Politico posted a really thorough oral history of the day based on interviews with many of the senior government officials involved back in 2016. Really interesting to hear the considerations behind everything and the uncertainty permeating all of government:
Brian Montgomery: There was this group of students, all young ladies in uniforms and teachers, all oblivious to all of this. They had no idea what was going on. The president was very gracious and greeted them, and then said, “I need to go take an important telephone call.” He went into the holding room and went directly to the STU-III [the secure telephone].
Ari Fleischer: There’s always a secure telephone waiting for the president, but in the nine months he’d been president, I don’t think we’d ever used one before an event like that. Condi was holding for him.
unclejoel on October 8th, 2023 at 17:09 UTC »
Tell me about the phone
montecarlocars on October 8th, 2023 at 18:22 UTC »
Politico posted a really thorough oral history of the day based on interviews with many of the senior government officials involved back in 2016. Really interesting to hear the considerations behind everything and the uncertainty permeating all of government:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/were-the-only-plane-in-the-sky-214230
Edit: it even talks about this specific moment:
Brian Montgomery: There was this group of students, all young ladies in uniforms and teachers, all oblivious to all of this. They had no idea what was going on. The president was very gracious and greeted them, and then said, “I need to go take an important telephone call.” He went into the holding room and went directly to the STU-III [the secure telephone].
Ari Fleischer: There’s always a secure telephone waiting for the president, but in the nine months he’d been president, I don’t think we’d ever used one before an event like that. Condi was holding for him.
JuicyGooseOnTheLoose on October 8th, 2023 at 18:42 UTC »
They wheeled in the same TV those kids watched Bill Nye on the day before lmao