom on other news happening today. >> hallie, thank you. any minute now we expect to hear from president biden and first lady jill biden, the pair is expected to give remarks on how the administration plans to keep children safe in u.s. schools as we continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic. in his speech last night the president laying out his plan to protect who he calls our youngest and most precious americans. >> we know that if schools follow the science and improblem the safety measures like testing, masking, adequate ventilation systems as we provided the money for, social distancing, and vaccinations then children can be safe from covid-19 in schools. we need more to step up. vaccination requirements in schools are nothing new. they work. >> let's ming from monica alba

at the white house. what new ideas or policies can we expect to hear from the president when he speaks in the next few minutes? >> reporter: the president is going to go more in-depth on what he believes should be happening in schools across the country and obviously he doesn't have as much executive authority in the classroom. there are some places where he does. yesterday he announced that more than 300,000 federal teachers will be required to be vaccinated, but he's going to really urge local leaders to ensure that more school districts do the same, and a big part of that is also going to be an increase in testing, and that's because of course so many students, those under the age of 12, are not eligible to be vaccinated yet. we see this horrible spike in cases among these very young vulnerable kids so the president is trying to get ahead of that through combining testing, while also pushing the fda, hoping for some answers soon in the next couple of months, once the

science dictates it that the vaccines can be approved. a big push to vaccinate those who are over the age of 12 in the classroom and as well waiting on that approval for the younger students. we're also going to hear from first lady jill biden who is an educator herself and the two just toured a sixth grade science class where they interacted with some students and they're going to highlight what they view as this major challenge, where teachers who can get vaccinated are trying to do everything they can to keep students safe but at a certain point, the students face a predicament because they are bunched together in these classrooms and these calf fears and perhaps unknowingly spreading covid, so he's going to speak to all of that, about 20 minutes away from here, highlighting the local issue. this is a little bit more about sending a message, calling on teachers and leaders since his executive authority doesn't apply in the way in which yesterday he talked about this

emergency role with the department of labor as it relates to private businesses, federal contractors and workers, of course. this is all a part of the six-pronged strategy that the president wants to highlight but i can tell you, garrett, the white house is extremely concerned about this spike and the high transmissibility of the delta variant and one of the places they're most worecied in schools, so many kids went back to the classroom for the first time in more than a year this fall and they're worried about what that's going to look like a couple of weeks from now. we've seen more than 1,000 school districts have to close or go to virtual learning because of outbreaks. >> monica, as you were speaking, the first lady, the first educator of this country, jill biden started speaking in northeast d.c. let's listen. >> teachers who retaught lessons at night for students who couldn't use their family computer during the day because maybe a sibling was on his or

her class. bus drivers drove wifi hot spots to neighborhoods with no connection. counselors took call after call from parents in tears just trying to juggle it all. when families needed help the most, educators answered the call. with all of my heart, thank you for being the heroes that we needed. today, our administration is making sure that schools like brooklyn have the resources and the support they need to bring students back to class, where they belong. and we are going to partner with you, because we can't always know what the future holds, but we do know what we owe our children. we owe them a promise to keep their schools open, as safe as

possible. we owe them a commitment to follow the science. we owe them unity, so that we can fight the virus, not each other. as we move forward, it's going to take all of us, students and families, educators and local leaders, cities and states, coming together to make this school year the best it can be. joe put students and their families, the educators at the heart of everything his administration is doing to defeat and recover from this pandemic. and as a teacher myself, i couldn't be more proud to stand beside him. we are committed to working as hard for your children as you do. and now, it's my pleasure to

introduce a young man who i know makes this school very proud. he's a hard-working student and the editor of the student-led newspaper "the brookland buzz." so please welcome elijah poole. okay, elijah. [ applause ] >> thank you, dr. biden. what an amazing honor it is to be introduced by the first lady of the united states. >> so monica, we're going to bring back in monica alba at the white house as we wait for the president to speak. obviously the first lady and the president speaking at a school in northeast d.c., where the local government is largely aligned with the administration's priorities on accomplishing their covid related goals. that's not the case everywhere in the country. we've already seen some of this pushback against the president's new orders yesterday. what's the white house considering doing to take on some of these republican governors, local officials who they expect and have already

threatened in many cases to sue their federal government and to fight with this administration about the new mandates they're trying to put in place. >> reporter: something the white house was already ready for, garrett. the president preempted those comments but he didn't call out governors by name in his remarks yesterday, but he did talk about this concept of pandemic politics, and said essentially that some were getting in the way of the good of public health, and really he argued endangering americans with some of these policies, so in the hours or so after that speech, something like 19 republican governors did come out with statements blasting the president's policies, and talking about how they plan to push back and the white house is bracing for legal fights not just on that front but also as it relates to their emergency department of labor rules for places with more than 100 employees. they know this is an uphill battle but yesterday was really about sending the message that

it's time to take more aggressive steps, specifically when it comes to schools, we have seen the president name check florida governor ron desantis, for instance, texas governor greg abbott, talking about how essential masking is, particularly again for these kids who aren't eligible to get the vaccines because they're too young so i think you can expect the president to touch on that again here in these remarks and in a little bit by saying essentially why would you potentially endanger this vulnerable section of the population? that's the argument that they continue to make, but it's one where there's a bit of a risk here, because something that does become about the health and well-being of american citizens devolves a bit into a political fight and battle, and the white house is really a little more apprehensive about going that route, because they're worried this could turn people off who are skeptical already. >> now the president is taking the microphone. let's listen. >> you don't have to.

elijah, when i was your age, in eighth grade, i wasn't a bad student, but i wasn't a bad athlete, but i tell you what, i could no more do what you just did than fly, because i used to talk [ stuttering ] talk like that. i stuttered. especially when i had to do something in public or read aloud, and i am amazed when i see young women and men like you who can stand up and speak with such grace and ease. it's really impressive. really, really impressive. [ applause ] folks, this is not like the school i went to. when they said we'd speak outside, i wondered why the hell are we going up all these

stairs? [ laughter ] i thought we'd be out in the parking lot. i mean, for real. that's where i thought we were going to be. elijah, thank you for the introduction. jill and i along with secretary cardona and muriel bowser are here because we want to you know how very proud of you and your classmates we all are. i also want to thank principal richardson. i was kidding when i was saying, like this school is really something else. [ applause ] and the way we talked about the interphasing of all the students and the social education that's taking place and how things are changing, and chancellor faraby, i told you i think you're doing a heck of a job. we know the start of the school year is an excellent time to mix anticipation and nervousness and the pandemic adds that mix of emotions. i think about all the parents i

talked to since the start of this pandemic, worried about the loss of learning that their child, or missed opportunities their child is having because so many of them had to stay at home, all had to stay at home, but so many of them didn't have access to the internet, didn't have access to, i mean just didn't have the equipment. worried about whether or not the school lunch program would still be available. so much anxiety and it's not just academics. it's the friendship and the socialization that may be equally as consequential, it's access to critical services like meals, school counseling, and helps the students stay physically and mentally alert, but i want folks to know that we're going to be okay. we're going to be okay. we know what it takes to keep our children safe and our schools open and we have tools to do it. last night i laid out a plan for the fall to beat this pandemic

and basically it has six parts. vaccinate the unvaccinated, and thank you for getting the vaccination and thank your parents for doing that and two protected vaccinated, three increased testing and masking, four, take care of people with covid and five keep our economy going and six is keep our children safe and in school, as schools open. [ applause ] for any parent it doesn't matter how low the risk of any illness is, when it could happen to your child but we all know if schools follow the science and they are here and implement safety measures, like vaccinations, testing, masking, children can be safe in schools, safe from covid-19. my plan does all these things. on vaccinations, it comes down to two separate categories, children ages 12 and older, like elijah, who are eligible for

vaccines and he got his. children ages 11 and under who are not yet eligible. the safest thing you can do for your child 12 and older is get them vaccinated, simple, plain, straightforward, get them vaccinated. parents get your teenagers vaccinated. you've got them vaccinated for all kinds of other things, measles, mumps, rubella, to play sports they had to have those vaccinations. get them vaccinated. covid-19 vaccine is easy. it is safe and it's convenient. we'll work to bring the vaccine clinics to our schools as well. mayor bowser has done a heck of a on. [ applause ] you really have, mayor. you're doing a heck of a job across the board. i really mean that. you set up vaccination clinics in about 20 school sites, including here in brookland. it continues through the month of september so there's really no excuse to not be able, you can get vaccinated. it's not like it's so distant to

do. we're giving prizes in the senate to encourage children and families to get the shots and look, their efforts are working. 65% of the children ages 12 to 17 here in d.c. have gotten at least one shot like elijah. that's incredible. that's one of the highest rates in the nation for children between the ages of 12 and 17. and for students here at brookland, once you all get vaccinated, you're invited to a special visit at the white house. [ cheers and applause ] i'm going to get in trouble with the secret service and everybody else and i'm not sure how we're going to mechanically do it but i assume the buss can get you to the white house and if we can't get you all in one room we'll be out in the rose garden or out in the back there and maybe let you fly the helicopters -- no, i'm only joking about that. i was just downstairs in the science class. it's amazing, you saw it, mayor. it's amazing, these kids are excited about building a vehicle that can land on the moon.

i really mean it. and i asked them, i said how many of you want to go to the moon? everybody but one said they wanted to go to the moon. i asked how many want to go to mars and i think they all raised their hand as well, but it's really, and they're excited about it. the best way for a parent to protect a child under 12 starts at home. every parent, every teen sibling, every caregiver around them should be vaccinated. children have four times higher chance of getting hospitalized if they live in an area with low vaccination rates, rather than high vaccination rates. it goes for the home as well. there's a high vaccination rate in the home and significantly diminishes the possibilities. now, if you're a parent of a young child, you're wondering when will the vaccine be available for them? i strongly support independent scientific review of vaccine usage for children under 12, but i've told them, i will do everything within my power to support the food and drug

administration, the fda on its ongoing efforts to do the science as safely and as quickly as possible, and our nation's doctors will keep the public updated on the process so parents can have a plan to give them the sense of what progress is being made. the vaccinations of our educa educators, 90% of school staff and teachers are vaccinated. we should have that at 100%. we're requiring vaccinations for teachers, where i have authority to require, who work in u.s. government and educators at head start, a federal program, because it's funded by the federal government. but i'm calling on all governors to require vaccinations for all teachers and staff. vaccination requirements in schools were nothing new. they work. they're overwhelmingly supported by educators and their unions. now on school safety measures in our american rescue plan which we passed early on, we provided

the funding for ventilation systems, cleaning and sanitizing services, and critical safety measures to significantly reduce the spread of the virus and protect our children and keep our schools safe, and we will do whatever it takes this school year as well, especially, especially on increasing testing. we provided funding through the american rescue plan, to implement testing in schools for teachers, staff and students, includes bus drivers as well. i want all schools setting up regular testing programs to make sure we detect and isolate cases before they can spread. i will mobilize american industry to produce 300 million more rapid covid-19 tests for distribution around the country, including the schools that need them. you know, i'm going to use the defense production act that allows me to ensure that what we need made, we can ask the private enterprise to make them because they're of national

interest, they make the tests as quickly as possible. i'll use the defense production act. my plan will expand free testing that you can get at 10,000 pharmacies around the country, walmart, amazon and kroger's will sell at-home rapid tests at cost, which means it will cost, they're going to charge no more than it costs them to buy the test, from the manufacturer, and that will be the same way for the next three months. that's a discount of about 35%, about 35%. it's important for everyone, particularly for a parent of a child not old enough to be vaccinated. you'll be able to test your child at home, and to test those around them as well and on masking, we know masks work. they are uncomfortable sometimes and they get tired of wearing them. i understand. i really do and i wear them in the white house. under the cdc guidelines, every person in the school, teachers, staff, students, should be

masked while indoors, to all the school officials trying to do the right thing by our children, i will always be your side, no matter how much heat you get from outside. [ applause ] let me close with this. i've often said that our children are the kite strings, they're all our children, not just our children, everybody's children. they're the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft. that's not hyperbole. that's a fact. we owe it to them to do everything we can to keep them safe in school, dreaming, learning, thriving, socializing, becoming good citizens. it means following the science, wearing a mask, getting tested, getting vaccinated, it means working together and looking out for each other, like they teach you in school. we can look out for each other. we can do this. i think you'll have a great

school year. i can see the enthusiasm and if you just walk in the classrooms, there's real enthusiasm. i'm sure there are some classrooms i was in through school where anybody walked in, they'd be oh, here we go, but you've been really great. you really have. and principal, this is, you've done a great job here, you really have. i hope everybody gets to see this. i wish i could take the nation around every one of the classment radios and see what's going on because it's such a great example. again thank you, have a great school year, and elijah, i'll find out if i can find out when your football games are. i might want to try to figure out without 10,000 secret service agents to come and see you play a little bit. okay? thank you very much, everybody. [ applause ] >> reporter: -- calling your vaccine requirements an overreach and might challenge it in court. >> have at it.

look, i am so disappointed that particularly some republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities. this is, we're playing for real here. this isn't a game. and i don't know of any scientist out there in this field that doesn't think it makes considerable sense to do the six things i've suggested, and you know, let me conclude with this. one of the lessons i hope our students can unlearn is that politics doesn't have to be this way. politics doesn't have to be this

way. they're growing up in an environment where they see it's like a war, like a bitter feud. if a democrat says right, everybody says left. if a democrat says left, they say right. it's not who we are as a nation. it's not how we beat every other crisis in our history. we've got to come together and i think the vast majority look at the polling, the vast majority of the american people how we have to do these things. they're hard but necessary. we're going to get them done. thank you. [ applause ] >> always wait a minute here to see if the president takes more questions but we heard president joe biden speaking at northeast d.c. high school, excuse me, brookland middle school in northland d.c., talked about his covid plan to help schools and younger people and a couple of headlines, much more optimistic president biden here, telling attendees we'll be okay, making the point several times calling on parents to get their students vaccinated when and if they can

and calling on governors in states that will allow it to increase, require vaccinations for teachers and staff at their school and finally answering that question there, really firing back at some of his republican critics particularly in governors mansions around the country saying he's been disappointed at how cavalierly they have treated the pandemic to this point. i'm sure we will avery much more analysis of that speech later today on msnbc, but for now, want to throw it back to hallie jackson at the pentagon. hallie? >> garrett, thank you very much for that. i appreciate it. we are live here at the pentagon for msnbc's special coverage, marking 20 years since the attacks on this country on september 11th. here is then president george w. bush in the days and weeks after the tragedies. >> we will direct every resource at our command, every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement. encounters investigating terrorist activity is the number

one priority for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. >> both the bush administration and congress did make it a priority ushering in this new era of national security creating a tsa, which really changed how we fly and the department of homeland security. the third biggest cabinet department in the federal government. shifted existing resources at law enforcement agencies like the fbi. this is then fbi director robert mueller laying out a complete reorganization of priorities, first on the list, protecting the u.s. from another terrorist attack. i want to bring in "washington post" white house correspondent anne gearan and juan zarate, nn senior national security analyst. thank you for being with us on this morning of special coverage. anne, thank you for coming to a place that you know well. big difference. we've talked about this, talking about this a moment ago between what the posture is like september 10th, 2001 in this

country and what it is like today and the way that our attitude as a country and as a government towards national security and international diplomacy changed. >> it's hard to remember that we hadn't had a terrorist attack on u.s. soil in most people's memory on september 10th of that year, and now the fact that we had one with such devastating consequences has changed really the entire makeup of the federal government and the way foreign policy and national security policy was made from that day forward. it became all of a sudden a hunt for terrorists around the world, that even became in washington parlance a thing, the global war on terrorism, or the gwot, one of the worst acronyms ever made and it made the way americans interact with their own government so different. you mentioned the tsa, probably the thing that people are most directly familiar with, flying became extraordinarily difficult

and harder and the hassles increased the way we walk around in washington changed and 20 years later the hunt on terrorism is coming to an end. >> juan, you were a part of the mcism ins of all this 20 years ago. you're with us now today. talk about what you see is the biggest changes and what if any concerns you have about the last couple of decades in the national security posture. >> hallie, that was a shocking and tragic day of course. i think what happened and you heard it in the remarks from president bush, was a focus on a war on terror, being much more proactive and preventative with our national security. this idea that we needed to push our borders out, we needed to disrupt safe haven, we needed to dismantle, bankrupt terrorist networks, that became the focus and it was very much a preventative mindset. people who didn't live before

the 9/11 period and didn't experience it after don't fully appreciate that preventative shift and that paradigmatic shift that began to define how we were doing our intelligence work, what law enforcement was being asked to do, the creation of new institutions like creat new institutions like dhs and things like that. there were excesses and mistakes, but we prevented attacks and safe haven despite the terrorist threat that continues to metastisize. >> one of the things in the wake of 9/11 is the failure to connect the dots. we hear the same under different circumstances in the wake of january 6th on washington. maybe not enough communication between the agencies. is there still more work that needs to be done on that

particular lesson? >> absolutely. hallie, we suffer fighting the last war or the threats we have seen yesterday are the same threats we see tomorrow. that's always a challenge with with the intelligence community and law enforcement. i think certainly a challenge in 2021 where terrorist groups and extremist groups of whatever strife are using whatever communications to connect. using encryption more comprehensively. a lot of work still needs to be done. to assume the bad guys are getting smarter and connect dots that may not be as obvious as the past, but need to be forecasted. >> i think juan is right. the idea that there's always more to do to bring all of the powers of the federal government together to prevent. you know, the problem is that we saw a lot of mission through the

20 years. >> juan and anne, thank you. you will join us for more to come. thank you. as the war on terror that anne and juan are talking about, a lot of americans answered the call to serve. some parents and kids deploying to the same war. i had the chance to sit down with one of the families. nicholsons as they reflected on the last two decades and 9/11 redefined the meaning of service for them and so many families. >> military service a way of life. years of moving from one base to another. supporting their dad's career. on 9/11, everything changed. >> it feels like yesterday. >> it does? >> it's still fresh. >> the lieutenant general, now retired, was on a training commission in the california desert when a car pulled up with the news of the planes crashing into the world trade center.

>> we all knew our world changed forever. for everyone in uniform and many soon in uniform. >> his son in high school. >> i remember a feeling of when and where and what's going to happen. it is our parents that will do it. >> i remember being angry i wasn't old enough to go. >> his brother was beginning his sophomore year at the citadel. the military college. enrolling for the discipline and structure, but no plans to enlist. >> i thought i would get out and do something locally. 9/11 happened and it changed the scope. you mature a lot when you see something like that happen. >> that moment leading the three marines to ten deployments in all to afghanistan and iraq. during one, larry seriously hurt in eye rocket attack in fallujah. kevin was a freshman in college when he heard a knock at the door from the school president.

>> he was in dress uniform. i didn't know what to expect. that's where he told me he had bad news and told me he was in germany. when he told me that, i knew he was alive. >> that is emotional to hear. >> no question. >> larry was back in combat by christmas eve. he commanded 5,000 marines in iraq. getting a chance to see both his sons in action. >> of all of the commanders out there, it ends up being your dad. >> slim. i did not realize how neat it was. >> for mom, debbie, a different service. >> was it different for you having your husband serve in the military versus your sons serve in military? >> it is a lot harder on your mother. when your child is learning to walk and they fall, you are there to grab them. you can't do that when they are at war. you have to just pray and know

that they're doing what they want to do. >> i don't think we're special in any way. i think we are selective of so many other military families. >> we all spoke before the fall of kabul and the takeover. larry sharing this letter. nothing can diminish your service. the accomplishments youachieved and spirit you fought. many of the babies on 9/11, and now a stinging reminder of the sacrifices so many families make. >> there is not a day that goes by that we don't think about a teammate that doesn't come home. i don't think you can go through that without constant reflection of the young men and women and

how proud you are to associate with the folks. >> my thanks for nicholson and his sons for talking to me. 20 years since 9/11. somebody else looking ahead of that is my next guest. survivor at the pentagon where he worked as a cook. chris, thank you. >> good morning. >> we will talk about your story. how are you doing? i know this is a tough couple of days. >> i'm doing pretty good. it has been a tough couple days. you know, for family members, survivors and those that passed away, it is very real for us. you know, 20 years has gone by in the blink of an eye. i have a 22-year-old that was 2 years old. right now, all my daughters graduated from college. to think she was 2 years old. >> babies. >> the other two in grade

school. >> you were in the building 20 years ago? >> yes. i was the aide to the general of the army and procurement agent. they brought me here. didn't know what to do with me. i said, sir, what the heck am i doing here? he said that's why i love you, son. you don't know. working from the mess and across from it. working procurement and everything for it. >> that is what you were doing? >> yes. >> tell me about that. >> you know, my wife had just given me a call telling me about new york. we don't have a tv in front of us at work unless it is privy to your job. it is normal to see one-star or two-star general running through the hallways to go to a meeting. when you see people scattering, you don't pay attention. my wife told me about new york.

i told her i'm okay. let me see if i can find it on the news. i type in the news like everybody else in the world. it never loaded because it was crashing for the amount of people looking for information from the news. >> did you think you could be a target? >> i had no idea. you know, i had been in combat many times in my career. you don't think anything like this would happen in an office building. >> it did. the plane hit. you were -- you felt it. you felt the impact. >> as soon as i hung up the phone, i got thrown. evacuated out of the building. the guys with me went right. fate took me left down the different stairwell. i came down and there was a defense police officer. female police officer carrying a baby and with a lady next to her struggling. i ran over and picked the baby from her hands and she moved 60

yards away from the building where everybody was gesturing. somebody said go get help. i ran as fast as i could. i saw an ambulance pulling up in the distance and a fire truck. truck 61. because the only other truck was there was the aviation truck on fire. i ran among the debris. it was tunnel vision. got to them and out of breath. i'm yelling i have a lady and baby and i need help. he said more is coming. i didn't realize. that meant more medical personnel. he was downloading his equipment. his eyes got really big. you know, he was looking over my shoulder. three men come struggling carrying a woman that was burned from the back of her hair and thighs. at that moment, i just turned and ran with them. instinctively. >> was that a moment, a photo of

you, i want to show here, with you and three others that carried the marine corps flag that was rescued from the pentagon. >> that was thursday when he did that during the week of 9/11. we pulled the flag from the fourth floor of the pentagon. danny went up in a fire apparatus boom and they lifted him up. jones and i were at the bottom. the medical student. you know, he has become my uncle for my kids the last 20 years. he is family. when danny came down, major, you know, here we are all the work we were doing and recovering bodies and, you know, it was a moment for us. we had tears in our eyes. we gave each other a hug. the flag just meant it was a sign of defiance.