it s almost an other worldly experience. the first thing you said was wow the weather today. exactly as it did on 9/11. i was in d.c., and brings it all back. but the day before 9/11 the world has largely at peace. america was not at war. we were in a boon, a fairly united country on the main issues. the two parties seemed to be in conflict, george w. bush had run against al gore but you look at the differences between them, compare that the differences between political leaders now in 2021. this moment of bliss it seems in retrospect is interrupted by what was called one of the bloodiest days of american history, battle of antietam, a little more than 3,000, 9/11 just about the same number of people ahead. ron allen had an interview at the top of the show with a young woman who talked about teaching
we had taken at nbc news the moments after 9/11 in 2001 and now. i remember it clearly where i was that day. i worked for the wall street journal at the time and i remember being september to the white house as streams of people are leaving the white house and the reporters were going in, of course, and the feeling in washington, d.c., and what i really remember, hallie, is working until about 2:00 that morning and driving home to my house, which is just two miles from the pentagon and coming across 14th street bridge and still smoke coming out of the pentagon building, the building behind us and you can see the fire trucks, you can see this, and i had been removed from it because i was across the river in washington and now i m face to face with this and it was an ams.ing and i remember pulling over to the side of the road as soon as i got off the 14th
just a moment but right now i want to send it over to garrett haake who is going to catch you up from our washington newsroom on other news happening today. hallie, thank you. any minute now we expect to hear from president biden and first lady jill biden, the pair is expected to give remarks on how the administration plans to keep children safe in u.s. schools as we continue to fight the coronavirus pandemic. in his speech last night the president laying out his plan to protect who he calls our youngest and most precious americans. we know that if schools follow the science and improblem the safety measures like testing, masking, adequate ventilation systems as we provided the money for, social distancing, and vaccinations then children can be safe from covid-19 in schools. we need more to step up. vaccination requirements in schools are nothing new. they work. let s ming from monica alba
do. we re giving prizes in the senate to encourage children and families to get the shots and look, their efforts are working. 65% of the children ages 12 to 17 here in d.c. have gotten at least one shot like elijah. that s incredible. that s one of the highest rates in the nation for children between the ages of 12 and 17. and for students here at brookland, once you all get vaccinated, you re invited to a special visit at the white house. [ cheers and applause ] i m going to get in trouble with the secret service and everybody else and i m not sure how we re going to mechanically do it but i assume the buss can get you to the white house and if we can t get you all in one room we ll be out in the rose garden or out in the back there and maybe let you fly the helicopters no, i m only joking about that. i was just downstairs in the science class. it s amazing, you saw it, mayor. it s amazing, these kids are excited about building a vehicle that can land on the moon.
country and what it is like today and the way that our attitude as a country and as a government towards national security and international diplomacy changed. it s hard to remember that we hadn t had a terrorist attack on u.s. soil in most people s memory on september 10th of that year, and now the fact that we had one with such devastating consequences has changed really the entire makeup of the federal government and the way foreign policy and national security policy was made from that day forward. it became all of a sudden a hunt for terrorists around the world, that even became in washington parlance a thing, the global war on terrorism, or the gwot, one of the worst acronyms ever made and it made the way americans interact with their own government so different. you mentioned the tsa, probably the thing that people are most directly familiar with, flying became extraordinarily difficult