On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Publisher at The Daily Caller, joins Senior Editor Chris Bedford to recount how he responded to 9/11 as the then-chief policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney.
“I have it on my calendar every year the time that the first plane hit the World Trade Center and every year I stop and I just think about it, because it was such a, just a momentous event in our country’s history and because all those innocent Americans who went to war, they had no idea,” Patel said.
“It was like this furthest thing from anyone’s mind that this country in the heart of New York City, the heart of Washington D.C., and even more in a place like Shanksville, Pennsylvania, you don’t wake up as an American expecting … 9/11 was just so out of the blue,” he continued. “So I do have that calendar reminder every year. I think about it every year. I just stop and I think about it. It makes me sad every year.”
The events on 9/11 were tragic, but Patel said the patriotism that followed was inspiring.
“We’re so divided today, and I’m not saying things were perfect then at all but it brought the country together for a moment at least and just this surge of patriotism,” Patel said. “so when I look back on it, that’s kind of what I remember the most.”
