Tony Katz on the 25th Anniversary of 9/11

0:00MUSIC Live from the Heartland and the Crossroads of America. It's Tony Katz today. MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC Not forget that moment of immense and horrible, evil that took place in this world bent on the destruction of all that is good. But this morning we also remember how America responded to that wickedness. One day's like 9-11, we learn what a country is truly made of.

1:02We're learning right now what we're made of, and we have to be strong, and we have to be smart. And Americans are made of a goodness and spirit that can transcend any earthly force. And that's what we're doing better than anyone else has ever been able to do it. Because we are sustained by a supreme strength, far more powerful than steel alone. A board flight, 93 in the skies over Pennsylvania, brave flight attendant, boiled water to fight back. A loving father from New Jersey Todd Beamer, a telephone operator in Illinois to join him in the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. There has not been a day since September 11, 2001.

2:03Maybe I should argue it's a couple days later. When I realized what the people in flight 93 had really done, there's not a day that has gone by that I do not recognize that those people saved my life. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, good to be with you, the 25th anniversary of September 11th. I was a restaurant manager in Washington, DC. I was working at the Hard Rock Cafe, 9th and E right next door to Ford's theater, where Lincoln was assassinated. And across the street, the other way was the FBI building, the J.A. Grouper building. And I watched people run out of that building like it was ants out of a hill for their lives. Buildings were evacuated everywhere.

3:05I was doing a training when someone came in and said, you have to see this. Like many people, young guy, not 100% sure how this was supposed to be handled from a corporate standpoint and others and we sent everybody home. I don't even know if that was the best move, but I don't know if there were other moves. In my, I lived in DC at the time, my 15 minute commute was three hours. There were jeeps with soldiers on the jeeps armed. There were fighter jets overhead. We had gotten reports of car bombs and things like that. But lots of people were saying lots of things didn't turn out to be true. It was just the fog of the moment. The flight 93 was making its way back to DC and maybe they were heading for the White House. White House is not an easy target.

4:05It's got the OEOB on one side. It sits low. You could hit other things. Maybe you miss it. Maybe you go for the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue. Maybe that plane crashes somewhere in the middle like ninth and E because I was equidistant between the White House and the Capitol. There's not a day that has gone by in those 25 years where I don't know that those people saved my life. Todd Beamer and Let's Roll, I know this. I know every bit about this. I don't question it. I question those people who have decided that somehow 9-11 needs to be rewritten. You can't actually say Islamist. You can't say Muslims.

5:06We were attacked by Islamists. That's what happened. The people who came after us and those supported those coming after us were Muslim zealots, hellbent on the destruction of Western civilization and desirous of a caliphate. We can discuss of some of the law and all you want. We can go over the looming tower. We can break it down and the argument was this wasn't your land. Land that we were invited into. In the end, the philosophy remains the same. Those people who think that we can't have this conversation are people to be dismissed. They're bad people. For all of those who say you're not allowed to say it was Islamist, you're the kind of people who want to keep the population dumb and the answer is no. We won't have that. Now, you've done a pretty good job of keeping the population dumb. You take a look at what they're teaching in schools and they won't teach about the connection to Islam. They won't teach about the connection to Muslims.

6:07This is not every Muslim we're talking about, but this is who did this. We never once questioned whether or not it was the Japanese who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. We never once questioned whether it is the Germans who are the Nazis. But somehow on this subject to can't be said, other people's bigotry is none of my concern. And the people who think that you can't speak honestly about Muslims are afraid of Muslims and I have no fear. We can't afford it. We don't have that time for the fear. We don't have it. Now, Condoleezza Rice spoke at the Pentagon as the president spoke at the Pentagon. And Condoleezza Rice was, I guess one could argue it was a bit conciliatory in the role she played and the mistake she made, the former Secretary of State. I want to say something deeply personal.

7:09Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9-11. We did what we knew to do, but by definition it was not enough. I am grateful that there was not a follow-on attack. For that miracle, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to our armed forces and to the intelligence community. Their service and their sacrifice in the war on terror kept us safe. But I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen still feel and for the trauma that our country endured. And yet as I look back, I don't know if I've ever felt that that Condoleez Rice was responsible that we should have done more. There's an argument to be made, same argument that we have discussed regarding October 7th

8:14for the Israelis. How could you not know? And certainly one could argue that you're the leadership, you got to go. George Bush got reelected though. And let me say for the record, I'm not so much a fan of George Bush right now. As George Bush in a conversation yesterday with Condoleez Rice, he said this. Listen. I want you to talk about a couple of those events. You talked about going to the Islamic Center and trying to make sure that our Muslim-American citizens knew that we didn't blame them for what had happened. How else have made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that these people subverted their religion?

9:17That is a ridiculous answer, Mr. President, and you got to stop it. We're through the looking glass. The whole religion of peace thing, that is to play into the trope of those who want to defend the indefensible. Because what we know to be true is that it is a political system and not a religion based on their own words. And this idea of religion of peace means that somehow we are cascading an entire group of people. And therefore we are preventing ourselves from engaging honestly about who did this to us and why, because they desire our destruction, the destruction of Western civilization, the destruction of anything that does not make Islam supreme. The end. You can argue a lot of the philosophy of Osama bin Laden if you choose, but you cannot

10:20change the core of the Islamists as it is taught to them if they take this political system to heart. George Bush is wrong. And 25 years later he has not learned any lesson. The lesson is not that you have to hate a group of people. The lesson is to recognize that there are people out there who hate you. And it doesn't matter what you do. That's never going to change. Never once, never ever, never once, never ever. It doesn't matter how many times you say religion of peace, it doesn't matter how much outreach you do, it doesn't matter how kind you are.

11:21It doesn't matter. None of it matters. None of it. And George Bush is not playing in reality here. And to engage in this way is cheap and is low and is absolutely less than. President Trump said that on days like 9-11 we learn what the country is truly made of. I would argue with the president that no, sir, on days like September 12th we learn what the country is made of. And I will tell you, sir, that I'm not so sure I know. I have got a country that doesn't want to teach September 11th that wants to elect Zaren

12:22Mamdani, that wants to elect communists. I don't know. What kind of country are we like? Post September 11th. What kind of country are we like? As of September 12th, I don't have the answer. I know the country I want to be. I know the country I'd like to be. I know the country I'm looking to be. I know that there are those people I don't want to be anything like. This clip, this clip from the remembrances at Ground Zero where they're reading the names Erul in Lapland.

13:24Ron Men are crying and there's Representative Acacia Cortez laughing with Mayor Mamdani. James Patrick. Quite literally reading names of the dead, the murdered, not dead, not killed, murdered, and there is Representative Acacia Cortez smiling away next to Smiley McSmiles in Zaren Mamdani. Laughing. Smiling. James. I don't know. Have we learned what kind of country we are yet? Or have we actually been way too tolerant? We've been too nice. We're so concerned with sharing our theory that this is a religion of peace, that we have

14:25not properly, properly dealt with what we do with those who attack us, who look at their watch while dead soldiers return or laugh when the names of the murdered are read. I have no idea what kind of country we are. I just know the kind of country I want to be. I want us to have. I want to live in. And this is what I work towards in my own weird way here. I want the country where people look at Representative Acacia Cortez. I want the country where people look at Alexandria Acacia Cortez and tell her to go to hell. She screams, oh, it's because I'm a woman. It's because I'm a Latina screw you. You are laughing while names are being read.

15:26Can you be normal for five minutes? You human trash. Also, he's an Islamist, Zahad Mamdani, a Kami Islamist low life scumbag, and the people of New York are schmucks for electing both of you. You vicious anti-American zealot freaks. The place in hell for you is not big enough, nor hot enough. Now I disagreed with you on policy, Representative Acacia Cortez, but I just saw you laughing. No thanks. People are watching. Maybe control yourself. You see at your uncle's funeral and you lean over to your brother there and you tell him a joke, but something your uncle did and you both laugh. See, it's good-hearted because you're remembering the uncle. You laugh at the 9-11 memorial.

16:28We think you're glad it happened. And I don't put a past you, Representative Acacia Cortez, not for a second. No, Mr. President, I do not know the nation that we are, what it showed itself after September 11th. I do know the nation I want to be. And I sure as hell don't want it to be the nation where Alexandria, Casse Cortez, Zahad Mamdani, or the people who won't teach about September 11th have any power or any say. I'm Tony Katz. This is Tony Katz today. Sunday you were a hero. Two goals. The dive at the wall. The extra set because the guy next to you was watching. Tuesday you can't get out of a chair without making a noise. Here's the thing the pros figured out that the rest of us didn't. Soreness isn't a badge. It's a tax. Every day you spend stiff is a day you're not training, not playing, and not getting better. Hyperice cuts the tax. The hypervolt massage gun drives deep into tight muscle to release it in minutes.

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