It is one of the most enduring photos of the morning of September 11th, 2001. Chief of Staff Andrew Card leaning over to President George W. Bush, seated in a
It is one of the most enduring photos of the morning of September 11th, 2001: Chief of Staff Andrew Card leaning over to President George W. Bush, seated in a Florida Elementary school classroom, to tell him a second hijacked plane had struck the World Trade Center.
Scott McClellan was in the room, and says another image is just as permanent - Bush entering a nearby holding room minutes later, already carrying the weight of being a wartime president.
McClellan, then the principal deputy White House press secretary, had been working alongside the traveling press corps at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when events began to unfold.
Twenty-five years later, he said he can still recall the urgency, confusion, and personal fear that came with trying to explain the crisis to reporters while determining whether his own brother was safe in Washington, D.C.
McClellan has lived in the Seattle area for years, working as Seattle University's Vice President of University Affairs. But he still speaks of the events of that day like it was yesterday.
“I could tell by his face that Bush understood the country was at war," McClellan said.
Until that morning, Bush’s young administration had been largely focused on domestic issues. In a matter of minutes, the work of the White House and the country had changed.
McClellan had received a page in the school library saying CNN was reporting a plane had hit the World Trade Center. At first, he said, the news seemed almost impossible to process. But after a second plane hit the other tower, he and the reporters around him understood it was not an accident.
An advance staffer quickly directed him to Bush’s holding room, where the president would have secure communications. McClellan walked across the back of the classroom just after Card spoke to Bush. In the holding room, he said, Bush shut off the television and began preparing remarks for the nation. The president called Vice President Dick Cheney, New York Governor George Pataki and FBI Director Robert Mueller as his team worked to understand what had happened.
When aides discussed how to describe the attacks, McClellan said someone suggested calling them an “apparent terrorist attack.” He remembers objecting immediately, “This is a terrorist attack. That is exactly what is happening.”
As the Secret Service rushed Bush toward Air Force One amid reports of additional threats, McClellan was given a choice to board the plane or stay behind with the reporters.
He chose to remain at the school, then briefed network crews gathered on the playground about the President’s calls and remarks. All of it happened as he was trying to handle a jolt that was far more personal.
A television-network producer told McClellan that the Executive Office Building had been hit. His brother worked there, just across from the West Wing.
McClellan determined that a camera angle had confused the smoke from the Pentagon attack with the nearby building. He learned his brother was safe, called his mother’s office and went back to work.
The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, including first responders who ran toward danger.
McClellan said those losses remain the first thing he thinks about each anniversary, along with the fear of the immediate aftermath. He also remembers a country that, for a time, drew together in a way that can seem distant now. Bush addressed the nation from Washington that night, visited the Pentagon the next day, and stood with rescue workers at Ground Zero three days later.
McClellan also pointed to Bush’s visit to an Islamic center, where the president denounced anti-Muslim hatred.
“There was a lot of uncertainty,” McClellan said. “Are there more attacks to come?” But he said Bush’s public posture, including his calls for Americans not to target Muslims in anger, helped establish a unifying tone. Bush’s approval ratings climbed above 90% in the months that followed, a level rarely seen in modern American politics.
The grief and unity of the months after 9/11 also led to two long wars, and McClellan, then the Press Secretary, traveled with Bush extensively and became a de facto face of the Administration's messaging around them.
The United States began military operations in Afghanistan less than a month after the attacks, targeting al-Qaida and the Taliban government that had provided it safe haven. McClellan traveled there with Bush, visiting Bagram Air Base and Kabul, and he recalled a country that initially had more freedom, particularly for women, than under Taliban rule.
The Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was more contentious and remains a defining part of the post-9/11 era. Iraq was not responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, but the administration argued that Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction and the broader threat landscape required action. No stockpiles were found, and the war brought years of combat, civilian and military casualties, and a debate that still shadows the administration’s legacy.
McClellan said Bush believed the Iraq decision was part of a broader effort to prevent another attack on the United States. But he said the passage of time has also brought a deeper appreciation for the consequences of sending troops to war.
His most vivid memories from the wars are not of policy meetings. They are private visits Bush made with wounded service members and families of those killed in combat, often without cameras or public announcements. McClellan described watching a wounded soldier, missing a leg, struggle to stand at attention and salute the president. Bush saw meeting those families and troops as one of his central duties as commander in chief, McClellan said.
For McClellan, the distance of 25 years has not softened the memory of the classroom, or the victims.
“The farther away we get from 9/11, the more important I think it is to understand the context of that time period,” McClellan said. “What it meant for this country, and how it brought the country together.”
