On September 10th 2001, then Senator Biden spoke at the National Press Club in DC and issued a stern warning. He was frustrated that the Bush administration was moving away from longstanding arms control agreements for a “go it alone” attitude that emphasized “star wars” technology for detecting and eliminating nuclear missiles over more nuanced approaches that saw other risks as important.
Biden noted that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had said “a strategic nuclear attack is less likely than a regional conflict, a major theater of war, terrorist attacks at home or aboard, or any number of real worries.” Biden raised concerns that money was being diverted away for less likely outcomes while ”the real threat comes to this country in the hold of a ship, the belly of plane, or smuggled into a city in the middle of the night in a vial in a backpack.” He returned to Delaware that night.
The next morning, on his Amtrak to DC, he heard about the attacks on the towers.
As the train arrived, Biden could see a brown haze of smoke beyond the capital dome. He began running towards the steps of the Senate. “I was really insistent on getting in,” he said later, “because I thought it was awfully important that the Senate be in session. That people see us. That they could turn on their TV and see where we were.”
Although Biden could not get into the Senate building due to concerns about another plane, he gave a television reporter a brief interview calling for calm from outside the building. He said congress would be going back into session soon and he had heard that the president was coming back to Washington.
Later, Bush called Biden and thanked him for saying just the right things on TV. Biden implored Bush to come back to Washington to send a message to the American people that their government was strong. But Bush told Biden that his security people would not allow it and he was going to an undisclosed safe spot in the Midwest.
Biden also tried to get the Senate leaders to call the Senate back for the same reason, but to no avail.
Although he couldn’t get back into the Senate, Biden didn’t want to wait to push back against the growing public animosity towards Muslims. Biden went to a Muslim mosque in Newark where he spoke to a packed house, saying: “Whoever is guilty of these terrible crimes, whether it is Osama bin Laden or somebody else, one thing is certain: by his very actions, by killing thousands of innocent people he proved that he is no true Muslim.”
Biden’s actions during the 9/11 crisis showed, for one of the first times, what we have learned in the last four years: that Biden can lead in a time of crisis. He was able to see that the threat existed before it occurred. He was brave during a moment of crisis. And he swiftly turned to denounce prejudice.
Joe Biden is a great president.
Is there still more work to be done? 100%! Lots more work. But Biden has done so much more than many people guessed could be done. He deserves a lot of credit. AND he deserves to be re-elected.
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These posts are written by Goodnewsroundup (Goodie),
edited by Matilda Briggs, supported by 2thanks and WolverineForTJatAW.
and reinforced by several other notable Kossacks!
As with all good things, it takes a village.