Good day, everyone. This is Andrea Mitchell reports in washington, with our special coverage of a day that transformed our nation. The first time in two centuries the continental United States had come under attack from a foreign enemy. Just like today, its a clear, sunlit day, the skies were bright blue until the first Plane Hit the North Tower destroying the lives of thousands and their surviving families. My brother kevin came into the lobby and he reported in to me, and he didnt say a word. We looked at Each Other wondering if each of us was going to be okay, and then i told him to go up to evacuate and to rescue people, and when he turned around and grabbed his unit, engine 33, that was the last time i saw my Brother And Engine 33. Have you ever, i dont know, tried to talk to him and tell him im proud of you, you know . I know what you did . Theres always when you stop and think, are you there . Dad, are you there . You know . Stick with us. What does it mean to you to have people from All Over The World come down and see your Dads Name . Thats what feels good about it knowing in 50 years, 100 years, 200 years people can walk over and theyll see his name and maybe look it up and learn about his story. All three sites where the Al Qaeda terrorists crashed their hijacked planes will be visited by the president and First Lady tomorrow. Ground zero in manhattan where 2,9077 people died and the devastation was witnessed live by millions of americans stunned by images on their televisions. The pentagon where american Airlines Flight 77 crashed killing 184 people and shanksville, pennsylvania, where the brave passengers onboard united Flight 93 fought back, forcing the hijackers to down the plane nearly 200 miles before their intended target in the u. S. Capitol and where former President Bush and mrs. Bush will pay their respects. Throughout this special today, this special hour we will be talking about 9 11, about the lessons learned and how we live with the fallout from that horrific day. Joining me now from Ground Zero, my colleague, nbcs Rehema Ellis who has been talking with visitors and Family Members for whom the pain will never go away. Rehema . Reporter andrea, its true. When you come to Ground Zero its a place where you feel sadness and it feels heavier today and im sure it will be more so tomorrow, but people are more so remembering the beauty of the lives that they lost and how much they loved them. Joining me right now is someone who lost her brother anthula, your Brother John was killed some 20 years ago tomorrow. Tomorrow. What goes through your heart when you think about that . 20 years is a really long time to live without someone that you love so dearly, but you know, its funny that you say what runs through your heart because what runs through my heart is my fond memories of john. You know, his love, his laughter, his smile. He was a guy who loved to have fun. Oh, my god, john was a party animal and absolutely loved to sing and dance and party, and he was the life of the party. So i miss that. I really do. I miss that about him, and i miss having to share my experiences over the last 20 years without him, and having to live through them without him there, but it brings me some sort of comfort that i have almost taken on a little bit of johns personality. So you know, he taught me how to live bold and bright and beautiful and thats what i do. In some ways there is so much life here. While for some, this is a cemetery because the remains were never found. Yes. This community, and this area around is very vibrant. Do you think that would please john. Oh, that would definitely please john. He was such a vibrant person. There is no way he would have wanted this to be a somber cemetery of sorts. We took very, very careful direction from Family Members when we created the memorial. We wanted a place of Quiet Contemplation and reflection, but we also wanted it to be a place full of hope and life, and i think that all of the lifeaffirming elements provide that, you know . The Green Grass and the trees and the sound of the rushing water. You Cant Help but feel a sense of peace when you come on to this plaza. Thank you for talking with us. Theres no question that this is an oasis for you and for other families, andrea, and for visitors in general who come here at this reflecting pool, to have a moment to reflect on what happened here and the lives lost and also about going forward. Andrea . It is so meaningful, thanks for sharing that with your wonderful guest there. Joining me now two prominent new York City leaders were on 9 11 and in the months and years, and former Nypd Commissioner Ray kelly who began his second tenure as commissioner just months after the attacks. Tom van nessen, first, as we look back 20 years, take us through that day and how your department was impacted and how they reacted in the years after ward because there were more Fire Department personnel lost than any other department. Thanks for having me, andrea and thanks for having me on with my old Friend Ray kelly who is a terrific, terrific guy. That lady you had on was so brought joy to the interview. When you think of the sadness that came from this event and i think of all of the work that Ray And Bloomberg did to cut through the politics and the Anger And Grief and everything to establish those memorials, i think theyve just done a phenomenal job, but that day for us was a nightmare from the very beginning and we had no idea that things would happen so quickly. The firefighters got up there right away and knew right away it was a commercial jet. Our reports were that it was a small plane. They knew they could arent put the fire out because of the impact of the plane and the amount of fuel and the second Plane Hit and now we knew it was terrorism, and we have reports of Sears Tower being hit and Mall Of America being hit and everything just accelerated very quickly. We had the best Fire Chiefs you will find anywhere. They never dreamed in 102 minutes from beginning to end we could have two towers hit and two towers fall. So it was just simply we couldnt get everybody out fast enough. Its an enormous complex. Two 110story buildings and subway systems, restaurant, malls, Parking Garages and people out in the street. So what the first responders did when the cops came and the firefighters and ems was just a remarkable experience to be with so many people that would do everything that they possibly could to save strangers, not Family Members, but strangers. And Ray Kelly, tom winter, our colleague got a look inside the nypd intelligence bureau. There have been 51 plots and attacks in new York City over the next 20 years since 9 11, but you have a team now, a coordination with people posted overseas and Mike Sheehan was a big part of creating the federal presence working with nypd. Tell me how things have changed. First of all, im not at the department any longer, but they carry on and theyre doing a great job. I know. Tom Van Essen was a real hero on 9 11. They lost 343 firefighters, just an incredible number and they persevered. But where are we now . When we came in, the Bloomberg Administration we were behind the times as far as technology was concerned and we were still using white Out And Carbon paper and we knew we had to be in the fight. The largest Police Department in the country and the most diverse Police Department ask of course, we had the first attack on the World Trade Center and i was commissioner then, and i was just infuriated by it, but we had to join the fray and we brought experts from the federal government and we brought in David Cohn from the cia, frank from the marine corps. We brought in analysts from the Ivy League to go through the information that we gathered and we put in thousands of computers in the Police Department and also hundred of cameras throughout new York City, and we linked up with private sector cameras, as well. We ultimately assigned 12 Police Officers to posts overseas to act as Listening Posts and to act as Trip Wires to give us any sort of warning of something coming our way. We had 16 plots on the bloomberg watch, and none of them came to fruition, and that was a result of great work, really fantastic work on a part of so many people in the nypd and fdny. Its a time that i certainly will never forget. And tom Van Essen, we heard a clip at the top of the show from the fire chief, engine 33, who lost his brother that day. How has the department honored the victims. Say that again, andrea. I didnt hear you. Im sorry. We heard a clip at the very top of the show from engine 33 from one of the first responders. Right. How are those, all of those who lost their lives from the Fire Department, how are they honored . Its theres no fall. Its amazing how people that are so very different. Some of the folks are able to compartmentalize it and theres no such thing as closure and you Cant Think of that word. Theres no making the pain go away. The pain is always there and you can kind of control it and Move On with your life and try to be as happy as you can. I think thats what all of the first responders would have wanted. Soldiers and police and firefighters, those guys that are out there, just any reason theyre out there to make a difference and they believed that difference, that job they go through every day makes their family even better. 65 people who came on to fight upon who had parents that were off on September 11th, so it tells you that that spirit, that Love And Humility and the desire to help other people is passed along, and i think that those are the families that are able to hundredel it. For some its not as easy, but kwu feel sorry for the loss ask they Cant Move on. Great leadership from you, and of course from Ray Kelly when he took over in january is just a tribute to all of them and to you, as well. Thank you both so much for being with us today. And as we take time to remember The Day the world changed, well get an inside look at the presidency that day with two of the president s closest advisers, Andy Card was with him and Karen Hughes who was in the Situation Room and then the bunker. Next is msnbc and america remembers 20 years later. We will make no distinction between the terrorist who committed these acts and those who harbor them. Instead of burning our past for power, we can harness the energy of the tiny electron. We can create new ways to connect. Rethinking how we communicate to be more inclusive than ever. With app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change. Faster. Vmware. Welcome change. man my ex is dating a pisces. So im like, screw it. Lets talk manifesting. Lets talk chakras. Lets Talk Self healing my way through the 12th house. woman in van set your intentions. Man Sitting crystals up. woman full moon bath ritual. Cleanse and find your magic. Let it go huh, huh Let It Go word, word, 88 Let It Go Let It Go the morning of the September 11th Attacks President george w. Bush was in sarasota, florida, visiting a second Grade Class at the booker elementary school. He was reading them a childrens book, the Pet Goat when shortly after 9 00 a. M. After the second plane had struck the World Trade Center white House Chief of Staff Andrew Card interrupted the president to whisper calmly out of the childrens earshot that america was under attack. Joining me now from Ground Zero is andrew card, former white House Chief of staff to george w. Bush and Transportation Secretary, as well. Andy card, its great to see you again especially on this day because i want to talk to you about that moment. What went into your thinking . You had clearly heard from the Situation Room or that, you know, youd been notified. So how did you decide how to notify the president of the horror . First of all, andrea, thank you for having me on. Its important to reflect on what happened 20 years ago. Yes. I was standing in a Holding Room and the president was standing with the principal and i was right next to the principal when Deb Lawyer who was a Navy Captain in charge of the Situation Room in the White House and the acting national Security Adviser on the trip to florida came up to the president and said, sir, it appears the small twin Engine Prop Plane crashed into the World Trade Center in new York City. The principal, the president and i all had the same reaction, oh, what a horrible reaction the pilot must have had a Heart Attack or something and the principal went into the classroom, the door shut, Captain Lawyer came up to me and said sir, it appears it was not a small twin Engine Prop Plane and it was a commercial airliner. They must have known it was losing altitude. I dont know thats why where my mind went, and thats only a nanosecond because Deb Lauer said oh, my god another Plane Hit the other tower, and i flashed the initials ubl, Osama Bin Laden, in february 1993, and i knew that this was not a coincidence and not an accident and i performed a test the Chief Of Staff performs all of the time. Does the president need to know . Yes, he needs to know and i made one Editorial Comment and opened the door and didnt want to interrupt the dialogue that the teacher mrs. Daniels was orchestrating between the president and the students, but when she told the students to take out their books the Pet Goat they reached under their chairs and thats when i went up to the president and whispered into his ear a second Plane Hit the second tower, america is under attack. And you did that so calmly, and then he reacted so calmly because you didnt want to alarm the children. You didnt want to for the media to start running with all kinds of questions and rumors because you wanted to protect the kids from being part of that horror. I was very focused on being cool, calm and collected, and i wanted to help the president make tough decisions without being driven by the emotions of The Day and make southbound decisions, so i actually thought about my responsibilities and i was going to be very careful to tell him things we knew to be true and not overstate things and not to be contagious with emotions that would compromise his ability to make tough decisions. I was pleased with how the president on his own reacted when i whispered into his year. He did nothing to demonstrate fear to the media that would have translated it to the satisfaction of the terrorists all around the world, and i also think that hed be reflecting on the unique, truly unique responsibility that he had as president of the United States because he took that oath to protect and preserve our constitution and All Of Us and he wanted to take that seriously. You know, no longer was his presidency about his agenda and it was about the oath that he took and proud to say he kept that off thanks to the Men And Women who answered the call to duty who showed up to help him keep his oath and we didnt have any other attacks orchestrated from afghanistan for 20 years. Now talk to me about going on Air Force one because the Secret Service did not want him to go back to the White House. We did not know if the capitol was under attack or not and once The Pentagon had been hit with the third plane. Youre on Air Force one and he wants to go back. He wanted to go back and The Pentagon had been hit when we were in the Limosine Driving to Air Force one. The pilot from Air Force one wanted to take off quickly and the engines were running and thats a protocol nono. But as the plane was lifting off and we went up to 48,000 feet waiting for Fighter Jets to come up to us and deciding where to go. The president wanted to go back to washington, d. C. And i kept telling him, mr. President i understand that, but i dont think you want to make that decision right now. Over the course of 20 minutes he got increasingly agitated with me because he said we are going back to washington, d. C. And the pilot of Air Force one did not want to go to andrews without knowing it would be safe to land and the Secret Service said they were concerned about going back to the White House. In addition, the White House had been emptied of its staff. When the attack on The Pentagon happened they were definitely pusheded out of the White House so there was nobody in the White House to even help him do his job. We had to do the job on Air Force one and then at the Air Force base and omaha, nebraska and then we went back to washington, d. C. A fateful day, and for you, thanks to you for sharing those thoughts with us. Andy card, the former Chief Of Staff, of course, on 9 11 was with the president when all that happened. Karen hughes, the former White House Communications Director and counselor to President Bush. She rushed the White House and she was in the bunker with Vice President Dick Cheney thennational Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, as well, and others in the initial hours during the attacks and this is my conversation with her. We were so new that i had never been to the bunker before and when i got there what i saw was very calm Decision Making. The Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta was on the Phone Ordering planes to be grounded. The Vice President was on the phone often with the president although we did have some Communication Difficulty reaching them at certain times which were always scary moments. I remember once the white House Operator told me, im sorry, we cant reach Air Force one, and you know there were some rumors that a Code Name had been used and perhaps that Air Force one was the target and i was watching this very calm Decision Making and i realized that we had to get out and brief the american people about what the government was doing to respond. I remember vividly thinking that Condoleezza Rice our National Security would do it and condy thought it might be me because people were familiar with me speaking for the president. I remember feeling a tremendous sense of responsibility to be reassuring and calm for what i knew was a badly shaken nation. And you briefed with the fbi because they were not sure that the white House Press Room where you normally would brief was secure. Thats correct. The Secret Service was very concerned about me going back into the White House building. There was nobody in the building at the time, and so they actually took me out of the White House. They had five agents surrounding me with their guns drawn and i remember feeling so vulnerable and youll probably also remember i did not take any questions which was very unusual, but we had talked about it and we knew the first question would be who did this and we werent prepared to make that statement at that time, and so we decided it would undermine the purpose of trying to reassure people. The Vice President made a critical decision. He didnt know how many other planes were out there, how many hijacked planes and where they were headed or had weapons and bombs. He made a decision to shoot down any other hijacked planes. Thats correct. I believe he was on the phone with the president and they confirmed that with the president before. I know when i arrived at the bunker there was concern, we knew that when we learned that the flight that crashed in Shanksville Flight 93, was there some period of time when we didnt know what had happened, and how it had come down and we obviously hoped it did not have to be shot down and we later learned an Act Of Heroism happened when the passengers said lets roll and stormed the cockpit. I want to ask you about afghanistan. I know your experience with former First Lady laura bush. You did so much for the Women Of Afghanistan and coeducation and the American University In Kabul and after you left the White House continuing that, of course, at the State Department and then after the administration, she and you were so concerned about the Women Of Afghanistan. How has it affected you. You know these people, some of them stranded who did not get out. Its just heartbreaking. I feel that we should have kept a supportive presence in the country to help weve made so many gains over the last 20 years. Life and death gains. Womens Life Expectancies had increased greatly. The Maternal Murderal Iterate has gone down. Women have gone to School And Weve had 20 years of being educated and theyve been able to work and theyve been able to vote. So its heartbreaking to watch all of that at risk. I still serve on the u. N. The u. S. Afghan womens counsel which was a group put together by president s Bush And Karzai to unite the women of america and of afghanistan to help us help Each Other and we are, this week, issuing a series of letters to the united nations and the international community and the u. S. Government basically calling on them to urgently negotiate with the taliban to put in place a humanitarian corridor so that some of those Women Leaders who helped us so much can safely get out of the country. I have to share just a story thats haunted me ever since my very first visit to afghanistan. We toured a Reading Program that the u. S. Government was funding for girls who had been denied an education during all those years of former taliban rule, and it was one of the moments when i recall around the world being so proud of our u. S. Government, that our taxpayers would fund a program to teach Little Girls who had been denied an education to learn to read, and we started asking the girls through a translator what they wanted to do once they had an education and one of them said she wanted to be a writer and i was in the process of writing a book, and i said is there something i can say on your behalf in my book until you get around to writing yours, and she immediately said women should be free to go to school, go to work and choose their own husbands. She was 13 at the time, i think, and facing the prospect this she would be sold into marriage, and as i was leaving the translator came after me and she grabbed me by the elbow and she said the Little Girl wants to tell you something else. Please dont forget them. Please. Help them live in freedom. And my thanks to Karen Hughes. From Lower Manhattan to the far corners of the world, how america took the fight to the terrorists. Thats coming up. Now pressuring the taliban is the first step toward rooting out Bin Laden and his worldwide operation. It will not be over until we have gotten into the inside of this organization, inside its decision cycle, inside its Planning Cycle and inside its Execution Capability and until we have neutralized and destroyed it. You a helicopter. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. [tv announcer] come on down to our Appliance Superstore where weve got the best deals on refrigerators, microwaves, Gas Ranges and grills. And if youre looking for. Hey, dad where weve got the best deals on refrigerhey, son crowaves, no dad, its a video call. You got to move the phone in front of you like. Like its a mirror, dad. You know . Alright, okay. Hows that . Is that how you hold a mirror . [ding] Power E Trade gives you an awardwinning Mobile App with powerful, easytouse tools and interactive charts to give you an edge, 24 7 support when you need it the most and 0 commissions for online u. S. Listed stocks. Dont get mad. Get E Trade and start trading today. I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people [ cheers and applause ] and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear All Of Us soon. [ cheering ] Al Qaeda and the taliban government that harbored Osama Bin Laden did indeed hear from the u. S. George bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney retaliated against afghanistan with the full force of the american military and its nato allies, a war that ended only two weeks ago. The two decade Afghanistan War has taken a heavy toll including the lives of 2400 u. S. Troops and 47,000 afghan civilians. Joining me now is retired fourstar general Barry Mccaffrey who was called into The Pentagon after the attack. You were called in to help review also the iraq war. What were your thoughts on 9 11 . Well, it was certainly shocking. We it laid bare the inability of the u. S. To combine foreign collective intelligence and aggressive domestic Law Enforcement and thank god those problems had been solved. We had a very highly integrated and effective and mostly seamless web of defense of the american people now and those days the u. S. Military, andrea was primarily a deterrent force against the north koreans, the chinese, the russian, the irannians and other. We had to restructure this 2 Million person Military Capability with the national guard and reserves to create a global counter terrorism effort. We did it and we took 60,000 killed and wounded in the ensuing years. And you were then tasked with Sur Vague The War In Iraq on behalf of centcom in 2005. What did you learn about the mistakes that were made . Well, i was in and out of both afghanistan and iraq throughout those wars sponsored by Principally Centcom or europe, and try to understand and report on an unclassified way to congress, media and the american people, and it was astonishing. The degree of Dedication And Courage and sacrifice on the part of military Men And Women was unbelievable. We have people doing ten to 15 combat tours, Air Force c130 squadrons. The navy stayed endlessly at sea, army and marine, special ops, a Ranger Regiment and it was astonishing, nothing like it since World War ii. The Armed Forces were not in charge of nation building. The State Department usually and Agriculture And Treasury did that. With a corrupt, factionalized nation in afghanistan which was primitive, seventh century in most ways, so the failure was Mission And Nation building. And also the controversial role of the cia and then finally, firmly rejected abu ghraib. How much did that damage our reputation overseas . It was one of the most shameless incidents in american history. It was not just the cia. It was also the Armed Forces at guantanamo and our Prison Camps and bagram and in iraq, we radicalized a generation of jihadists. We shamed ourselves and violated international and domestic law and unlike earlier wars, you always have homicides and rains and terrible things from a tiny minority of american troops and combat, but in this case, those instructions came from the top down. That was Secretary Rumsfeld personally signing off on enhanced interrogations techniques. He sent me a twostar, guantanamo for essentially those that review detainees, not just in the sense of honor. You have so helped come to better understandings as well as understandings within the military. They have been dramatically changed since those day, but we lived through a very, very difficult time. General mccaffrey, as always, thank you for Everything Youve done and continue to do, and your friendship with us. The September 11th attacks fundamentally changed how we travel and how the u. S. Defends and identifies threats at home and abroad. Nbc News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams joins me now. Pete, big changes with the department of Homeland Security didnt exist before 9 11. Part of the biggest organization of the government since World War ii and much of it is visible with the security with the airports and the line and some of it isnt so visible. For example, much greater vetting of names of passengers before they ever get to the airport and especially passengers from overseas and that was hard fought by the department of Homeland Security, because many European Countries didnt want to do that initially because it was abuse of privacy and it is now common place. As we look forward now the government has become very good at detecting anything like 9 11 and large Set Piece operations and the kind of security at airports now extends to public events like the Super Bowl gatherings on the mall in washington, political conventions that can be designated as national special security events. What the government is struggling with is larger or rather smallerscale operations and people doing things on their own that is much harder to detect. That remains a big concern. And pete, when we look at homeland, is there a rethinking now that its too big and there are too many missions involved . Some think so, and they think that perhaps, for example, the Immigration Mission should be taken away from Homeland Security and given to some other emergency. Dhs has largely been the Department Of Immigration and is in the view of some lost its ability to focus and it was protecting the nation mission, but that remains a controversial issue, andrea. Pete williams, thank you so very much. More than a year after the 9 11 attack, a congressional, mandated bipartisan panel had the 9 11 Commission Report and a comprehensive look at how it happened and how we can learn from it. Two members of the commission, the chair and the vice chair, Tom Kane and welcome both, governor kane, and i guess Lee Hamilton was also the vice chair. You were a member, a democratic member. Can you start by explaining to our viewers how monumental this task was and how it came together in a bipartisan way . Well, it was huge. First of all, we had to tell the history, how this happened and how it originated and the beginnings and secondly, having told that story for the first time completely. We had to come up with recommendations based on the problems we held so this would never happen again and we came up with recommendations based on the right and i am very proud that the report is on the textbook intelligence. I was going to ask, jamie, how did it become so bipartisan there was no minority and no Majority Report and no dissenting report. There was real consensus here. Yes. A lot of the credit is actually due to Tom Kaine and Lee Hamilton because they decided at the outset that there would be no separation, no separate staff, no partisan votes, for example, and they modelled that behavior for us, and we also vowed to Each Other that we would only appear in public in pairs and we would do it in the same way. So that was the process. We also worked really hard to get to a bipartisan statement of what occurred and we did that together on each and every report. Governor kean, what was the lessons learned, Sill Nals missed and things that could have been done to prevent it . I guess the most obvious one was the lack of coordination of our intelligence agencies, the fact that they didnt talk to Each Other and the fact they didnt talk to Each Other, and we might not have had 9 11. It was that serious a reach of National Security and now through our recommendations and report they are forced to work together with Each Other and thats a good thing. Jamie, is that because there was a warning on the 10th that an airplane might be used for an attack . Their lots of pieces of evidence that would travers the line between foreign and domestic intelligence and that was due to a long History And Culture of Keeping Information to ourselves. In those days the director of national intelligence was supposed to run the cia and run the intelligence community, and he, most of the people who had that job didnt pay any attention to the second one which is why we had as one of our very most prominent recommendations that there be a director of national intelligence, and thats been a big improvement. Governor, was it a lack of imagination . Nobody thought, we had so many hijackings and we had bomb, but we never thought the airplane would be used as a bomb. No. You sit still and a couple of days we would fly, and this was its a couple of Science Fiction and thats the closest we came and we never did anything with the military, we cant find any evidence, and ever thought that was a possibility. Governor kean, amy gorelick, both of you have served so admirably in so many ways, thanks for this and thanks for the 9 11 Commission Report. Thank you for having us. And in the moments and years after September 11th, weve seen some of the best of america, those who responded to the attacks and have helped Each Other in countless ways, honoring those who answered the call. Some of whom gave everything. Youre watching msnbc, as america remembers 20 years later. Look good, game good. Gillette. What happens when we Welcome Change . We can transform our workforce overnight out of convenience, or necessity. We can explore uncharted waters, and not only make new discoveries, but get there faster, with better outcomes. With app, cloud and anywhere workspace solutions, vmware helps companies navigate change meeting them where they are, and getting them where they want to be. Faster. Vmware. Welcome change. You all said you would never forget. Well, im here to make sure that you dont. That was Lou Alvarez, an nypd detective who came to washington The Day before his 69th round of chemotherapy to plead to congress not to let others forget the 9 11 first responders and not to let others suffer. He died just a few days later. Joining me now is john field. John worked the Recovery And Cleanup at Ground Zero and has been an advocate to get protection to first responders who continues to this very day. I know youre up in Mount Sinai for an event there for this exact issue. On September 11th you were 45 minute away from manhattan and you the middle of the night. What were you thinking in that moment . What motivated you . One, it is good to see you again, andrea. Under the circumstances it is a tough week and a tough day and thank you for having me and, you know, i just think its the american patriotism in so many of us that made 433 out of 435 congressional districts go to Ground Zero during the tenmonth cleanup. It was the right thing to do. Its always about the right thing to do. And i hope tomorrow people do the right thing and remember those that we lost and those that we continue to lose, like Lou Alvarez and Ray Pfeiffer and the thousands of others who now we outnumber those who died from senseless violence 20 years ago. We keep talking, everyone keeps saying 20year anniversary, its the 20year remembrance and a remembrance of how great we used to be and how great we can be. The Men And Women who died that day running into Harms Way and those innocent lives that were lost to senseless violence and those we continue to lose from their illnesses they were the Best Of The best and the best this country offered. They were our nation was. Greatest resources and people keep saying never forget, never forget. Never forget means today, tomorrow and every other day giving yourself to people that are less fortunate, who dont have a voice and who could never repay you because thats the best feeling in the world. Thats why i advocate for these Men And Women. Youve been working so hard. Youve had the help, of course, of your friend Jon Stewart who really embraced this cause in such a huge way. A new push now to pass a 9 11 Responder Act to fix some of the mistakes and add more money. What is your message . Not so much mistakes. You know back in 2015, andrea, 7,600 people and now 113,000 plus in the World Trade Center output program. These first 20 years were hard on us. Many people got sick and many people died. But the next 20 years is going to decimate the 9 11 community one because of age and two because these toxins and illnesses have latency periods of 25, 30 years. Everybodys Immune Systems are different. Just like our fingerprints, everyone is different. So many people are now on average, 59, 60 years old and compromised Immune Systems and already weakened Immune System because of age and the further we get away from 9 11, these Men And Women are getting sick. No fault of ours. We did our job. We walked the halls of congress and got legislation passed. The new York Delegation is promising to get reconciliation and if it doesnt, then we go back to d. C. And we do what we do best. They could do this the ease Ea Way or they could do this the hard way. We have no problem beating up congress and in the senate. We just dont want to be bothered any more. You know, andrea, i want my guys to stay at home with their families and watch things grow. I told them to pick up their swords, i dont want to pick up our swords and go to d. C. We want to be left alone. And youre going to be adding 293 more names to the memorial that you have out in long island. This is, as you point out, everyone has a different Immune System and this is a longterm effect and its an Exploding Number of cases. John feal, we will, of course, stay in touch with you. You stay in touch with us. Thank you so much, andrea. Means so much to me personally. Thank you. I love you guys, thank you. Same back at you. So many lessons to learn from 9 11. The men who worked for years as John Feal reports afterwards on the pile. The sacrifices over the decades in afghanistan. The White House was evacuated that day. No one knew how many planes were in the air. Americans were transfixed by watching it live on television. We were all bound together by broadcasters, my colleagues tom brokaw, brian williams, late great tim russert. The president and his national Security Council made critical decisions at camp david. Tim, on that Sunday Morning interviewed Vice President Dick Cheney on Meet The Press. The first Television Broadcast to originate from there. You face the full wrath of the United States of america. That we will, in fact, aggressively go over these nations and making sure they cease and assist. Full wrath, thats a strong statement this morning. It is indeed. Days earlier the president led a service at the national cathedral drawing on all faiths, including to help bring the nation together. And mr. Bush continued the following week visiting the islamic center of washington. Again, trying to extinguish attempts to blame the attacks on the muslim community. America was, indeed, traumatized. Until 9 11, we had felt protected from overseas terror by two oceans. But the country United Behine of our leaders no talk of red or blue State America after those hijackers hit washington, shanksville, pennsylvania. At the end of The Day democratic and republican members of congress stood together on the Capitol Steps and spontaneously broke into song singing a Hymn God bless america. God bless america my Home Sweet home thank you for being with us today. This has been a Special Edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Ill be at the Pentagon Tomorrow as msnbc brings you full coverage at all the memorials starting at 5 00 a. M. 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