Remembering September 11 25 Years Later: The Heroes and Bravery, and the Moments That Shaped America | Ep. 1396

0:00Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show live on Sirius XM channel 111 every week day at Neast. Hey everyone, I'm Megan Kelly. Welcome to the Megan Kelly Show on this somber anniversary. The 25 year mark since 911 2001. The date America changed forever and a date that many of us who are around at the time remember all too well it is seared in our memories and will be forever more. The closest thing that's happened akin to it would have been Pearl Harbor and our parents or grandparents generation had a clear memory of that one and made sure that the rest of us understood what happened on that day that lived in infamy and those of us who remember 911 2001 have an obligation to make sure that everyone remembers that date too. Already with the information age upon us it's too

1:06easy to forget. It's too easy to be consumed by other things. It's too easy to be over on TikTok and hearing vignettes about how Bin Laden had a point and so those of us who believe no Bin Laden did not have a point need to remind people especially the younger generation many of whom consume shows like this one in podcasts and so on that there was good and evil that day and we were the good. We were not the evil. This is not to say America's never done wrong on the international front ordinance foreign policy but there is no question that there were terrorists and there were heroes on the day of 911 and the Americans who were attacked and fought valiantly for their lives and for others lives were the heroes. We were attacked by radical Islamic jihadists who had all sorts of beef with America. Yes, they were upset about certain foreign policy decisions

2:11we had made of course and we need to be cognizant of that but they they did loathe the freedoms of the United States and the way we choose to live. Some people will mock that idea now. It's not mockable. It was one of the things they hated about us and we've learned that as we've learned more about the terrorist motives we've learned that. Foreign interventionism is not a great idea and a lot of people oppose it for this very reason but that's not what today is about at least now for me. It's about the Americans who were innocent and who were living the kind of lives you and I are living right now getting up in the morning, getting their kids off to school, kissing them goodbye, going into the workplace to try to lead a productive life where you feel like you've added something to this world and then go back home to your family at the end if you're lucky. That's all they were doing. They were regular men and women working in those towers and at the Pentagon and on board flight 93 who didn't consider

3:13themselves extraordinary and certainly didn't consider themselves to be soldiers in some sort of a war and the horror that was unleashed upon them was almost too much to repeat out loud to actually articulate but I don't there's something cathartic about doing it because in the back of your memory if you were alive that day you know you were a witness to a seminal event in American history and you have it there under layer upon layer upon layer and being reminded of what we all went through is somewhat cathartic because it's an affirmation that yes we do have this shared history. Yes we did learn a few lessons more than a few from that horrific event and we owe it to the men and women who suffered died and were heroic on that day to be cognizant of what

4:17they went through and how it did change us individually and as a country. So we're gonna go through some of that today beginning with the actual attacks and how they went down. Our sponsor the electronic payments coalition says Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet and that now they're messing with your credit card. They say your credit card and the security it offers are under attack and that senators Dick Durbin and Roger Marshall want to change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. Credit cards can keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases more affordable. The electronic payments coalition says the Durbin Marshall mandates would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing routing transactions over cheaper untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. Find out more at guardyourcard.com and

5:20consider telling Congress to guard your card. On September 11th, 2001 I had just moved from New York City not long before that to Chicago and when I had been in New York as a young practicing lawyer I had been living at 71 Broadway which was right by the World Trade Center. It's right next to Trinity Church if you know Southern Manhattan and the World Trade Center was my view. I used to joke with people who'd come to visit me that you never had to leave the house in order to say you'd seen Manhattan from my from my apartment because while it was a small 800 square foot apartment it had a great view and you could see Wall Street and you could see the World Trade Center and you could see Trinity Church and you could see the grave of Alexander Hamilton in Trinity Church Cemetery all without leaving your house and you could see the American Stock Exchange too. New York and American both and I used to go over to the

6:23Twin Towers all the time. I mean it was my neighborhood Starbucks was in there. So I'd go over I'd set up shop and I'd have a cup of coffee and I'd read the paper on the weekends and settle in maybe read a book. Barnes and Noble not Starbucks. There was a Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble but it was Barnes and Noble that I was going over to the bookstore and I'll never forget reading the Ken Star report there under the Clinton presidency. I mean that's how long ago this was when I was living there and covered a cover it was such a riveting drop of information long before I was in news. I was you know as I said a young lawyer young litigator practicing law and I would go downstairs or 71 Broadway and my train was right there the 4.5 I'd catch you to Midtown and work as a litigator for Jones Day. That was my life up until just a few months before 9.11 and by the grace of God I had moved to the Chicago office just prior and I say that because while I understood and I my my license read 71

7:26Broadway on the day of 9.11 and I remember I I used it because you were allowed to go back into the area you weren't allowed to go into Southern Manhattan unless you had you could prove that you lived there and it was a disaster zone of course but my building had been used to stage not rescues but it was used to welcome in fleeing citizens fleeing New Yorkers trying to get away from the debris and people went into this building which was all concrete and iron and part of one of the planes that had been used as a bomb landed on the roof of the building. So that's how close we were and it was very personal and I I do think I wasn't there when this happened for many reasons not the least of which is the poison air the poison water the poisonous substances everywhere that plagued lower Manhattan for years after the fact the full extent of which we're just

8:29now learning more about but there have been thousands thousands of New Yorkers who have died in the aftermath of the poisoning of ground zero and the related areas down in lower Manhattan. So I feel like I was one of the lucky ones to have moved out just before this happened it's it's awful what people had to go through we count the souls that died in the towers in Shanksville Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon that day but we too often forget to count all the people who died as a result of the cleanup of ground zero and the pollution that happened after ground zero that infected so many not to mention the blood and treasure spent on the fields of Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what happened at 6.45 a.m. that morning at Boston's Logan International Airport Muhammad Ata and four Saudi nationals checked in for flight 11 bound from

9:33Boston to Los Angeles that was no accident the two planes that were flown into the World Trade Center were both from Boston bound for Los Angeles that was because they wanted the the most fuel the planes that would be full of the most fuel they wanted to use them as bombs and they knew that they needed fuel to make them ignite and burn as much as possible the third flight United flight I'm sorry American Airlines flight 77 was at a dullest headed cross country to Los Angeles and flight 93 started at Newark Airport in New Jersey taking off for San Francisco so they were all transcontinental cross country flights full of fuel and innocent Americans. Muhammad Ata as I mentioned boarded flight 11 bound for Los Angeles he was personally selected by bin Laden for the mission he was the commander he was said to be nervous in the airport sweating and

10:34profusely the clerk who checked him in later said his forehead was drenched three of the men were identified by the computer as potentially suspicious their nationality plus their travel movements plus if they were also sweating I'm sure it was a tell their bags were x-rayed nothing suspicious was found it's amazing think about it flight 11 had 11 crew members and 81 passengers including the five hijackers at 6.50 a.m. five minutes later United Airlines representative Gail Jawa here was repeating the standard security questions about luggage to to nervous UAE nationals as they struggled to understand her they were part of a five man al-Qaeda unit all with tickets for the LA bound flight 175 United Airlines flight 175 on that flight there were nine crew 56

11:36passengers including the five hijackers again both flights going from Boston to LA at 7.30 a.m. this is all happening within 45 minutes 400 miles away at Washington Dulles Saudi brothers Nawaf and Salern al-Hazmi ran into the terminal late to catch American Airlines flight 77 they had only one small bag one set off two metal detectors so a security guard checked him with a hand wand again it picked up nothing suspicious unbored American Airlines flight 77 were six crew 58 passengers including five hijackers at 8.14 a.m. 15 minutes into flight 11 it's journey a hijack began they were intentionally beginning these hijackings about 15 minutes into the flight we'll get to this later but they had done we believe test runs and they understood that about 15

12:36minutes into the flight was when the cockpit would be unlocked they knew what they were doing the hijack began unbored flight 11 aata and the other terrorist sprayed mace into the first class cabin claimed they had a bomb trying to force the passengers to the rear of the plane where they would not bother the hijackers passenger Daniel Lewin a former Israeli commando bravely tried to intervene but had his throat slit by one of the terrorists who then forced their way into the cockpit killed or disabled the two pilots and Muhammad Aata was at the controls at 8.19 a.m. at the rear of flight 11 the flight attendant Betty Young used a seat back air phone to call the American Airlines office and her calm cool professional demeanor and the way she handled the worst of circumstances has made her one of the heroes of

13:38that day it would be the first eyewitness account of the terror of 9.11 she called and reported the hijacking and we have part of that on tape the cockpit is not answering somebody's stab in business class and I think there's a mate that we can't breathe I don't know I think we'll get in hijack is that a marathon 11 trying to call? we have some planes that are safe and quiet and you do key why is that including a pause? and who's trying to call me here? American 11 are you trying to call? nobody knew everything was okay. so you heard Betty there and then you heard the voice of Muhammad Aata as well he tried to pacify the passengers over the cockpit intercom but he didn't know how to operate it so only Boston air traffic control actually

14:42heard him the first part of the message was a bit unclear but then he says nobody move everything will be okay if you try to make any moves you'll endanger yourself in the airplane just stay quiet trying to get compliance so he could do what he had in mind by the way I'm reading these details in part from a daily mail account of the tick tock of 9.11 which is excellent the daily mail is a great publication at 8.42 that morning at Newark airport in New Jersey United Airlines flight 93 would take off bound for San Francisco on board 5 attendants 32 passengers and three Saudi terrorists and their Lebanese leader Zaid Jarrah he's in seat 1b closest to the cockpit the terrorists were actually a man short on that plane as one was refused entry in august by a suspicious immigration inspector doing his job so they were manned down which would become relevant of course as we know because flight 93 is

15:45famous for what its passengers did by the time that flight was hijacked and in in the air the others had already been used as weapons and the passengers were aware of that and the courage of the passengers on board that flight is second to no story in US history at 8.45 am on United Airlines flight 175 the seatbelt light went off and the hijackers leapt up stabbed a flight attendant and stormed the cockpit killing the pilots meanwhile flight 11 the first flight the one with Muhammad Ata was approaching New York at high speed again it had started in Boston there is one passenger on board the plane who speaks to all right I've actually think it's a flight attendant Amy Swini who says to her manager on

16:48the ground something's wrong we're in a rapid descent we are all over the place the manager asks her look out the window to find out where they are she said I see water I see buildings were flying very very low after a pause she says quietly oh my god we're way too low they were traveling it over 460 miles per hour and at that speed flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center spilling 10,000 gallons of fuel which exploded in a fireball causing the building to lean then right itself and force the people inside of it many of them to think they were going into the river eyewitnesses would say it felt like like an earthquake like the building was swaying and was likely to go down to topple that's not exactly what happened as you know and that moment of flight 11 crashing into the north tower of World Trade was caught on

17:53tape an extraordinary moment where I mean now we have a couple of videos of it but the one is actually really incredibly clear because there was a film crew from the fire department shooting the they were addressing a gas leak and the fire fighter turned the camera upward and showed us just happened to show us that moment of flight 11 this was there was a rule of Fox News after 9 11 that we never showed this Roger didn't want to show the terrorists work that they're proudest moment and so we were very very cautious in the early years of Fox I mean I joined in 2004 about ever showing the moment of the planes impacting 9 11 impacting the buildings on 9 11 now 25 years later we will show it enough time

18:53has passed that doesn't feel as jarring and wrong as it did then but only once here it is something somebody hit the world trade center or the trade center world trade center is a fire on the upper floors this just in you are looking at obviously a very disturbing life shot there that is the world trade center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into the world trade center we don't know anything more than that we don't know if it was a commercial aircraft we have no idea those of us watching television that morning didn't know what had happened

19:54most of us were hearing news anchor speculate about it possibly being a prop plane no one could quite digest the information that this could be a commercial airliner and of course that video was not yet public and no one had it so we didn't have the advantage of being able to see video of the actual plane hitting but there was much speculation about this being a prop plane that somebody's private plane that just wasn't in was errant in flight and caused an accident and there was speculation you know I have to say John Scott a Fox news was one of the ones who got it right from the start he he mentioned that it looked like terrorism and then as soon as that second plane hit the South Tower he said this has to be terrorism and he said the name that comes to mind is Osama bin Laden he he had a place in Roger L's heart forever more after

20:55that he it was just an extraordinary thing to be able to call in the moment while you're on the air and he was the only one who did it that I recall maybe somebody else didn't I'm not giving them credit someplace else but John Scott to his credit had it right from the start inside the North Tower of course absolute hell had been unleashed the the burning plane fuel the fires set inside the instant death of course to those on the floors affected but the heat and the smoke would affect and kill so many more and some of their stories are just absolutely harrowing we do have some of them some people called some people talked as they were suffering from the North Tower and the South Tower there's an image that is iconic in in its own way from 9-11 called the falling man and

22:05the falling man was taken by photographer Richard Drew he published it of a man who looks almost to be gracefully falling from the tower the North Tower we believe and we do believe per the Associated Press that while they haven't completely established who appears in Richard Drew's photograph they believe it is possibly a man named Jonathan Briley who was 43 in an audio technician at Windows on the world which was the restaurant near the top of the North Tower I went there many times he was ordained as a deacon at first Baptist Church of Elmsford just a few months prior to 9-11 and he had left his home early on September 11th kissed his sleeping wife goodbye and then one of the reasons they believe it might have been him is because his family members if you see there are many pictures of him of the of the falling man and you can make out some of his features skin color some facial hair potentially his

23:06build and his family said they they believe his sister said it does look like him truth be told it did look like him she said she no longer looks at the photograph however you can understand why but they also gleaned it might have been him because he the or the the the the falling man appears to be wearing an orange undershirt underneath his work shirt and Briley frequently wore one beneath the white shirt the sister said of not just possibly her brother but of all the so-called jumpers because they were facing such an awful fate inside that tower as it burned that it was truly a question of either dying by fire heat smoke inhalation in a manner of torture or jumping and some untold number of them chose jumping some fell the numbers are not known but the estimates are possibly as many as 200 and those who were on the base of the tower walking

24:12around trying to save their lives trying to say but save others have horrific stories of when the bodies came down and the sounds that that would make and the and the fright to those who died who are on the on the ground at least one person was died was killed by one of the bodies that came out of the window that picture has become so well known and representative of the horror that people face that day innocent people who were just trying to do their jobs and go to work but the this man Briley's sister said her belief about those who fell or jumped what whichever their fate was was as follows quote I believe that all of those individuals that jumped were caught their spirits were caught I believe that too and that's a very healthy way of looking at what happened that day there's

25:15what kind of a loving God wouldn't catch them I know I just I love the way she put it and I agree Richard Drew said that the picture drew complaints when newspapers published it in his retrospective which he published he described readers anger and editors reluctance to show it his own explanation was quote I made a photographic record of someone living the last moments of his life and every time I look at it I see him alive some of those who jumped held hands one man had a brief case and one woman jumped and held her skirt down to maintain her modesty and that simple act of dignity would be played in the heads of the Navy seals and special forces who

26:19years later 10 years later would be on their way to a bout about Pakistan about to kill the man who unleashed that hell on America Osama bin Laden when the show launched the first year we were audio only and I did what was easily one of my favorite interviews of my life which was with Rob O'Neil Navy Seal team six and the man who shot bin Laden it if you haven't heard this entire interview I urge you to go back and listen to it if you just google Rob O'Neil Megan Kelly 2020 or 2021 it'll come up if you have a two-hour driving and you just want to listen to the story of Rob O'Neil it's just well worth your time but he spoke of that woman listen before we left I had one of my guys because we accept the death that's it we're we're gonna die he said don't take this the wrong way

27:19because I'm 100% going don't worry about that I'm going I just need to say it out loud if we know we're gonna die why are we going and and so we had a conversation and we had a conversation we said okay well we're not going after bin Laden for the fame or the role-born or the bravado we're going after Osama bin Laden for the single mom who dropped her kids off at elementary school on a Tuesday and 45 minutes later she jumped to her death out of a skyscraper because that was a better alternative than whatever the hell was going on inside a 2500 degrees Fahrenheit and her last gesture of human decency was holding her skirt as she jumped out of a building and murdered herself she was never supposed to be in the fight we're supposed to be in the fight that's why we're going to go amazing that's the American spirit right there that guy and the guys with him and the women at the CAA who worked to find bin Laden for that matter that's what makes me proud to be an American

28:25those are the ones I remember on an anniversary like this a 25 year mark if you will back to the timeline at 842 a.m. at Newark Airport United Airlines flight 93 took off for San Francisco on board five attendants 32 passengers three Saudi terrorists as I said this would be the flight that would be brought down by the passengers in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and would change history by doing so to this day we don't have full confirmation where that flight was bound for many believe it was the US Capitol we would have been changed forever had they hit the US Capitol building and that enormous dome that absolutely defines the DC skyline was gone not to mention the loss of life that that would have entailed

29:25so the North Tower was hit at 846 a.m. that morning at 850 that morning on flight 77 the terrorists used box cutters to get into the cockpit and knives to kill and stab the crew their target was the Pentagon their target was the Pentagon at 852 a.m. flight 175 was heading for New York City from Boston Peter Hanson who was traveling with his wife and two year old daughter called his father Lee and told him that the plane was flying erratically people have been stabbed he says and to call United Airlines little Christine Lee Hanson just two years old and on board that plane just not for nothing but you do have these young Americans with or as I mentioned over on TikTok talking about how Bin Laden had a point as I said or Hassan Parker

30:27this leftist podcaster said America deserve 911 you look at Christie Christine Lee Hanson and you tell me that he's since tried to walk it back who would utter such a thing to begin with who would utter such a thing ever you look at Christine Lee Hanson and you tell me that she deserved it fuck off at 857 a.m. more than 230 firefighters were on their way to the scene many off duty going straight from their homes it is the largest ready rescue in the city's history the fire chief Peter Hayden later recalled we had a very strong sense that we would lose firefighters and that we were in deep trouble and indeed that would be the case New York City lost 441 first responders that day 441 the the toll was absolutely stunning more than 12,000 FDNY members later diagnosed with a 911 related illness 12,000 the police and firefighters

31:32the the reports of the firefighters running up the stairs while people ran down as they evacuated the building trying to save their own lives and the the faces of these firefighters old and young amongst them running up toward the danger that's what defines America and that day good and evil heroes and terrorists as the police chief in New York said this week let's be really clear who was who they knew they knew that they were driving down racing down walking up to their likely deaths and they did it anyway that's true courage that's I was going to say in human courage but it's not that's that's the beauty of it it it is human courage they knew the dangers better than anybody better than we did better than we ever could and they did it anyway

32:33at 9 a.m. Boston air traffic control listens back to the first transmission from ATA which had been hard to understand and they are stunned to hear him say we have some planes some planes so it's plural it's plural now Lee Hansen at 903 gets another call from his son Peter on flight 175 he says quote I think we are going down I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building don't worry dad if it happens it'll be very fast Lee here's a woman's scream on his son's end of the phone and then he hears his son Peter say my god my god Peter's mother said later we heard his first cries and his last ones Lee Hansen looks at the television and sees his son plane his

33:33son's plane disintegrate the right engine pierces the entire tower and lands five blocks away here's that moment when at 903 that morning September 11th 2001 flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center did I The south tower was so badly torn up that it was hit second but would go down first. And the stories are legion of people who were in the South Tower watching what was going on in the North Tower and calling their loved ones saying, don't worry, I'm fine.

34:36Don't worry, I'm okay. They were evacuating the South Tower, but people were, and they were alarmed, but they were relieved that it wasn't their tower and they were proceeding to exit the building when this happened. Many of them. It was just a devastating injury and of course been lawden later famously said it worked even better his plan than he had expected it would. He was very proud of that fact. Tell Rob O'Neill put a bullet between his eyes. We've all heard those radio ads about owing money to the IRS. They try to scare you and push you into calling out a fear. But tax relief advocates takes a different approach. If you owe the IRS $5,000, $50,000 or even $500,000, TRA has real solutions to fix your tax problem. Don't lose hope. TRA can often reduce or completely eliminate what you owe. Their focus is taxes and helping people and businesses resolve IRS problems. They have more than 1,000 five star Google reviews and an A plus rating from the better

35:40business bureau. You no longer have to fear the IRS. Generous relief programs exist right now that can give you a clean slate. So act today. Go to TRA.com. That's TRA.com or call 875-6845. Okay. Again, that's 875-6845. Tax relief advocates. Real solutions for real people. At 9.08 a.m. at the Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, President Bush was reading to a class of children being watched by reporters as he did it. The White House chief of staff at the time Andy Card famously whispers in his ear, America is under attack. The president decided not to rush out. He didn't want, he said later, to scare the children and send ripples of panic throughout the country. Press secretary at the time, Ari Fleischer was standing in front of the media holding up

36:43a sign that red don't say anything yet. They didn't want to cause a panic there. They didn't want to upset the children. The president sat for seven minutes as the children read out loud. President would have plenty to say just a short time after. At 9.20 so 12 minutes after he'd been told, President Bush delivered a hastily written statement as follows. Well we have it. Let's watch. Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. Terrorism against our nation will not stand. And now if you join me in a moment of silence. May God bless the victims, their families, and America. Thank you very much.

37:48Everything changed for George Bush personally and professionally from that point. He did not run on foreign policy. No one wanted to deal with foreign policy. Much in the same way we're feeling these days. But it was foisted upon him and he became a wartime president in that moment. It was heavily criticized for the seven minutes. But I understand the instinct. You want to be cool. You want to be in command. You want to project calm, which he was very good at by the way. And then when George Bush found his footing after those moments, he was pitch perfect on his messaging around that event. I mean, George Bush standing in the rubble of the fallen towers in the days after with the firefighters still looking for the remains of their friends and comrades and innocent civilians changed the entire country's opinion of him with that moment behind the megaphone.

38:50Here it is. Thank you all. I want you all to know that America today is on business in prayer for the people of the last year for the workers who work here for the families who are. This nation stands with the good people of New York City and New Jersey and Connecticut. As we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens, I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you and the people.

39:52And the people who knock these buildings down will hear all of us soon. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Not prewritten for him. Complete instinct. And what a moment. You had to hold on to it. There were moments after this happened that mattered. That really mattered. That sort of became the defining images in addition to what we'd seen that morning of the tragedy. There's one of them. Congress. Singing outside. I'll get to that in a moment. I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the morning in question. 928 AM, flight 93, all four hijackers storm the cockpit.

40:55An air traffic control can hear the sound of a struggle over the radio. Leroy Homer shouts desperately May day. May day. May day. The ghost quiet for 35 seconds. Then another frantic transmission. Hey, get out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. This is the cockpit. At 937 AM, American Airlines flight 77. Again, this is the one going out of Dallas carrying 64 people from Washington to Los Angeles crashed into the west side of the Pentagon. Watch. We're looking at a live picture from Washington. And there is smoke pouring out of the Pentagon. It would appear that there has been another major explosion. This one in the nation's capital. There is smoke in the air over the Pentagon. At this point when you were watching at home on television, you didn't know what was happening. The plane hitting the Pentagon never had a picture-perfect video the way the World Trade

41:56Center had. And so it was a question about whether a bomb had gone off there. There was like a car bomb or there was something else. And there was a false report of a car bomb as memory serves outside of the Pentagon. So we were confused. And then you didn't know as a copycat. Is it related? Because you weren't sure if it was a plane in the initial reporting of what happened to the Pentagon. And indeed, it was a plane. And it had the wife of the solicitor, the US solicitor general, Ted Olson. His wife Barbara Olson was on board the plane. He would speak so eloquently about her in all the years thereafter. But it was carrying 64 people and it was bound for Los Angeles too, crashing into the west side of the Pentagon. And there is a stunning memorial at the Pentagon to this day there. 13 minutes later at 9.50 AM, one of the most horrific moments in US history happened.

43:00One World Trade Center at the South Tower would collapse. Here's that moment. This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center. You can see the fireman assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents. And you can see the two towers, a huge explosion now raining debris on all of us. The amount of carnage was unspeakable. Everyone watching at home, the news anchors covering it, everyone knew the loss of life would be immense. One of the saving graces on that day was that it could have been worse.

44:04It was relatively early in the day. New York sometimes gets a leader start and it could have been worse. The first planes hit early before the entire crowd had arrived at one and two World Trade Center. But of course the loss of life would be enormous. It was 2977 killed, more than 6,000 injured. And that North Tower, sorry, the South Tower falling first was a surprise, was a stunner. No one had anticipated that by the way. I mean, when you heard the coverage, when you talk to the firefighters, people were not anticipating the buildings falling. That's why the firefighters were running up. They knew they might get burned to death. But when the towers fell, it was such a foreign idea that they would implode, that they would fall. That if you watch, for example, NBC, which I watched in part, it was surfing like many

45:04people, they didn't know, they didn't say the building collapsed. There was quite a while there before the dust cleared and you could see that it was no longer there, that we didn't know what happened. And you could hear even the news reporter said, there's a very loud noise, like an explosion, sounded like an explosion. I remember it fell and then of course the North Tower would fall. And I was married to my first husband at the time or was about to be actually, we got married that month, September 2001. Our wedding was later that month. He was a doctor and training. He was doing a residency out at Northwestern and he was in surgery as an anesthesiologist and I did something. I never do, which is I called him in the OR, which you don't do, but this was so extraordinary. And I remember he was repeating what I was telling him to the surgeons and to the OR. And I said that the towers have fallen. And he said, what do you mean? I said the twin towers are, they're gone.

46:05They were attacked. Plains have been flown into them and the towers are no longer standing. And he was repeating this to a room full of surgeons in the middle of a surgery. And no one could believe it. People thought I had lost my mind because we couldn't believe our eyes. It just, it just, you couldn't believe your eyes. And you know, you've seen it in the old movies, you know, from home alone to so many others. The twin towers were the crown jewel of the Manhattan skyline. It just seems like a weird analogy, but it's in the way that Titanic was the unsinkable ship. The towers just seemed indestructible. They seemed larger than life. They were huge. They were celebratory. They were absolutely a sign of American capitalism and its might and accomplishment. One of the reasons why they were targeted. And it was just an impossible thing to imagine. And yet there it was before our very eyes. Before the second tower would fall at 10.03 that morning, flight 93 would crash into a field

47:12in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. And the heroes on board that flight would become household names. Todd Beamer, among others, decided to fight. They were making phone calls back to their loved ones. And in Todd's case, to a 911 operator, a supervisor named Lisa, and talking about their fears, what was happening, their plans. And it's because of those phone calls that we know what the passengers on board, flight 93 did. Todd Beamer spoke to Lisa Jefferson and she would tell that story, among other times, in an interview with CBS in 2011. Listen here, Saturday Teen. When I took the call over, there was a soft-spoken calm gentleman on the other end. He told me that there's three people that have taken over the flight. That point I asked him his name.

48:13He told me Todd Beamer. He was from Cranberry, New Jersey. Did you make a conscious decision not to tell Todd about the World Trade Center? Why? Yes. Because I wanted him to have hope. I wanted him to think that he still had a chance. I didn't want him to feel like it was just totally hopeless and he definitely didn't have a choice and he knew he was going to die. I didn't want him to have that feeling. When he wanted to pray, was your sense then that he knew that... Yes, I did. I felt that he knew at that time because he said, oh Jesus, help us. And then he said, Lisa, would you recite the lowest prayer with me? And I knew that he knew at that time that it wasn't much left for him to do. What do you think that this country needs to know about the men and women who were on board flight 93? They're all the arrows in my eyes. They really are. They all pitched together and they deal with what they thought was the best thing to do

49:14at that time. And I feel that Todd played a great role in that because when he told the guys, are you ready? I assume that they were waiting on his cue. Then they responded to him and he said, okay, less row. And would you please help me welcome his wife, Lisa Beamer, here tonight? She called me Miss Erdi Morning. I told him, I said, you have two boys, David and Andrew. She said, yes, yes I do. I said, you're expecting your third child? She said, yes. He told you all of that. I said, yes he did. And he wanted me to let you know that he loved you and his family very much. And I gave her a message and kept my promise. Hmm. Wow. Wow. Todd Beamer was 32 years old. He was leaving for a one day business trip to San Francisco.

50:14He was deeply committed to his family and to his Christian faith. He and his wife, Lisa, as you heard, had two sons. Their daughter Morgan was born January 2002. He did try unsuccessfully to reach Lisa but couldn't but then connected with an operator. And she passed along his messages. He had asked her to pray the Lord's Prayer with him. And then she heard him turn to the others and say that famous phrase, are you guys ready? Okay. Let's roll. It was Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham. It became four of the best known names associated with the resistance aboard United Flight 93. Brought down in a field in Changsville, Pennsylvania instead of we believe in the US capital. Incredible. They stormed that cockpit. And while they weren't able to save the plane and those on board who knows how many lives they did save. Because that that flight was not going to come down peacefully in a field or anywhere.

51:20It was going to be used as a weapon just as the others were. And they stopped it. Back to the timeline. It would be another 26 minutes before the second tower came down to World Trade Center, which was the North Tower. Again, this is the one that was hit first, but came down second. And people were trying inside still to be to get out. People saw the firefighters going up in the North Tower. Phone calls were made from the North and the South Tower before the collapses, some of which I'll get to in a minute. But here is the moment that the North Tower went down at 10.29 a.m.

52:30Just awful. And absolutely unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. The young people who want to revisit bin Laden's thoughts about 9.11 try to skirt past all these pieces of tape and these stories because it's too enjoyable to demonize America and blame it for all of this. And we have many times on this show in response to that nonsense played the 911 call of Kevin Cosgrove. He was 46 years old. He was from West Isleip. He was a husband and father of three. His eldest son was 12 at day.

53:32He was a VP at Aon Corp, which was on the 105th floor of the South Tower about one of the worst places you could be. He called 911 to try to get help for himself and his trapped colleagues. He told the operator that my wife, quote, things I'm all right. I called and I said I was leaving the building and that I was fine and then bang. That's what happened. He told the operator that they were too young to die and that call is on tape. It is disturbing and you can hear at the end when the tower goes down. Here it is, Kevin Cosgrove. We are ready to see this and this happens. We are ready to die but it's getting dead. I want to say that we can go to the top and see this. So I want to have the spot to see that. I want to look at the numbers now and the five stuff. And it was so, so you can go. 105, 25. All right. So we can see this. We can. We can show you up in the smoke field.

54:32We are going to see what we can do. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go for a try in here. We can go. We know what it is. I think that my order is correct and I will leave the building outside and bang. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go.

55:32We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. We can go. I'm sorry. Oh. Absolutely awful. He told the operator they were too young today and they were. His remains were found. He was buried on September 22, 2001. His obituary stated that he could often be seen shoveling the walks of elderly widows in winter and helping elderly couples carry bulky packages throughout the year. That was Kevin Cosgrove, who died an innocent and not because Osama bin Laden had a point. There was Melissa Doi, 32 years old from the Bronx.

56:35She was an only child. She lived with her mother and loved to dance. She had no children. She was a senior manager at IQ Financial Systems. She was in the South Tower. The right wing of flight 175 had ripped into the 83rd floor where Doi's office was located. She called 911 at 917 AM. This 911 one call would wind up being used during the prosecution of Zacharias Musawi, the only criminal trial to result from the attacks would prove very important. Here it is. It's very hot, but no fire.

57:37I can't see. No, it's not. It's very hot. No fire for now and no smoke. No smoke. Of course it's smoke. Man, man, we have to stay calm. There is smoke. I can't breathe. Stay calm with me. I understand you. There is fire because it's very hot. It's very hot everywhere on the floor. I know you don't see it. I'm going to document what you say. It's very hot. I don't see any air anymore. Okay. All the fear smoke. Okay, here I'm so sorry. Hope I won't stay calm with me. Stay calm. There is just an uninsolicence. The call is in. I'm documented and I'll let this hold the one second. Please. I'm going to die. No, no, no, no, no. I'm going to die. Let's say you're prayers. We're not going to go to the floor. We've got to think positive because you've got to help detail the floor. Now, stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. I'm going to go to the floor. I'm going to go to the floor. I'm going to go to the floor. I'm going to go to the floor. I'm going to go to my height.

58:38Stay calm. Come on. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. I want to do some more. They call, they call. Can you, can you, I'm gonna get that thing. Yes, I'm gonna see. Yes, ma'am, I'm gonna say. I'm gonna take this thing. This one is just taking that thing. They're here? Are they inside with you yet, dear? No. Okay, stay calm till they get inside. Find out where they are. Yeah, stay calm till they get inside. My name is Evelyn Whitman. I'm going to pick them up. I'm going to pick them up. Yes, ma'am. I'm gonna pick them up. I'm gonna pick them up.

59:42She had backed away from the phone for that second portion of the call, which is why she was a little tougher to hear, but she was saying, tell her she's the best mom in the world. I love her with all of my heart and soul. I will see her in the next world. Tell her I love her so much. I love her. She was the best mother a person could ever have. Melissa's remains were found three years after 9-11, but they were found so in a way her family was fortunate. Really stretching the use of that word. But so many families got nothing. They got nothing back of their loved ones. And again, that 9-11 call would prove very important. And I have to say, like, what a shout out to the 9-11 operator there, and of course, on with Todd Beamer and others, because they didn't know what to do or what to say. This is an unprecedented situation. And sometimes giving a person directives on what to do in the literal moment, like stay calm.

1:00:43Like this is what you have to do. You have to stay calm because you're going to have to get out and you're going to have to help people is a soothing bomb. Like give their mind a purpose, give them an active thing to focus on other than the horror around them. I don't know if they trained the 9-11 operators to do that, you know, as opposed to like, she knew this person couldn't necessarily stay calm. But I think the way she handled like she stayed calm. And she, you know, no, you're not going to die. You know, she talked to her. She said things, of course, she couldn't possibly know, but she was trying to keep a peace of mind for poor Melissa. And she wouldn't have known that these were her last moments, but she would have known it was a possibility. And she just showed a lot of character and calm under pressure. And the 9-11 operators are also unsung heroes of the day, not to mention the, you know, the electricians, the workers, all of the laborers who had to be there to clean up the mess at ground zero.

1:01:45More than almost 10,000 people have died from related illnesses after the attacks. The, as I said, 12,000 FDNY members diagnosed with the 9-11 related illness in total. They're putting it around beyond that 95, that 9,500 people dying from related illnesses since the attacks, but those firefighters, the numbers are so high because they were there and ground zero digging out day after day after day. I mean, 10% of adults today were born after 2001 and they have no memory of this. This is only a story they know from books. And in fact, there was a poll that showed a majority of them 18 to 24 today say they first learned about the attacks in class. Through schoolwork, they didn't learn about it from a family member. They don't, they don't know about it other than as part of US history. Something we're seeking to change with programs like this. And by keeping the record, keeping the record. There were harrowing tales of those who did manage to escape. I'm going to tell you two of them.

1:02:51One, JoJo, Capastro. JoJo Capastro, she spoke to the Daily Mail. And she survived 9-11 by descending 87 flights in 21 minutes from the North Tower, escaping the collapse. Thank God. She's now 64. A photographer captured this image as she fled for her life. She is covered in soot. It is one of the most famous images from 9-11 with another person next to her. She is barely recognizable, but she is the tall one on the left who you can kind of tell has blonde hair. It looks like something out of World War II. It just, it looks impossible to have happened on the streets of the United States of America. And yet JoJo didn't feel well on the morning of September 11th reports the mail. But she told herself, just get up, get coffee, get to work. By 8.30 a.m., she was in her office at a boutique investment banking in brokerage firm, the May Davis Group on the 87th floor of the North Tower.

1:03:58At 8.46 a.m., the first plane hit. And again, it hit the North Tower. But JoJo and her colleagues didn't know that. All they knew was that something catastrophic had occurred. Some sort of seismic impact. We rocked. She said the whole building went back and forth. One, two, three, four, five, six times. And then we went forward. And I thought we were going into the river. I looked out the window. She said, I saw someone in a chair. I saw a briefcase. I saw a fireball and smoke started to come into the office. The race was on to get out for JoJo and her colleagues. They quickly established that two of the three stairwells on their floor were blocked or melted shut. Can you imagine? While a colleague hacked some sort of a passageway through the rubble. JoJo and others doused clothing and water to make masks before crawling on all fours out into the dimly lit stairwell. Quote, we were on our hands and knees when tower two hit. JoJo said the second impact came at 9.03 a.m. I have to be very honest with you. She said, I thought I was going to die.

1:04:59I felt something jump inside me and push me to go. Push me to go. The stairs that they had taken only went as far as the 78th floor, a transition floor, which they had to cross to transfer to another staircase. This was a very, very common tale of those trying to evacuate. I remember the distinct smell of burnt hair and burnt skin. There's fire. There's chaos. There's people screaming. There's injured people. There's dead people. Each floor had a different story, she said, as they went down the now more crowded stairwell. One would have music. One would have a couple of people in wheelchairs all around the smell of gasoline. Jet fuel head doused the building on impact. I remember on the 65th floor, she said, there was a man praying. And then we went down another floor and this breaks my heart. You saw the firemen coming up. We were going down on the right and they were coming up on the left. And you saw the fear on their faces. And I'm like, oh my god, they're walking right into this.

1:06:01It's just absolutely incredible what the first responders did. What these guys did knowing the stakes, knowing they had families of their own at home. And not only once many tales of these firefighters and others like Wells Crowther going up over and over. And staying trying to get people down to the elevator bank, down to a safer floor, and then going back up the smoky stairway to get more people at great risk to themselves. By the third floor, JoJo recalled she began to see light and her instinct as she neared it was to rush out under the concourse. It looked like a war zone. I was in total shock. Then a jumper fell right in front of me through the glass and I fainted. When she came to a police officer, when she came to a police officer, picked her up and carried her again, a first responder. When I got outside, I heard a roar. It was the South Tower coming down and I started running.

1:07:02A priest grabbed me. A priest came out of nowhere. Diddy though. And pulled me under a car and started to pray. All I heard was bang, bang, bang on top of the car and I was knocked unconscious. When she came around, everything was white. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. When she finally reached home that day, she took off her clothes and packed them away, along with her shoes in a box in the basement. She suffered tremendous survivors guilt and still does to this day. I was single. I was 39 years old and my friend Harry had a two-year-old son and a one-month-old newborn. Why didn't they take me? Why was I the chosen one? In 2018, when JoJo got married, she asked Phil, the photographer who took that photo to be her wedding photographer. Their friendship close and easy is clear.

1:08:02JoJo put it simply. If you didn't go through it, I find people just don't understand. And Phil understands me because Phil was there that day. Phil saw me at the worst day of my life. JoJo still works in the markets, reports the Daily Mail. She's a wife, a stepmother to four sons and a grandmother to 11. She'll be at the memorial on Friday this week, now, today. A place where she finds peace and serenity. She said, I'll go alone. I have my 9-11 family down there waiting for me. Wow. What a woman. And that is, I'm sure, how they feel. The other survivors and those who survived someone who was deceased are part of the same family. The same special club. And while they no longer have their work colleagues, their friends, their family,

1:09:04they have each other, they do. And they insist that we remember this day and what happened. And we honor that today intentionally. Lauren Manning is another survivor of 9-11. She was an executive working in World Trade. And she was burned when the elevators opened, the doors opened, and a fireball completely encompassed her. She would come on my show at Fox News and tell her story. It was absolutely unforgettable. She was burned over her entire body. But she'd become a motivational speaker. And in the following clip in which she tells what happened to her, you will see why. Lauren Manning, watch. The pain was unimaginable. The burn's grip was crushing. My hands were so badly burned, they were two myths at the end of my arms.

1:10:06I realized that this was my moment and my choice. I could keep fighting, I could surrender, and I decided to live. And I knew that my only shot was across six lanes of highway where they had recently laid a narrow strip of grass. Everything else was cement and macadam. All I could think of as I began to run across that highway which seemed to last forever was my son. Absolutely unbelievably inspirational. She goes on to make the point when she speaks publicly that you can stay down when adversity hits. You can stay down or you can rise up and you can find the will to live for your family, for those who love you, for those you love, for those you're connected to. Her son saved her life that day.

1:11:07She pulled herself across the highway, burned over 90% of her body, and insisted that she would live, that this would be the beginning, not the end. She's had untold numbers of surgeries. The pain associated with those kinds of burns and that kind of surgery is well documented. And yet she finds a way to speak optimistically about life and our reason for being here. If she can find that so can we. If she can find optimism in the wake of what's happened to her, so can we. It's a challenge. It's a decision. It's a choice. We can all make it as she did. As Lauren Manning got out of the building, I mentioned Wells Crowther. He and others were still up above saving others lives. Told this story on AM Update this week and we mentioned it on the program.

1:12:10President Trump just posthumously awarded Wells Crowther the presidential medal of the year. He was a 24 year old equities trader and volunteer firefighter. Survivors described a man in a red bandana guiding people to safety. And then returning time and time and time again to help people, help people to safety. His parents didn't know exactly what had happened to Wells. They knew he died on 9-11. They didn't know how. But they knew when he was a little boy that his dad had given him a red bandana. He gave him a white one. He said Wells with the white one. The white one is for blow blowing your nose and the red one. Sorry, reverse that. The red one is to blow and the white one is to show. And he loved his red bandana. Here he is wearing it. And Wells would wear that red bandana for the rest of his life. Apparently he wore it all the time. He wore it when he played lacrosse in college.

1:13:14He wore it when he was out with his buddies. He had it when he was working in the World Trade Center. And he used it that day to cover his mouth and nose as a screen for the smoke. And multiple people would describe who did make it out. Being rescued by the man with the red bandana or the red handkerchief. And his mother, Alison Crowther, read their accounts in the newspaper. And here she is speaking to Fox 5 this year just a couple days ago. I would say to him, Wells, I love you so much. You are such a beautiful soul and it is lost. It is still painful today. Alison might never have known about her son's heroism had it not been for a red bandana he wore around his face. Wells got his first bandana from his dad when he was a kid with the fatherly advice to always carry one in case things get messy. He kept a red bandana and his desk at San Lronil.

1:14:16And one day one of his co-workers came up and said, well, what is it with that red bandana? Why do you always have that red bandana? And Wells picked it up and he held it up and he said, with this red bandana, I am going to change the world. And I think he is doing that now. On 9-11 Wells covered his face with a red bandana as he put his own safety aside. Walking up into the south tower to help bring others to safety. Alison learned of her son's bravery after she read newspaper accounts from survivors who talked about being helped by a man who had his face covered with a red bandana. He was just fearless, really fearless. I never saw him afraid of anything. Thank you so very much, Mr. President, for this enormous honor that you've bestowed upon my son Wells. 25 years after September 11th, his life continues to remind us of something very simple. In moments when others need us, each of us has the power to choose courage, compassion, and service.

1:15:22That's the real meaning of the red bandana. To be courageous, to find the good, to be the good. Incredible and good for President Trump for honoring him in that way. I'm sure that was his healing bomb to the family. And he didn't have to do it. Trump doesn't get enough credit for his heart and his empathy for people who are suffering and who do heroic things. It's really pretty extraordinary. Makes you wonder why I hadn't happened prior to now. But God bless him and God bless that family. The everyday heroes are the ones who really make you sit up and notice, don't they? There was a story of two guys. It was a lot of second. Their names are Brian Clark and Stanley Premnath. There was a story about how Clark, Brian Clark was a volunteer fire warden on the South Towers, 84th floor.

1:16:25He was descending the tower and he heard Premnath calling from the devastated 81st floor. So he went to help him. And again, he didn't have to do that. He could have just kept going and saved himself. That might be one's instinct, but not for Brian Clark. They wound up escaping together using Clark's flashlight to navigate the stairs. A year later, Brian Clark gave Stanley the flashlight and it became a physical reminder of their escape and their bond. Here's a little bit more about these two from Spectrum, from just the other day, September 9th. The plane was a couple thousand yards away. Within split seconds, it was getting larger and larger. All I remember doing was screaming, Lord, I can't do this. You take over. And I do wander the desks. And with the most thunderous sound, the plane just smashed into the building. When I got off from under the desks, the plane was deer in flames. A huge chunk was stuck in my office doorway, 20 feet from where I was.

1:17:29The air pressure was so great, it was sucking everything out. I'm gonna die. So I'm screaming, Lord, please send somebody anybody to help me. Somebody heard. Are they uttering the floor? As I got closer to the wall, I can hear faint and the person saying, bang in the wall and I'll know where you are. So I'm hitting the wall. I can hear you now climb over. Hollow ceiling. Couldn't do it. The person says try again. Think about your children, think about your family. And I made a fist as tightly as I could. My fist passed right through that tri-wall. And I pushed my head through when the man yanked my head. And I don't know how to thank this man who just saved my life. But he got up and he fixed his jacket and it's stuck. And he says, very in clark, like a robot. And he said something that I'll go to the grave remembering. All my life I live as an only child. I always wanted a brother.

1:18:30I find that man today. And this man put his hand around my shoulder. Come on, buddy, let's go home. Wow. Incredible. Good for them. Imagine having your friendship begin under those circumstances. And imagine as you evacuate the World Trade Center, fearing for your life legitimately, validly stopping. Because you heard somebody and saying, I'll risk it. I'll risk my own life, my future with my family, to help this other. And imagine being someone like Wells Crowther who did it over and over and over again, when you had your entire life ahead of you. And he was made an honorary firefighter by the Fire Department in New York where he was from later. There are lots of ways to become a firefighter, as Wells proved. Steven Siller, I've got to mention him. We did tons of work with tunnel to towers, foundation. And I love Frank Siller.

1:19:30He's part of Steven's family. But his story was remarkable. Steven was the father of five. He was 34 years old. He was part of Brooklyn Squad One, his firehouse. He had just finished his shift. He was on the way to play golf with his brothers when he got word over the scanner of a plane hitting the North Tower. He drove his truck to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but it had already been closed for security purposes. He strapped 60 pounds of gear to his back. And he raced on foot through the tunnel. They believe he was in the South Tower when it collapsed. They don't know. His remains have never been recovered. But the remains of other Squad One firefighters were found there. And now in his memory, Frank and his other family members have put together the tunnel to towers, foundation. And they do a 5K run every year on September 29th.

1:20:36And we've been to it. My entire team on the Kelly file ran the race together. But what you see when you run the tunnel to towers race is, it has nothing to do with yourself other than your eyes. You see this, firefighters and full gear running. You see military vets from Iraq and Afghanistan with no legs running on their prosthetics. The entire 5K without complaint. It's absolutely humbling as a human being. I encourage everybody to do it at one point in your life if you can get to New York for it. You run the exact route. And you see what he did. Only most of us do it without the 60 pounds of gear on our back. And most of us are not running to our certain death. Like Stephen was. It's always the last Sunday in September, not necessarily the 29th. It's still ongoing. The foundation now, if they help firefighters, first, first responder families who lose

1:21:38their loved one, law enforcement, firefighters or military, they offer smart homes to injured service members who returned from the wars, missing limbs, sometimes all four of them. And Tunnels to Towers Foundation will build them a smart home so that they can live independently and reclaim their dignity. It's a wonderful cause. I love Frank Siller. I only wish that I had known Stephen. Here is an interview we did back in 2012 on my afternoon show, There America Live, where we interviewed retired Marine Corporal Todd Nicely, who was injured in Afghanistan. Your wife told you when you were recovering at the beginning, honey, do you know what happened? And you said, what happened to me? And she said, do you know you lost your legs? You said, yes. She said, do you know you lost both of your hands too? And your first response was, did anyone else get hurt? She said, no.

1:22:38You said, good. And that was the end of it. Pretty much. I think for most of us looking at you guys and trying to understand that your first instinct was to ask whether anybody else was hurt when you just been told that you had lost your legs and your hands, we tried to understand how somebody could be that strong. Do you have an answer? Well, when you're over there, you know, you're looking out for the guys that are next to you because they're the ones who are taking care of you. So, when something like that happens, you just hope that, you know, nobody else got injured while you were doing what you were put over there to do. So, it's just one of those things where you're always looking out for the guy to the left. The absolute best of us, the absolute best. God bless him and all the men and women who paid the ultimate price or close to it as they served us honorably on the fields of the Middle East. You might already own a firearm, but what if you could start with less lethal methods

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1:25:45Hey everyone, it's me Megan Kelly. I've got some exciting news. I now have my very own channel on SiriusXM. It's called the Megan Kelly channel, and it is where you will hear the truth, unfiltered with no agenda and no apologies. Along with the Megan Kelly show, you're going to hear from people like Mark Halperin, Lake Lauren, Moring Callahan, Emily Doshinsky, Jessica Lee, real clear politics, and many more. It's bold, no BS news. Only on the Megan Kelly channel, SiriusXM 111 and on the SiriusXM half. Todd nicely, incredible. Steven Siller, Jr., who was just nine months old on 9-11, is now joining Tunnel to Towers Foundation in what they're calling Steel across America, connecting a nation. It's a nationwide tour that will transport an authentic steel beam from the World Trade Center to communities across the United States. Here's Steven speaking with my old pal Major Garrett on CBS.

1:26:50This steel is so important. So traveling with it means the world. This steel is a visual representation of the sacrifice and bravery made by so many men and women who were facing despair, darkness and evil that day. They stood up and said, we're going to do better. They risk their lives to save others. So to be representing the foundation and traveling with this steel, it means the world. And for those Americans who have no living memory of this, what do you want them to know? Well, I'm one of them. So I was nine months old on September 11th, so I completely understand growing up without the depth of knowledge of what occurred that day. But you can learn and what happened should not be forgotten. You've grown up with this. What have you taken away from that? It's been a really unique experience growing up with that loss, but just his story of bravery and heroism and what it's inspired in the wake of September 11th.

1:27:51A terrible thing happened that day, but so much good has happened since through the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the work we get to do. I've gotten to be a part of helping so many families. Now I get to travel the country teaching kids who didn't get to experience 9-11, what occurred that day and relating this steel to them, it means the world. Look at that. Him, Todd nicely, no victim mentality whatsoever. Just forge forward. Learn manning, find a way, live, keep living. Not complaining. They're an example to us all. Wow. The investigation into who committed 9-11 and how these terrorists were able to board these planes would result in the 9-11 commission, the 9-11 commission report and so on. For now, I'm more interested in showing you this extraordinary clip of James Woods, our friend, story doctor, so accomplished, talented, telling an incredible story.

1:28:57And by the way, shout out to him for doing something about what happened here. I mean, it's another very courageous move. He told this story February 15th, 2002. So this is just months later on the O'Reilly factor. Listen to this, saw 22. When 9-11 happened, we were all stunned and we all happened to be at my house that evening and my friend Scott said to me, you know, remember that flight you took in August? I said, yeah, I've been thinking about it all day. He said, well, maybe you should call the FBI. And I said, I'm sure they're being inundated, but I thought it overnight, call a local office. And within two minutes, got a hold of a very intelligent young man, a special agent here who took the report. And I said, I hope I'm not wasting your time. He said, well, we have so many reports coming in. And he said, and by the way, even if this leads to something, we don't like to backwash information to people because in case they have to go to a trial and be witnesses or whatever. You won't hear from us. I said, well, great. He said, but we appreciate your calling. Quarter to seven in the next morning. I got a phone call that actually wakes me up. And he said, we want to talk to you about the flight that you took in August. I said, oh, did the, to the manifest match of any of the flights yesterday and my flight. He said, well, we can't tell you that. I said, well, look, I'll get ready. And I'll, you know, come down to the, to the federal building. You said, we're outside your house. We'll just wait.

1:30:13715. So this morning, I said, and I, and this is the only funny part of any of this. I said, how do you know where I live? And there was a pause. He said, uh, with the FBI, the FBI. Thank you. So they came in and I said, look, I'm dying to know where these guys. And he said, well, we've had 36,000 tips in one day. And there's two of us. And we're going to be at your house all this morning. So you can do the math, but we can't tell you, you know, so since then I have identified for sure. Two of them as two of the terrorists who actually were not. On flight 11, but one was on flight 175 and one was on flight 77. And I've been told unofficially not by the FBI, but by someone else and actually a higher level of government believe it or not, just through a coincidence through a mutual friend that all four of them were terrorists involved. So it's you and these four guys in first class. Nobody else. So there was a couple of the guys with a nervous to or was it just you guys out as I explained to the FBI, they said, what was your first instincts and aside from certain things like four guys getting on a transcontinental flight without any hand luggage who it's funny. I noticed behavior because I guess I'm an actor. It's kind of what I always watch people. Right. I just kind of observed people. It's something I've always been fascinated by sort of like that. See in any hall where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton sitting watch people and sort of talk about who they might be. And through four guys when the flight attendant who was a woman came up.

1:31:30To them, they literally ignored her like she didn't exist, which is sort of a kind of shallow. Yeah, kind of a Taliban. You know, I idea of womanhood as a, you know, not even a human being. I mean, it seems they're disrespect for women as sort of extraordinary and they didn't order alcohol and they said to me, you know, what made what did you think these guys were? I said, I thought they were the four law enforcement officers or four terrorists in that they had that thing that guys are undercover on a mission. Have between each other and it's impossible to go lucky. Well, you're absolutely lucky that they didn't decide to do what they're doing. They're not going to do a month before. Incredible. Incredible. He was a witness to it and he said something. He did something about it. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to stop what happened on 9-11. But think about it. That took guts. James Woods is such a treasure. He is a national treasure. God bless him and his beautiful wife, Sarah. It's, you know, that's a lot. I'm sure you're going to know that you were there with the terrorists and you were on the plane that was a dry run for 9-11.

1:32:36And he can look himself in the mirror and say I did something about it. I tried to stop it. Crazy. There've been lot and raid. One of the greatest moments in US military history. It happened 10 years later. It happened in May of 2011. I remember because I was on maternity leave with my daughter, Yardley, who was born April 14th. And it was May. What was the date? I don't remember May 9th, I want to say. 2011. That thanks to the tireless work of our intelligence community. We found Midlondon hiding in a compound in a Bada Bada Pakistan. And we sent the team six and others to go get him. Here is some footage of Americans cheering because when the news broke late that night that we had killed Midlondon, Obama came out.

1:33:39People gathered spontaneously at the White House and at ground zero and started cheering. Here's a bit of that. We feel really, really vindicated that we finally got him. This is our generations VE VJ Day. This is our generation's victory and I'm during freedom day. That's what today is. I'm proud of our military and proud of our president, Bush and Obama. You kill innocent American people. You're going to pay the price. Time to celebrate. It's the epitome of gratification.

1:34:51Remarkable, isn't it? Young, old, Democrat, Republican, together joining on the streets of America to say the pledge to sing. The pledge their loyalty to the United States to celebrate the death, the murder, the killing, not a murder, but the death of a hideous terrorist who's burning in hell right now. It's just what a moment. That's really the other part of the September 11th story is how it brought us together as a people. Boy did it ever. Did it ever. The day after the stock exchange was closed and it had to reopen. The US stock exchange. There was an urging for everyone to go and buy one dollar of stock just to send a message.

1:35:51Did they ever? There was a question about whether the New York City marathon should be run, which always happens in late September, or whether it would be too hard on the city or too hard on the first responders, they ran. The people were dangling flags over the bridges running with flags around them holding up flags for the runners. Actually, my husband Doug was one of the runners that year. He got in. It wasn't even a runner. He had registered. He had forgotten that he had registered for it. Then he got a notice after 9-11 that he made it. And he said, gosh, can I run a marathon? I'm going to run the loop in Central Park. And if I can do that, I've got to do this. And he could run it. His feet were bloody by the end, but he was so glad he did it. It was the most patriotic. He said he's ever felt and he lost a dear friend on 9-11. Baseball, they just dropped an incredible documentary on the role of baseball in helping us heal from 9-11. And even for a non sports fan like me, you couldn't stop but appreciate baseball. You couldn't help but appreciate what the, what the baseball world was doing to help us heal.

1:37:00No one could forget. No one. Game three of the World Series Yankees versus Arizona Diamondbacks. The game three was the first one played back at Yankee Stadium and George W. Bush. The rule out, the first pitch, it was October 30th, 2001. Watch. For tonight's ceremonial first pitch and please welcome the president of the United States. The United States. The United States. The United States.

1:38:02Nailed it. Nailed it. Mr. President. What a feeling. Obviously George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would architect a responsive strategy that would prove disastrous in many ways. We should not have gone into Iraq. We stayed too long in Afghanistan. But look, we needed that guy in the wake of that attack and it's the reason many of us, even if we have problems with the foreign policy as it was played out, we'll always have a soft spot in our heart for that man.

1:39:09For George W. Bush, who was just a civilian who volunteered to run for office and before he knew it was a wartime president commander in chief in a military response that had to happen. Though perhaps not the way it did. Julianne, who now, he's another one, who's image has changed very much publicly. But if you live through 9-11, you still, you got a soft spot in there for Julianne. You can't not, if you remember, he became America's mayor that day and the way he handled himself on 9-11, kept cool in the storm, was a leader, was able to bring a calm to others, directed the city in a way that they desperately needed. Same thing with the messaging. He actually retraced his steps on that day with Newsmax recently and we have a bit of it cut. Watch this.

1:40:09And then I could see the two towers head on and I would say I stopped and I said, oh my god, because when you see it straight on, all the way up there, the flames coming out. I don't know, it was the worst sight ever seen my whole life. And police said, be careful, things are coming off the building and they're going as far away as up there. By things, it was like pieces of steel, pieces of debris. As he got closer to the towers, Julianne ran into an old friend, New York City Fire Department Chaplain Michael Judge. When I got to about right here, right over here, I saw Father Judge and I always had a thing with him. I always would say to him, Father will you please pray for us. So he would say, no better if you pray, it would be more unusual. God will pay attention. I said that to him, I didn't get the usual humorous response. Instead I got mayor, this is really bad.

1:41:17I'm glad you have big shoulders. Keep praying. And I never said that to me before. Later that morning, when the South Tower collapsed, debris crashed through the North Tower lobby, killing many inside, including Father Michael Judge, who stayed until the end, praying for firefighters and administering last rights to the dead. Father Michael Judge was another name that became a household name after 9-11. We were together in our grief, in our horror, in our steep sadness for our country, and in our resilience, in our will to go forward together, to not stay down. That's all that's required to be strong, to be courageous, just don't stay down. You get knocked down, you get back up, that's it. You keep going, like Lauren Manning. You make the choice, this will not be my last day. I will keep living. I have things to do. I have people to be with, people who love me, people I love.

1:42:23Here now, around me, who I can see, and I know, or maybe just the promise of them, in the future, and you can see it. The unity, I mean, there's no better example of it than what happened on the steps of the U.S. Congress, right after the towers went down. I mean, right after, events of 9-11 that morning, this was spontaneous, and it was healing, and it was something I don't think will ever see again. Members of the U.S. Congress came out in front of the Congress, and started singing. God bless America, spontaneously. Watch this.

1:43:29God bless America, my home sweet home. God bless America, my home sweet home. When have we seen that kind of unity amongst members of Congress since? When have we felt it as a country since a couple of moments here or there, like I showed that I've been lawden was killed, but it's been, it's been rare. I'm going to leave it at this, speaking of Giuliani. He was such a leader, as I said, and had a lot of sage commentary around 9-11 for years, in years and years, and whatever.

1:44:33I know he's gotten very political, and people have a problem with him, but I will always remember him for the way he behaved around this event. He said the following, the attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead, we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law, and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom. Right on. In memory of the thousands who died that day, and in the years thereafter, from the toxic pit that became ground zero, from the sacrifice that was made on the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan, and otherwise, we remember you. We remember why you died, and we will try to remember the unity that enveloped much of the country in the wake of your deaths. We'll see you Monday.

1:45:43Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show, No BS, No Agenda, and No Fear. Today's episode was brought to you by Super Shore.