Media top headlines September 9
In media news today, The New York Times hasn't updated Biden's 'latest poll numbers' since May, Psaki takes heat for citing security concerns when asked why Americans are still in Afghanistan, and MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace says that Mueller should look into 'collusion' between red states and SCOTUS on abortion
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer has captivated Americans for the past several years with a Twitter thread documenting his first hand experience serving alongside President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001. He told Fox News that it still surprises him how much of an impact the thread has had, and how one tweet in particular always seems to spark the most engagement.
"It’s so interesting to me this took on a life of its own so to speak," Fleischer said of the gripping Twitter thread.
It all happened by accident the day he bought an iPhone, he explained. He used his new device to snap pictures of several photos in his office from 9/11, tweeted them out, and saw "a big reaction."
"Then I decided I could relive September 11 by live tweeting it as if that day happened right before our very eyes," Fleischer said. "And the reaction was just immense. I was stunned at how many people followed it and were riveted by the minute-by-minute recount as I relived that day as if it were happening today in real time. And that just let me to start to collect more pictures, talk to more people, gather more information and I just kept doing it every September 11."
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Fleischer's first two tweets are posted at 7:59 a.m. and 8:14 a.m., the takeoff times of two of the doomed flights hijacked by terrorists. He documents several key moments throughout the tragic day, such as what happened behind the scenes when then-Chief of Staff Andy Card told President Bush America was under attack, and what it was like being the only plane in the sky during a tense Air Force One flight.
One of the photos featured in Fleischer's thread is of him and several of his White House colleagues staring out the windows of the presidential aircraft.
He recalled it being a surreal moment when they saw F-16s on their wings. Air Force One, he explained, never domestically flies with a fighter escort.
"On September 11 we flew with fighter escorts, and it was a sight to see and at one point one of the F-16s was so close to our wing that you could actually see the face of the fighter pilot in his cockpit," he recalled. "It’s just a remarkable scene."
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But one moment in particular, Fleischer said, has consistently received the biggest reaction from his followers.
"Bush’s direct and sometimes off-color language on September 11, such as when he said, ‘When I find out who did this, they’re not going to like me as president. We’re going to kick their ass,’" Fleischer answered without a beat.
Bush's blunt declaration, Fleischer said, got "a huge reaction."
Fleischer said that when he sees President Bush the two still talk about their shared experience on September 11, suggesting nothing can ever break that connection.
"When I see him…we talk about September 11, and he recounts his point of view about what took place and I’ve shared some of my thoughts and I think any time you can gather a group of people who have a story to share about September 11, whether it’s firefighters or policemen or the loved ones of those who lost someone on September 11, or those of us who were traveling with the president…it’s always revealing because people feed off of each other and bring back recollections perhaps someone forgot and it always is a fresh conversation, a vivid conversation."
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To this day, Fleischer said he is moved by the immense impact his tweets have had on so many Americans - be it those who were directly impacted by the terror attacks, or the generation that was too young to remember them.
"Really what sticks with me are some school teachers who said to me their students are too young to know what happened and they use this as a study guide," he said. "And that some widows…of those who lost their husbands on September 11 said how much they appreciate my doing that and how what I did at the podium and the days after September 11 helped make them feel calm, and it’s those memories I suppose, those touchpoints on to that tragic day."