George W. Bush remembers becoming a ‘wartime president’ on 9/11

Former President George W. Bush recalled how he formulated his first messages to the nation after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying he didn’t want the country to “lose our soul.”

The 43rd president spoke with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sept. 9 at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It marks the only public comments Bush plans to make about the anniversary, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported, citing his presidential center.

Bush and Rice recalled the early moments when they first learned of the attacks in 2001. The former president, who will be appearing at an anniversary event in New York City on Sept. 11, remembered reading to a group of schoolchildren in a classroom in Florida when he was told by an aide that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

“I didn’t have much time to process that, but it was pretty clear to me that if we were under attack, then my job was to defend the child that was reading to me, and her family, and her country,” Bush said, according to a broadcast of the event…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health