Kavanaugh recalls 9/11 chaos, defends Bush’s war on terror

The Supreme Court justice recounted sprinting from the White House on Sept. 11, 2011, while working as counsel to President George W. Bush.(CN) — Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined a panel at the University of Notre Dame on Friday to reflect on the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, calling for a focus on unity instead of division in the aftermath of the war on terror.“The mindset of America changed after Sept. 11, in the sense that the mindset was to confront threats abroad before they can hit us here at home,” the Donald Trump appointee said at Indiana’s most prestigious private Catholic college.Kavanaugh, who was working in the White House counsel’s office at the time, defended President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan and launch the Iraq War. But he said it would be a mistake to blur the reasoning behind the two military responses.While noting mistakes were made, Kavanaugh pushed students to focus on positives that came out of the tragedy and its aftermath.“The nature of warfare goes up and down in popularity, but don’t let that detract from your understanding of the potential for unity and the shared values,” Kavanaugh said. “I mean, the reason they attacked us is because they hate our Constitution — which I carry with me all the time. They hate our values. They hate our freedom of religion. They hate our freedom of speech, and we have preserved that in the 25 years since. We’ve preserved a lot as a country and thrived as a country, notwithstanding what happened.”Kavanaugh recounted being inside the White House on the morning of the tragedy and gathering in the West Wing after the first plane struck the North Tower. He said staff members briefly took shelter in the basement after the second plane hit.“I don’t forget much from that day,” Kavanaugh said. “Seared in my memory is the Secret Service agent saying, ‘Run, sprint, ladies, take off your heels and sprint.’ And we were all kind of sprinting out the gate toward Lafayette Park.”Kavanaugh recalled watching the South Tower collapse from a television in the Mayflower Hotel as he and other staffers fled down Connecticut Ave.“We watched on the TV … just imagining and trying to comprehend the tragedy and the loss of life when the tower fell,” Kavanaugh said. “And then the next tower fell, and real devastation, real lack of understanding how this could be happening in America. This doesn’t happen in America, and I think all of us were feeling that.”That night, however, Kavanaugh said he and other staff in the counsel’s office returned to the White House and started researching emergency authorities that Bush might utilize in the aftermath of the attack.Notre Dame brought together a panel of speakers to share their wide-ranging experiences of that day. Through their various stories, they urged students in the audience — many of whom weren’t alive for the attack — to take in the lessons learned from the tragedy.The panelists recommended various resources so the students could remember events they hadn’t experienced firsthand. Kavanaugh urged the audience to watch Bush’s speeches in the days following Sept. 11, 2001, and recounted watching the president throw out the first pitch at the World Series in Yankee Stadium the next month.“One of the things that comes out of Sept. 11 is this grief, anger and resolution, but also unity,” Kavanaugh said. “Everyone in Yankee Stadium chanting ‘USA, USA.’ President Bush putting his hand up, and that was a little bit of, I think, a message to al-Qaida, and a message to our country as well that he was there, were unified, and we were gonna respond.”Kavanaugh called Bush a role model and praised how the president behaved and conducted himself in the wake of the attacks.“[Bush] had succeeded in his number one mission — and that was something all of us on that team were working on in so many different ways, but he was the one responsible,” Kavanaugh said. “If another attack had happened, they would say, ‘Bush, why didn’t you stop it? And he carried that responsibility, that thing he said on Sept. 12th, ‘This will never happen again.’”Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads