Summary and Key Points: Before George W. Bush said the twelve words most Americans still remember about 9/11 and what was to come, he asked whether he should say anything at all. On 14 September 2001, three days after the attacks, his chief of staff Andy Card asked the president if he wanted to speak to the people working at Ground Zero. Bush’s reply, as Card recounted it years later, was a question: “Do you think it’s appropriate?” Card then had to establish whether it was safe — the only platform was the wreck of a burnt-out fire truck, and a Secret Service agent climbed onto it and jumped up and down a few times before giving the thumbs up. There was no script, no teleprompter, and no scheduled event. Bush climbed up beside a firefighter named Bob Beckwith, began to speak through a bullhorn, and a voice in the crowd shouted that it could not hear him.
The 9/11 Quote History Always Remembers
Quote of the Day: “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” – George W. Bush, on September 14, 2001.
Three days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush made his first visit to New York City and Ground Zero. Standing on the remains of a burnt-out fire truck and speaking through a bullhorn, and standing next to a firefighter named Bob Beckwith, the president declared to those around him, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
Those around him responded by chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”
Less well known is the earlier part of the speech.
“I want you all to know that America today — that America today is on bended knee in prayer for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn,” Bush said. “This nation stands with the good people of New York City, and New Jersey and Connecticut, as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens.”
Someone in the crowd, later identified as firefighter Rocco Chierichella, said, “I can’t hear you,” to which Bush replied with the more famous part of the speech.
After that, Bush concluded, “The nation sends its love and compassion to everybody who is here. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for making the nation proud. And may God bless America.”
President George W. Bush talks with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Saturday, Sept. 15, 2001, during a break from a National Security Council meeting at Camp David in Thurmont, Md. Photo by Eric Draper, Courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library
The bullhorn from that day is in the George W. Bush Library and Museum, and the 43rd president, in his post-retirement career as a painter, would go on to draw a painting of that moment.
Both Beckwith and Chierichella were present when Bush delivered his farewell address in 2009.
Was It Planned?
The speech, or at least the “I can hear you” part, has often been described as impromptu, or unscripted, or a break from Bush’s prepared remarks.
In 2021, Andy Card, who was White House chief of staff at the time of 9/11 — it was he who informed Bush of the attack at the classroom in Florida — told the Today Show in an interview that the speech was not pre-planned.
“It was completely a spontaneous event,” Card said in that interview. “This was not a scheduled event. There was no script, there was no teleprompter.”
Card was with the president on the day of the bullhorn speech and said in the 2021 interview that he asked Bush if he wanted to say something, and Bush asked him, “Do you think it’s appropriate?” Card also had to ask the Secret Service if it was safe for the president to get on top of the vehicle.
“An agent jumped up on the vehicle and jumped up and down a few times, gave me the thumbs up,” Card added. The speech itself followed.
The Pentagon. Image: Creative Commons.
“I think it was one of the most dramatic, impromptu statements ever made by a leader,” Card said in 2021. “And it did cause us all then to give up our other labels and say, ‘We’re American.’”
In 2014, the Asbury Park Press looked back on that day and how the speech happened. It noted that another man, Kevin L. Lees, claims that it was he, and not Chierichella, who shouted “I can’t hear you” to the president, and that Lees’ wife, watching on television, had even claimed to have recognized her husband’s voice.
Why the Speech Resonates
AmericanRhetoric.com analyzed the Bush speech and explained why it mattered.
“The power of rhetoric is dramatically demonstrated…as people immediately saw a charismatic quality in Bush that hadn’t really been evident…. especially the moment when Bush touches the raw nerve of the crowd,” David McDowell said of the speech. “At the moment he says ‘I can hear you,’ he seems to ignite patriotic passions in the hearts of the onlookers, kick-starting an outpouring of emotion.”
A coalition led by the United States would go on to invade Afghanistan, kicking off the Global War on Terror, on October 7, 2001.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
