Posted on 09/19/2001 9:57:51 AM PDT by Teacup
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to Dateline NBC's Jane Pauley about how New Yorkers are faring in the wake of the recent attack. Attack hit close to home: daughter Chelsea was jogging in the area at the time of the attack. Sept. 17 The tragedy reverberates on so many levels now the families in which thousands of children are now motherless or fatherless or both. The extent of the disaster in dollars $20 billion she calls just the first installment. But even for a United States Senator, it began on a very, very personal level. Dateline NBCs Jane Pauley sat down with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to talk about the tragic events of the last week.
ON TUESDAY MORNING Sen. Hillary Clintons first thought when the second plane hit was terrorists. Her next thought was Chelsea, who was not only in New York, but staying downtown.
Shed gone on what she thought would be just a great jog, says Sen. Clinton. She was going to go down Battery Park. She was going to go around the Towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and thats when the plane hit.
Chelsea was close enough to hear the rumble? She did hear it, says Clinton. She did.
And to see the smoke in person, not on television? Thats right, she says.
Of course Bill was in Australia and he was so upset by what he was seeing on television that I didnt want to tell him that I couldnt find her until I found her, she says. I told him, everythings fine, dont worry. But I couldnt do it with the level of assurance that I needed until l could find her a couple of hours later.
Thousands werent so fortunate. Last week, t he former first lady introduced a bill to speed federal aid to families of rescue workers who are dead or missing, while her successor was giving the nation its first glimpse of how she can handle a crisis.
The senator was impressed.
Clinton had said she made her proud. She did, says Clinton.
Why that word? Well, because I know how difficult that position is from my own eight years of experience, she says. And you know when the country is under attack, when your husband may very well be a target. Its not easy to go out there and in a composed and very gracious manner. So I was just very proud.
The president did come under some criticism for not appearing in public as often as some think he might. What is your comment? Youve lived in the White House through crises.
Shed gone on what she thought would be just a great jog. She was going to go down Battery Park. She was going to go around the Towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and thats when the plane hit.
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON On Chelsea's whereabouts
I know the tensions that exist between a president and the Secret Service because clearly their job is to protect the president at all costs, says Clinton. And I know there must have been some very difficult and tense moments. But what really matters is that he is safe, he is in charge, he is, you know, running our government, and thats what everybody should be grateful for.
Hijacking has taken a hideous turn. There are reports that the Pentagon, with the presidents approval, was ready to shoot down a commercial airliner had it in fact threatened the White House or the U.S. Capital. Would that have been with Congress approval?
I for one would not have second guessed that decision, says Clinton. And I dont think that the president had any choice but to make the most difficult order that anyone in that position can make, which is, you know, to say, We have to do what is necessary, and that may mean the loss of innocent life.
Does she know Jeremy Glicks story? I do, she says. Last week, Dateline viewers met the family of the 31-year-old man who told his wife, by Airfone, about plans to rush the hijackers of the fourth plane then bearing down on the nations capital.
They took it into their own hands, says Clinton. In fact, I think they had a vote as, one of the accounts tells, they voted about what to do. What could be more American, and a greater rebuke to those who would try to destroy our way of life, than to have a vote on the plane about what to do, and to take action immediately?
Clintons office is researching a suitable memorial for the heroes of flight 93 perhaps even the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Meanwhile, as the work of recovery goes on, she has brought fellow members of congress to see for themselves what television does not convey.
Our elected representatives are on the front lines of making the decisions about the war were waging against terrorism, and about rebuilding New York, she says. And there is nothing like it. We dont want anyone to feel in a week or two or a month that the enormity of this somehow can be gotten over. We can keep going, and we will, and we can rise even higher and better than we were. But we cant ever forget what happened on day.
Sen. Clinton has made three visits to the scene of the devastation which she says encompasses 16 acres. And while the search for survivors has been so disheartening, the work there is just as determined as when she saw it first, when she felt like she was standing at the gates of hell.
Wherupon she critized the Devil for not keeping the place picked up while she was gone.
No problem. I'm not the spelling police ;^)
And I got to thinking...
'Ole Crusty' seems to make an appearance at times of crisis, both PERSONAL and (as noted above) completely unconnected to the friggin clintons PUBLIC.
Is 'Ole Crusty' a signal to her foreign handlers? Mission Accomplished. Send New Instructions. Over...
Or is 'Ole Crusty' part of a ritual? "One more thing, said Satan. You must wear the black pantsuit after I grant your wishes, and you may NOT wash it!"
There's a pattern here somewhere...
Now why would that be her first thought?
The terrorists Billy Boy let out of prison perhaps?
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