they don t like politicians of any type speaking at an event which should only be focused on those lost, for their children, their parents. so to be charitable, i don t read anything into the fact that joe biden s not speaking in new york. i do believe previous presidents spoke at shanksville and at the pentagon. but it s appropriate for all presidents, i will not create are size the president of the united states for paying criticize the president of the united states for paying his respects. s the appropriate, right thing to do for any president of any party. you come, you listen, you pay your respects and you go. politicians don t always need to speak. bill: in about 90 seconds, the north tower will have fallen 20 years ago, 10:28 a.m. eastern time. there ll be a moment of silence here in new york as we see air force one, and that s the
top five issues americans are worried about. does that worry you? it does worry me. foreign policy is never the number one thing until it is. and it really worries me right now that the misconduct that we ve seen in afghanistan over the last number of weeks increases the danger that we see in both taiwan and ukraine. and i have a great deal of experience with this now because of the work that i ve been doing. and i think we have to be prepared to remember the dead, to remember the people who were victims, i went to the pentagon and saw the pentagon while it was still on fire, and to preserve our liberties here, to focus on not only our domestic issues, but also our foreign policy issues because america is just not in a position to segment this all and say all or nothing and stop and start. the danger is going to be permanent and ongoing. we re resolute people and people dedicate today liberty and freedom and we can do these things, but i think we have to keep our eye on the fact that
the pentagon, i visited the pentagon, we re focused on the sympathy involving those victims, and the significance of it, the larger significance that you re addressing. but we can t forget, also, the united states is very central in the world and we have a geopolitical responsibility and danger. and we have to be prepared to do all of these things at the same time and it requires a resolution of the american people that i hope we can continue in the days ahead. neil: you know, governor, 20 years ago if you were to poll people right after these attacks, the security, safety, it was, you know, number one and it stayed that way for a good couple of years. more concerning than a dip in the economy, of when we went back into a slight recession and more importantly than any of that, more important than the debate over jobless claims and accelerating too quickly, safety was the number one issue. now it doesn t even crack the
afghanistan. experience says that s not right, but you just have the hope the president of the united states, joe biden, is right and we ll be safe. dana: speaking of experience, general jack keane, you ve heard, sir, from the pentagon, both milley and austin. and secretary rice talking about where we are now, and the most solemn application of any president is to keep the united states safe. to ari s point, you know, i understand, hope absolutely, but hope doesn t feel like enough. yeah, well, what i appreciated about the discussion that general milley and secretary of defense put forward certainly today was representative, i think, of what americans feel. this is an attack on us and who we are, what we stand for, what our principles are.
and this guy colorfully told the guy in the suit what he was going to do and to get the hell out of his way. and the guy said to him, i m the secretary of state, and i m ordering you to get out of here. and that was don rumsfeld. he went to the heart of the fire. he passed this her at the age of 89. this summer. i ll never forget the heroism he showed that day. dana: bret baier, you knew secretary rumsfeld as well. your thoughts this morning. of course, you covered the pentagon in the years after the attack. yeah. you know, as defense secretary, he was quite something, and that image of rumsfeld getting, helping first responders get some of the injured people out on stretchers right outside the burning pentagon was really iconic. and, obviously, he played a significant role in all that was happening in the early days about how the war was going to be handled. you know, at 9:37 flight if 77