What Did John Kerry Do On 9/11?

Grassfire.net ^ | 8-13-04 | email

[Salvation]

G R A S S F I R E . O R G S P E C I A L R E P O R T What Did John Kerry Do On 9/11? + + +

8/12/2004

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We continue to be amazed at how political leaders are reading off the Michael Moore playbook as outlined in is movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." It further emphasizes the importance of Grassfire's new publication, "Michael Moore's Misleads."

For example, Moore goes to great lengths in an attempt to show that President Bush didn't know what to do when he first found out that America was under attack on 9/11. Moore shows footage of the President sitting in a Florida classroom for seven minutes after an aid told him about the World Trade Center attacks. Moore makes the President look incompetent and confused.

It's a Moore mislead. Moore manipulated the video footage and ignored the facts. We expose Moore's tactics in our pamphlet. It's Mislead #6.

+ + Kerry attacks Bush for the 7-minute delay

A few days ago, Sen. John Kerry read from the Moore playbook in criticizing President Bush for the supposed 7-minute delay. Here is what Kerry said:

Had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, 'America is under attack,' I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the President of the United States had something that he needed to attend to -- and I would have attended to it.

+ + What Did Kerry Actually Do On 9/11?

Before we go on, we want to state that we disagree with Michael Moore's analysis of the supposed "7-minute delay." We also disagree with leaders like Sen. Kerry making this an issue. Events were unfolding quickly and there was much confusion in those first moments.

That said, it is important to point out the hypocrisy of Sen. Kerry by looking at what Kerry himself did at that same moment in time.

Here is Sen. Kerry's explanation of what he was doing when the first attacks came (see link below to the full transcript):

KERRY: I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting -- we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation.

+ + Kerry: "Nobody Could Think"

For the record, it was about 40 minutes between the when the second tower was hit and when the Pentagon was hit. For 40 minutes, Sen. John Kerry, a sitting member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sat in a room with Senate Leader Tom Daschle.

In Kerry's own words, "nobody could think."

Sen. Kerry sat in a very vulnerable place on Capitol Hill for 40 minutes after the second tower was hit. What did he mean when he said, "nobody could think"? Perhaps the chaos and confusion of the moment meant that a group of top leaders in the Senate really did not know what to do! So they sat in a vulnerable Senate office, exposed to attack. Apparently, Kerry and others did not yet realize that America was at war.

When did Kerry know America was at war?

Again, in Sen. Kerry's own words:

And as we went out of the building, my immediate feeling was, we're at war. I mean, that was the sense, that we are under attack. People are attacking the United States of America and we needed to respond.

So, more than 45 minutes after the second tower was hit, as Sen. Kerry was evacuating the Capitol, his "immediate feeling" was that America was "at war." In his own words, it took Sen. Kerry 45 minutes to come to this conclusion.

[Cobra64]

Thanks for the clarification. I was defending W's consternation as to whether we were being hit by an enemy terrorist versus a possible accident. Sometimes some folks jump on others here when trying to sort out other actions that have occurred prior in our history. The B-25 was not seen as terrorism. I assume that W wanted to digest what happened on the first strike on 9/11. There are too many folks here that are confrontational in a discussion. I love W; why do some of us get so nasty?

[tuesday afternoon]

Bump.

[sevry]

To call Kerry a hypocrite for making that criticism while he did nothing himself for 40 minutes is just nonsense.

It's just his own utter hypocrisy.

I guess I get to promote by 'weblog' page on this, here. But it explains what I mean, essentially borrowed only from what others have said, and meant. It's a legitimate criticism of Kerry.

[KangarooJacqui]

why do some of us get so nasty?

Nature of the discussion board beast, I guess, especially in a fast-moving place like FR can be. I've been guilty of it myself more than once - the getting nasty, that is - not mistaking a 767 for a B-25 ;-)

[JennatLSU]

"The DNC talking point tries to say that Bush "blew it" by not taking the threat seriously for 7 or 27 minutes."

Does anyone really want a President who doesn't stop to think about his course of action? Rushing into decisions means you might make a mistake or have to go back and change your mind (and we all know who we get when that happens).

[nicmarlo]

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