9/11 25 Years Later: How America Changed Forever

From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead. Yeah, thanks so much, everyone, for listening on this very important day. 25 years since the 9-11 attacks. If you're seeing me, right now you see the backdrop of downtown New York City been totally rebuilt, better than ever, while not forgetting what stood there before 25 years ago.

Two World Trade Center buildings. The footprints are there. It's now the memorial built around it is more of a mix of residential as well as the financial hub of the world. And keep in mind, you're hearing something in the background, and it's because I believe all the tugboats have lined up in a row and they're all sounding their horns in commemoration of when those two trade centers were hit and burning. Remember, the first one hit at 8:46, the second one at 9:03, and they would fall an hour later.

Even though Tower 1 was hit first, it would be the Tower 2 that would fall first, and one would fall. People above the 92nd floor would not survive. The ones that got out had to get out quick. And then the next one fell after that, and the firefighters that were caught and they're going up trying to save people lost their lives. And they remembered today.

We're going to pull it shortly, but as you know, there's a reading of the names, and the reading of the names of everyone who had died that day. By survivors, loved ones, friends. And it's been happening for 25 years. What's different is that I can remember is the first time we've heard any family member speak out. And this family member, we're just trying to get details.

It just happened as we left the air on Fox and Friends. She came out and said the Saudis are responsible, they should be held acculpable, and they have not done that. She addressed the former presidents that were there and the vice president that was there, and they said they did a full investigation.

Now, what I have learned is that there were elements of the Saudi family, which is sprawling, that were aiding the hijackers, but it wasn't the Saudi government. And I think that that's the dissemination that the government's got to play. But you know, Trump. Trump's going to get to the bottom of this. He gets along with the Saudis great, but he's going to get to the bottom of it because nobody can look at the Prince right now.

MBS and say he was responsible. The guy was probably in fifth grade at the time.

So we're talking about all that, remembering that day. We're also going to talk about the convention that took place last night, day two of a two-day event. I think it was really effective in the midterms. I think it's going to be a regular thing for both parties. I don't know why they wouldn't do it.

It creates momentum, it creates collaboration, it gets people's talking points down, let alone what we see in front on the cameras.

Now, look, CNN and MSNBC aren't going to be taking that. They just don't want to do anything that's going to make Trump look good or better. But that's part of the course. They do report on it. They have brought things up.

They got a huge problem with the fact that President Trump yesterday came out and said everyone's going to get $5,000 if we keep the House and the Senate. I'm going to talk about that because a little bit later you're going to hear from Howard Luttnick. If you don't remember, he was the CEO of Cannon Fitzgerald and is. He took time off to become Commerce Secretary with his good friend President Trump.

Now, Howard Luttnick, you may recall, lost more people in his company to anybody else in the world. 656 of the 900 that were Candor Fitzgerald were at their desks and they were in between the 101st and 105th floor. Nobody up past the 92nd floor survived, but they knew they were hit. A lot of them had final calls, including his younger brother, was able to call and talk to his sister. The only reason why Howard's alive is because Howard wanted to take his son, first of four, to kindergarten, first day of school.

So he was a little bit late, and because he was a little bit late, he missed the impact, but he didn't miss the day. You're going to hear the entire interview. You'll heard five minutes on Fox and Friends. You'll hear 20 minutes here as he recounts that day. And I think that you could honestly say that nobody lost more friends and family than Howard Luttnick.

Because he did this thing with Canon Fitzgerald. He said. Hire your smart friends and tell your smart friends about our place. And if they want to come here and work, and they're smart and driven, I want them here. He wanted to create that sense of family, but that's what compounded the sense of loss.

But we have a mayor of this city that spent a lot of time. really ripping this country, writing rap lyrics to defund the police, kind of led the charge in New York State. And some people in New York City said, he's the perfect mayor, the man from Uganda who thinks America lasts. A lot of people, including me, think it would be great if he didn't show up at the 9-11 Memorial, but he did. But Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is phenomenal, done a great job reducing crime in this city, wanted everyone to know.

There's got to be a moral clarity here. 25 years, yes, we're commemorating it. A lot of people say, well, we had it coming. A lot of people say, well, the retribution, Afghanistan, and Iraq was worse than the attack. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

Remember, Al-Qaeda is wiped out for a reason. Multiple plots were thwarted for a reason, because we had to mobilize big time and stop the next attack and not be surprised like the first one. Here's Commissioner Tish talking about what this day means and should mean. She is downtown now. Here's what she said yesterday, cut three.

Some of the members gathered with us today have fought. Fought their own battles with 9-11 related cancer. They endured treatments, uncertainty, and years in which the consequences of their service followed them long after they left Ground Zero. Their presence here reminds us that the history represented by this wall is still being written. There are families who lost someone on September 11th, and families whose loss came years later.

There are others who continue to live with the effects of that service today. All of them. are part of the story we are preserving here. Yeah, uh and she went on, cut for. The scale of the loss and the devastation that day was unfathomable, and so too was the heroism that we witnessed in response.

Preserving that history also means preserving its moral clarity. The men who attacked this city were terrorists. The men and women who ran into the towers to save innocent lives were heroes. 25 years cannot be allowed to blur that distinction and shame on those who do.

So, there's a lot of people revisionist history, and I just hope they're not teaching in the schools.

Some of them are. But that's why I was heartened to see this story today. Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education, is putting out a curriculum for age-appropriate explanations of what happened on 9-11. Why is that important? Because you don't want to show first graders people jumping for their lives rather than getting burned alive.

Maybe the impact of the plane can be left from first graders and third graders, but maybe not fifth graders, seventh graders, and ninth graders. But it's important we get a uniformity of explanation so you don't go home and get some left-wing lunatic or some crazy neighbor who ends up being the teacher and puts horrible visions of what really happened on 9-11 in people's heads. That's another reason why I would not disband the Department of Education. Linda McMahon says this: Teachers have a solemn responsibility to ensure that future generations of Americans feel connected to their country, provide your students with the opportunity to. Honor the victims, heroic first responders, great patriots, and the service members who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Now, look, in New York, you have no problem with that because most people, if they didn't live in New York City, millions work in New York City.

So they're on Long Island, they're in New Jersey, they're in Pennsylvania, they're in Connecticut.

So it really got through the Northeast. But a lot of people on the West Coast, 3,000 miles away, you grew up in Florida, you say, well, that was terrible. But it's understood this is as big a moment, I believe, as Pearl Harbor was. Cardinal Timothy Dolan talked about the responsibility people have towards humanity. He was on Fox and Friends the other day, cut six.

I so applaud New York, has been big into memory. Memory, memory. We remember. We're not going to let this pass. I thought our 250th anniversary as a country this past summer was a great muscular exercise in remembering.

When the human person loses memory, we know what a disaster that is, right? There's a beautiful saying that the two most important things for us. are our dreams and our memories.

So when we lose our memories, we can't dream anymore. When when we lose our dreams, it's tough to remember. We need both. 9-11 does that for us. It kinda kinda helps.

Yeah, so, and Colonel Dolan, there were countless ceremonies at St. Patrick's, as you know.

Meanwhile, I had a chance when I was on the air on 9-11, afterwards had a chance to go down to ground zero. At that time, trying to put together what was going on as the trade centers got hit, then they both fell. Thousands of people died, millions were affected, the city was sealed off, no way to get out. We're still trying to figure out what happened. And here is what I was doing: just trying to talk to as many eyewitnesses as possible.

Here's one: Cut A. Hi, how are you now? Could you tell me what you've seen? Uh not too much yet. Uh The only thing we hear just an explosion, now we are here, Ahmed Surgeon.

We were in a meeting and uh 150 surgeons came to help from different places around the United States. Who do you prepare for? We have prepared for anything. Can I ask you, do you have any more of these masks I can give out to people if they're not? The people.

who is here looking should not be here. It should get away from this place. You say you have a first responder from another country, English as maybe a third language, explaining what was going on. Here's an eyewitness I was talking to that day, just right after the towers fell, cut seven. Mark, when you saw this explosion, what were you thinking?

What'd you see? I was in bed, and I literally thought I had the history channel left on last night. I was thrown out of bed. I jumped to the window to see just flames pouring out of the World Trade Center. I've never seen anything like it in my life.

I didn't know what it was at first. I thought it was a bomb. I turned on the news, I realized it was a plane, it crashed.

So me and my roommate are sitting there watching the entire building burn when a second plane out of nowhere comes in and slams into the side of the building. What did the plane look like? It looked like either a 737 or an A-Bus 8310, but it definitely was a twin engine, something 737, 757. I wasn't sure. But I've never seen anything like it in my life.

Yeah. All right, so that is an eyewitness who was there who lived down there, and so many people weren't allowed to because it was toxic and they told people to get out for a while, but they didn't tell us how toxic it was, or maybe they didn't know.

So I'll be playing some of those cuts throughout the show. Also, bring back J.D. Vance, brought down the House yesterday, a fantastic speech at the RNC. Also, Iran is funding the Houthis who are beginning to try to shut down the Red Sea and stop another strait from the flow of oil. And that could be a problem.

I think we're going to have to get involved there. Iran is not giving up, but man, they're actually experiencing tremendous damage and internal strife. We'll bring you up to date on that. And coming up next, we are going to get a personal story from a firefighter, a 9-11 responder, and the guardian of a firefighter helmet sent to the U.S. from Australia in the wake of 9-11.

These helmets have the handwritten message and prayers from Australian firefighters to the New York firefighters of all the lives lost. We'll talk to Peter Cogniso. In just a moment, and then you're going to get my entire interview with Howard Lupnick, the commerce secretary who was the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald that lost 656 people that day. Howard also lost his younger brother. You'll listen to the Brian Killmeat Show 25 years since the September 11th attacks.

25 years later, we reflect, remembering the victims and honoring the heroes. September 11th, we will never forget. This is the Brian Kill Meat Show. It's Brian Kilmade. I became a wartime president.

There's no doubt in my mind. That uh that this was not a law enforcement. This was a war and that the job of the President and the country and his team is to rally the nation to do what's necessary to protect our people. And that is President George W. Bush a couple of days ago at his library talking about what his job was on 9-11.

And we see all these documentaries now. I just saw one the other night on Air Force One, what was taking place. Ari Fleischer took meticulous notes about what was happening. How the president was struggling to get everyone to someone to listen to him today. I got to go back to Washington.

And they were simply saying it is too dangerous. He also couldn't get F-16s or F-35s at the time, F-16s, I don't think they had F-35s, to guard the plane.

So the Air Force One was just flying alone with no protection, which is nuts. Let's continue to talk about 9-11, 25 years since the attacks from a different perspective. Peter Cagnisola is a firefighter, a 9-11 first responder, and the guardian of firefighter helmets sent to the U.S. from Australia in the wake of 9-11. And we're sitting, if you're watching the stream, and I hope you are, these helmets are sitting on the desk here, and we're in Jersey City, overlooking New York, downtown New York City, have handwritten messages and prayers from Australian firefighters to New York.

Fighter fires of all their lives that were lost. Peter, thanks so much for coming down and sharing this story. Tell me how you were able to get in contact with Australian firefighters.

Well, they actually, the fire helmets ended up at our U.S. Consulate in Australia, and a good friend of mine who has since passed, his daughter was our Consulate General at the time. Knowing that we had gone to Ground Zero as firefighters, he figured I could get them to New York and they had them shipped to my house. And should describe what they are? White helmets.

Yeah, they're white fire helmets. They've got the handwritten messages and condolences, prayers from Australian firefighters. And if you think about it, you don't get much farther from New York City than Australia. And this is a time when the world was united. You know, the freedom-loving world was united, and they wanted to make sure they sent their sympathies and condolences.

Usually it's army to army, navy to navy, but this time it's firefighter to firefighter. Can you describe that global kinship you guys have? Yeah, it's pretty tight. It's a true brotherhood within all of the emergency services. And that's why we take these helmets.

They've been at fire academies, police academies, inspire people to join the fire service. But the real purpose of these helmets, we repurposed them about four years ago. We recognized that kids going through school weren't around at the time of 9-11, and they serve as a fantastic visual. It's a powerful visual. You're looking at them.

Do you want to read some of the inscriptions? How about this? It says, to all our brothers and sisters, FDNY, never will we know what you're experiencing, but know our thoughts and sympathies are with you. Others, to the New York Fire Department, their families know involved, our thoughts and prayers are with you. From the members of the Patagoa Beach Rural Fire Brigade, NSW Australia, and assigned Deputy Captain Tony Garland.

You have them mounted, so all to see they're in downtown and they're going to keep moving, right? Yeah, we get them around. What we're really doing, Brian, is, and this is a big Help to us, and I appreciate it. We're getting them into schools, and they're used as a learning tool. The feedback I'm getting from teachers and superintendents is amazing.

Right. Do you find that 25 years later? People are forgetting or not forgetting? Oh no, we've gotten soft. There's no doubt about it.

We have forgotten. It's not the same. But today is not the same as it was in 01. Why do you think that is? I don't know what it is, but that's what we're trying to do: turn that around.

I want to be careful, but if you were at 01 at the time, you wouldn't imagine who the public officials are now running things. That would have never, you would have never imagined that. Right. So, you have all those presidents down there right now commemorating 9-11. When you see that turnout, when you see that we're still reading the names, when you see the firefighters coming back, long retired, does that harden you?

Oh, yeah, look, there's two. Thanks. Yeah, you have to differentiate between the two. What I'm worried about is the younger generation that's coming up that wasn't around during 9-11. But you better believe it.

You're worried about the schools. I'm worried about the schools and the kids and the voters that are coming up. But no, firemen and police and anybody that was around that day, citizens, they know they know. And, Peter, what is the protocol? If a firefighter knows a building is burning, is the protocol to go into that building and go up?

Yeah, I've got to be honest with you. In our firefighting and our experience, we're not really well trained for that. I'm sure New York is. But look, they made calls. They're heroes.

They were going to do whatever it took to save lives. It wasn't about protocol that day, I don't think. I think they were. Because in 93, the word was: get out. Or stay at your desk, we got this because it was a low.

And in 2001, it was get out. But some said, No, I'm going to stay at my desk because there were different orders then. That's right. And those guys, look, whatever protocol may or may not have been at the time, they're just going to do what they have to do to save lives. And it's fluid, and those commands are going to be made, you know, through the chain of command.

Peter Cognisola, a firefighter during 9-11, came here the day after to help out. Thanks so much, and thanks for sharing your story about the Australian firefighters, too. Good stuff. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Great to see you. Back in a moment, everyone. Howard Ludnick, interview, coming your way next. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

Well, welcome back from Jersey City. We're commemorating 25 years since the 9-11 attacks. And right behind me, the ceremony is going on, and the names are being read. And Howard Luttnick knows all about that. He was the former CEO of Canterfitzgerald.

And he talked to me yesterday about losing 694 people that day, including his younger brother. No one lost more, and no one's experienced more hardship. He even got cancer from what he breathed in that day because he went in a little bit late. It saved his life, but he would still witness it all and escape with his life. He talked to us about that day and what it means 25 years later, even though he's the Commerce Secretary today, his heart is still here in New York City.

Listen.

So, Secretary Howard Lutnick. A day like this, 25 years since the 9-11 attacks, of course you're going to be out and commemorating it. But Howard Lutnick, the businessman, must process this a lot different because you were running Canon Fitzgerald at the time and you lost 658 of your employees, including your brother. 25 years later, how do you process it?

Well You try to think back, and like now, because I'm here, like I physically have goosebumps standing here because oh, behind you, these are all my people. This is all their names, and my brother's right over there. And it just, it's just such a part of me, and I still can't believe it happened, right? How can you lose everybody you work with? And by the way, if you lose everyone you work with, you don't know how much you care about them.

But if I took everybody you work with away from you, you know what you'd do? You would cry. And you'd cry for years. I cried until October 21st, 2004. I cried every day for years.

And I remember that because as I fell asleep that day, I said to my wife, you know, I didn't cry today. And she wrote it down. Years because it's you can't process all those people dying. You just can't. And also the process of someone like you who would have been here at what 7:30 in the morning.

Sure, a plane hit at 8:46. You weren't here because I was taking my son, Kyle, my oldest son, to his first day at kindergarten. He was five.

Now he's 30. Right?

So I was dropping him off at kindergarten up on 90th Street, and my phone kept ringing. And I was thinking, I can't believe my office can't just leave me alone to take my son to school. Right, as it turns out, I later learned it was my brother trying to call me. And the administrator came in and said, You know, a plane has hit the building, Mr. Luttnick.

And I said, All right, I gotta go. But I thought it was like a small Piper Cub, that kind of thing.

So I left. Got in my car. and immediately went to as soon as I could see the buildings. And I saw there was smoke just pouring out of the building. And the one with the antenna on the top is mine.

And we saw a huge hole and the smoke pouring out of that building, and I was like, My driver starts crying hysterically. I'm like, we gotta just get there. Our guys are getting out. They're just getting out.

So I went to the building. And I stood outside the building, like right over there. This is where the building is. This is the building.

So I was standing right over there, right over there. And there's a doorway, and I knew there's a dozen doorways.

So I knew if one person came out on our floors from that door, they were coming out of all of them.

So I was grabbing people as they came out the door, asking what floor they were on. And the highest floor I heard anybody was the 92nd floor. Where was Cannapis Jail? 101st to 105th floor of the World Trade Center. The highest floors, the most beautiful views, incredible offices that ended up being, you know, horrible.

Nobody survived above 94, was it? No one could get out, and so no one got out of my building. You know, it was horrible.

So I heard this sound standing like right over there, and I hear the loudest sound I've ever heard, and I don't know what it is.

So I take off running that way. It was that building, it was two World Trade Center. Collapsing right over there.

So I start running, and for no reason, I run that way. Because if I had run that way, I would have run into the falling building, I would have died. And if I ran that way, I would have died. But because I ran to VC Street and turned up VC Street, I'm running.

So I'm running just like this. I'm running my tail off. But I don't know what I'm running from. And then I look over my shoulder. and there's a tornado chasing me.

Remember that black huge cloud? And it's chasing me.

So now I'm in a horror film. Right, I was in New York on a day like today. Beautiful day, and now all of a sudden I'm transported into a horrifying, running for my life in my suit and tie, and I dive under a car. And then the world just turns black.

So when you come here, as people don't know, the memorial has every name of their lives who lost that day. And this is this is your product.

So what I love about this memorial is it's physical. Right?

So every time, like before I saw you, I came here. And I just give my brother, you know, a rub like this. And I... Yeah, this is my best friend from college. The gardener.

Right. Guy Rand North America, Joe Shea, and his brother. Danny Shape? This is my roommate from college's brother.

So this is my pal from college, my roommate from college brother. We had a rule at the firm. Let's hire the smartest people we know who we like. And anybody.

So your friends, I want to hire your friends who are winner. Right, my friend's winner, you got a relative sense of family, everybody, so everybody's together, right? And that's what made it amazing.

So, if you go all the way down this side to here, my brother, right here. all the way down that side.

So if you go to that corner, it starts with Abate. The Albate Brothers, A-B-A-T-E. That's the beginning of Canada Fitzgerald. This whole row, this whole row, and all the way down this side. Until you see the last name on this list is Chuck Zion.

Nothing's alphabetical in between, but the Albate started. And Zion ends it, and everybody's together with the people they work with, the people they were related to, the people they're friends with. 658 names. Two sides of this. Pulverizing.

It's just pulverizing.

So you mentioned your brother tried to call you when you were at your son's kindergarten horror, man. But he did get in touch with your sister. He got my sister and she said, Oh, Gary, thank God. Thank God you're not there. Right, because she was on the phone.

He said, No, I'm calling it from the building. I am there. And I'm just calling to say goodbye, I'm gonna die. I know I'm gonna die, tell Howard I love him. You know, but I'm calling to say goodbye and I love you.

And then the phone went dead. And that was my sister speaking to my brother from the World Trade Center. Um So 25 years later, How is it different from if I interviewed you one year later? Which, by the way, we were on the air at the time. I might have been.

So how is it different today?

Well, I have more perspective. And at the end of the first year, I was fighting for the life of the company, fighting to take care of the families, 658 families who were in dire circumstances, right? How could I take care of them? I promised I'd pay for 10 years of their health care. We had to have a company survive to pay for it.

I wanted to give them 20 years. We had no company in it. There's only 200 people. Everybody was killed.

So I had to rebuild it. I had to take care of these families.

So we were fighting to survive and fighting to take care of them. We ended up giving those families over the next five years $180 million. Paid for their healthcare for 10 years, but that's what I was focused on then.

Now, 25 years later, I can look back and see that this was an attack. On Western civilization. They weren't attacking the people who worked in this building. They didn't know the people who worked in this building. They were attacking the World Trade Center.

Western Sensibilities, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, everything that makes America great, that was the attack, and that's what we know that they hate. And that's why we have to stay vigilant. And so, when we say never forget, what we're saying is never forget how beautiful and important. Hours. Western life, liberty, what makes America life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Let's protect it, let's defend it, and let's never forget that there's people in this world who hate us just for that. Oh, you know that. And I know that. And we used to all know that. But there's a lot of people who say we had it coming.

And what happened after? And what happened after our response was worse than their hit on us. What's your reaction to that? I I think people who tried to change the narrative, to rewrite it, this is just the definition of evil. You deserve to be have 658 people murdered.

Who you didn't even know who they were. They deserved to be murdered. Yeah, I don't think so. These are people trying to rewrite history because they hate America. Anybody who says it hates America.

They want us, they are part of this. And that's what I think of them. You say that, you are a part of the killers of this because that's who you're celebrating. That's a personal attack, it sounds like on you. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And I despise it. Have you thought about, have you thought about why you survived? Why you that day at 8:45 were not here one of the few times? I know you said for your son, it's his kindergarten.

But people talk about survivor's kill. Did you have any of that? Oh, of course I had survivors killed. Of course I did. Because why am I alive?

But if I am alive, then I better make it valuable. And I have to take care of these families. I have to do everything I can to try to take care of them and make their lives better. And I've done everything I possibly could to do it. I mean, look at all these people.

And these are my friends. Yeah. Unbelievable. These are my friends. Are you a different person today because of this?

Of course. Of course, in what way?

Well Before, you know, I was a successful businessman trying to build a great company, right? And we had a rule that our company was different. We wanted to work with people that we like. Right?

So we had a different view, so that's why these people are friends and they knew each other and they hired people they liked. But still, we were just a company. And after that, after this event, we were a purpose. You know, we were a company that only cared about taking care of the families of those they lost. Like, that was the most important thing to me in the world: I promised to pay for their health care for 10 years.

I promised to give them 25% of our profits, and we darn well better have profits. And we ended up $180 million that we sent these people.

So they knew. And then my sister ran the relief fund, and my wife set up groups of everybody to talk together, and they all worked together to create a community.

So that we could support them and show love to them and show them that we were in. Because my view is. I got a lot of friends up there. And the best way to show someone you're their friend is to care for the people they love. And that was my calling.

And I just wanted to take care of people that they love. Did the company come back as far as it was?

So the company now is much bigger, right? It globally had about 2,000 employees, and we lost 658 out of the 960 in New York.

So we had about 1,000 in New York and 1,000 in the rest of the world.

Now the company has, I think, over 15,000 employees around the world, and 1,000. I mean, it has more than 5,000 in New York.

So it's bigger, stronger, you know, and it still hires. Kids of people who got killed.

So, right next to my brother's name is Doug Gardner. His son. who was born in 9-11, or born before 9-11, who just joined our company. Michael Garner joining Met. Wow.

How cool is that? Like my best friend's son joins my boys and my old firm. It's really, it's it's the best. I hear you. And then 25 years later when they can read the names, it's 24 straight years they've read the names.

I think that's a wonderful tribute. What do you think about when they read the names?

Well We honor those we lost and we showed their pictures. Right?

But we understand that when you see a picture of your loved one, you don't want it to just come and go.

So what we do is we put it on this side of the wall and we run it. all the way across the wall.

So we'll have like six, seven pictures up at the same time.

So when my brother's name comes up, it's not Fast, because I obviously just want to see them. And I love that we honor them and talk about them. And the families get up and tell stories. And it's our community. It's the community of people who care about each other after 9-11.

And you saw it. There were a couple of family members here that came up and said hello. They say how friendly and how warm. And we are one. We worked hard.

Probably the most important thing to my life was taking care of those families and having them know that I care about them, that the firm loves them, and they were always going to be there. And now as everyone was coming up, different ways to rebuild and to commemorate. We have the two footprints. For people that don't know New York, like you know New York, these are the two footprints where the World Trade Center towers stood, and these are the running fountain that continues. When you stand here and look up, can you still have your bearings about the way it used to be?

Sure. Sure, because I came here every day for decades. You know, I I walked in over there. Right, this is one acre, right? The building is one acre, right?

So, this is literally one square acre, right? The building went straight up. Right, we were the 101st to the 105th floor.

So the views were incredible from any window. Didn't matter what window you had. You had the Statue of Liberty or you had all the way down to Manhattan.

So we were here.

So that was the road I came in and dropped off when I went in. This was the plaza here where everybody sort of hung out and had lunch. You know, for the people, I didn't have, I was working. Other people had lunch, so I hung out down here. The other trade center, number two World Trade Center was there.

That's what we always called them number one and number two. We didn't call them the North and the South Tower. When they first said the North Tower, I didn't know what they were talking about. No one ever called it the North Tower. This is one.

Number one World Trade Center right here.

So, you work for a guy that does not have to have it explained what it means. He's a New Yorker. President of the United States. Have you guys talked about this? about what this day means for you and for him.

We have yet yesterday. We were at the Tunnels to Tower event, where he honored Um The gentleman who had the red bandana who went back and forth up and down the building, saving 18 people's lives. And he honored them out on the ellipse, you know, so in the lawn outside the White House. And the president came out. And he's so kind.

He told the story of me. Taking my son to school. And that that's why I'm alive. I mean he told the story, so he. He is, look, he is an incredibly kind human being.

Most people don't see that.

Well, because they see the media, but you know, if you're sick or something happens, he's the first person to call you. I mean, imagine that. The President of the United States is the first person to call your family and see how you're doing. He is a kind, warm human being. And after 9-11, he called them.

And he was, because I've been friends with him a long time. He was calling to check on me. Can he do anything for me? I mean, that's a side that people have. You had a relationship before that.

Oh, yeah. I've known him since I was 30, so that's 35 years. And he has always been a warm, kind human being. That's who he is. Right.

And lately, there's been a story that the toxic chemicals and fumes that kill people after the attack was known to officials at the time, and they didn't go forward. Do you believe that? But look, I had.

Well so remember I came down And I ran from that tornado of black soot, and then obviously I breathed it, right? Because I dove under a car and I was breathing that stuff. I ended up with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

So I had cancer. And that cancer, you are 200 times more likely to have that cancer if you breathe the air. from that. You knew it had to be. It had to be bad for you.

You just didn't know when it would come up.

Now, it came up, you know, and I got cancer in 2021.

So, think about it. Think about how much later it was. But 200 times more likely to get cancer.

So, the people who say, They got sick from it? Yeah. They got sick from it. How in Ludnick, thanks so much. 25 years with the attack, and the good news is America hasn't forgotten.

Thank you so much, man. Right. So that was nice of Howard Ludnight to give us some of his time and come down there at a time in which very emotional for him obviously. He was able to walk up and down. If you've been to the Memorial World Trade Center where it once stood, there are names on the rims.

So on those rims, all those names, he knew everyone, where they worked, and how they were grouped. The friends were next to friends. Pretty impressive back in the moment. Don't go anywhere. Brian Kilmead will be right back.

Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kill Me Show. Hey, welcome back. Special thanks to Howard Ludney for giving us his time as his commerce secretary, trying to juggle a Canadian trade deal as well as in the inflation numbers. The president says, Hey, I want to give everybody $5,000 to go find the money and don't make it taxpayer dollars.

I'll let you hear that a different hour on this edition of Fox and Friends. But thanks for your time because this is the indelible moment as you look back at 25 years since 9/11. And if you're watching the stream or if you're listening in your car, just know that we're in the backdrop, and we're in Jersey City. The backdrop is where the World Trade Center once stood, been totally rebuilt right behind over my right shoulder. There's the Freedom Tower, 1,776 feet high.

Pretty impressive. You listen to the Brian Killmee show on this Friday at Tilmo. From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmy.

Being here at the Brian Kilmey Show, we come here from 48, usually from 48 to 6 in midtown at Haven, but today we're in Jersey City overlooking where those Twin Towers once stood, commemorating 25 years since the 9-11 attacks, going over some of those moments, talking to people that were affected, seeing how people are responding, wondering how our country's doing 25 years later, while saluting those who gave their lives and or took the life of anyone in al-Qaeda, Islamic extremists in part of that category. This hour we're going to be joined by people who know this quite well. Frank Pellegrino, retired FBI special agent who interrogated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and got his confession in detail. He said, not only did I do 2001, I did 1993. And I plan on doing more.

And let me tell you all about it. But now, that happened in 2007, I understand. But now we hear from a judge that we'll have to throw that out because he came under, they say, torturous circumstances.

So in 2020, 28 will have to deal with that because that's when his court date is. But let's bring Andy McCarthy, knows all about courts and terror. He was actually part of the team that tried the blind shake when he was assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He also has a fantastic column today.

He puts this whole thing in perspective. 25 years after 9-11, the terror is passed, yet we're still losing the war. Andy McCarthy, welcome back. Brian, great to be with you.

So, first off, what are your reflections when that attack happens? I imagine you were one of the few that could think to yourself: a plane just hit that, the World Trade Center, I bet you it's Bin Laden. Were you thinking that? Uh instantly. Uh I I was actually a little surprised when Some people in Washington later said that it wasn't until the second plane hit uh that we knew the country was under attack.

But I don't they had not dealt with What we had dealt with in the Southern District of New York for the eight years prior. To 9-11, including the propensity that these guys had to go back to and plot against targets that they'd hit. previously as they had hit the World Trade Center in 1993.

So I instantly Knew that we were under attack. And I think, Brian, you have to know that history. to understand 9-11 and the importance of President Bush in particular attaching war. to the effort that went forward because the important thing here in terms of the non-recurrence of 9-11, the fact that we haven't had another attack, is that we moved from a law enforcement paradigm which was not effective to a law of war paradigm which has kept us safe. Right, do the laws work in trying these terrorists?

You did it with the blind shake, a guy that was a scholar, as you point out. Uh ruthless, but not crazy, but he was a physical mess. But you have to try him through our court system. Are our civil court system equipped to try terrorists?

Well, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. The record shows that we absolutely can conduct trials. that uh give you a reliable result and afford the people who are accused with the due process that the Constitution requires. But as a national security strategy, which is more important than Dispensing due process to individual people at trial. For the protection of the country, The court system can't work.

And it's obvious why not. You know, these attacks, Brian, were coordinated. Outside the United States in ungovernable bad lands like Peshawar, Pakistan, on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The writ of our courts don't run there. They're contemptuous of American justice.

Our law enforcement agencies can't operate there.

So obviously, You can't run a national security strategy on courtroom prosecutions when the Justice Department is not able to apprehend the people who were behind the attacks. Think about it. Bin Laden was under indictment by the Justice Department since 1999 when he was killed a dozen years later. At the time that 9-11 happened, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been under indictment by the Justice Department for five years. We could indict them, but we couldn't stop them, let alone capture them.

So Andy McCarthy We uh evidently they're saying that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad's confession Was gotten under torture. He was tortured in order to give it, so therefore they're going to throw it out of court, should they? And I don't know if he was, but I know he was put under extreme interrogation, and then he gave great detail. Of the attacks, what he was going to do, what he did in 93, what he did in 2001, what he planned on doing after. And now they're saying in 2028, when we go to try him, we have to throw it out.

Well, I'm of a few different minds on this, Brian. First, I think that Winston Churchill was right. about Nuremberg. when he in when he initially was against the idea of having trials of the Nazis. The idea that we had to give them a due process trial proceeding before the before you could put to death People who were war criminals and deserved to be put to death.

I'd never believed that that was sensible. And there are many people, I can attest to this from having been a prosecutor, there are many people who absolutely must be neutralized, but who we could never try in court. Forget about coerced. interrogation. We can't try them in court because it would require Under the due process rules, giving up too much intelligence and the sources of intelligence.

So, Congress should find a different way to deal with this situation of terrorists who deserve to be executed, but who can't, as a practical matter, be tried. If you're going to have an American trial, you can't use. force uh uh uh evidence that's been obtained by forcible uh methods. You just can't. It's not a trial.

But I what what I question is the idea that you have to have a trial in order to do this. That's what has never made any sense to me.

Well, there's a military court in Ketma. We try them there, right? You still can't use forcibly obtained Forget about whether it's torture or not, because the issue is not whether it rises to the level of torture. If you use physical force to overcome someone's will to make them speak, that can't be used as evidence.

Now, that having been said. I'm very skeptical because as you noted, Khaleen Sheikh Mohammed wanted everyone to know he was responsible for 9-11. And as I said before, he was already under indictment in 1996 for a terrorist plot, the Bojinka plot, which was also known as Manila Air. He also killed Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street journalist, and has no one in charge with it. Yeah, so I'm very skeptical of this idea that even if you can't use the confession evidence that was gotten by waterboarding, that you don't have enough evidence to try to college Sheikh Muhammad.

I found that very hard to believe. Andy McCarthy, our guest. Andy, I want you to hear this. As you know, we have the reading of the names every year, and this year we included the people that have died from post-9-11 illnesses. And sadly, it's between, I think, 6,000 and 9,000.

But Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed at the age of 41 with three little kids, including one child, one week old, is now the national chair of the 9-11 Families United. Listen to what she said, Cut 50. And my husband, Tom Strada, you are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder? Yes.

We finally made it into a court and have proved that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fomented a rancid culture of anti-American terrorism around the globe and then sent its agents to support the radical Islamist hijackers so they could attack you and all of our loved ones.

So she went on to call out every leader that was there and said, why do you do anything, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, everybody. And then she had a message for the Vice President, do something. Your reaction to Terry Strada. I agree with her. I've for years said that we are owed an accounting not only Brian of the Saudi role, but also the nine eleven Commission pointed out that Iran provided logistical support For the 9-11 suicide hijackers to let them get from place to place to carry out.

The attack.

So I think from for 25 years We've been owed a full accounting of the roles of those countries in these attacks, and I must say. Given that We we were un We were unremorseful at all about exposing the role of the American intelligence agencies, the failure of the FBI, the failures of the CIA. We were remorseless about that.

So why we protect these countries I has always been lost on me. My sense is, and you tell me if you buy this, they have a sprawling royal family. And, you know, Bin Laden was, evidently, Bin Laden's family were successful architects and builders. He was one of like 52 kids his ridiculous father had.

So that kid ends up being a smart but unsavory terrorist that looked at the West as their enemy and you see, you know what Bin Laden's done and thankfully he's dead. Is it possible that members of the royal family without being sponsored by the government are issued this? This wasn't a Saudi policy, but Saudi royal family complicity? I think, Brian, what the record shows... Is that The Saudi official policy was alliance with the United States against radical Islamists.

However, there were a number of people who were official Saudi government people who were attached to that government. who abetted Terrorists. It's kind of like dealing with Pakistan. They're not of one mind about this issue. You know, they officially say they're cooperating with the United States.

And then yet, when we found bin Laden, where was he? He was like down the block from the Saudi military, I mean, the Pakistani military academy.

So, you know, these countries have long played a double game. And I have to say, I think we get much more cooperation from Saudi Arabia now. Under the current regime, than we did. We don't have as much of a problem from Saudi Arabia today as we did 25 years ago. But at that time, I would say Qatar has now taken over this role, but at that time, the Saudis were the leading propagators of Sharia supremacism, which is the ideology of the jihadists, in the world.

in terms of the amount of money that they poured into institutions to indoctrinate people in this ideology. I mean you can look at Saudi Arabia and looks, I haven't been there. But if you see MBS and you understand they changed their curriculum, they're giving women actually rights to live a life, they're trying to focus their population, young, on economics and education, and they got the Wahhabism officially out of their curriculum. You see an evolution. And MBS was probably in fifth grade, what's he, 37?

So no one could say MBS, you were part of that.

So it might be a time that there could be something, yet the Saudi government is pushing back on this. Do you have any idea, and this is not, I don't mean to spring this on you, but do you have any idea where the court system is on this? Uh The problem is that there have been a number of lawsuits, but there are intelligence doctrines that allow The federal government, particularly the executive branch, when material that's relevant to a trial is classified and the government represents that making it public would be harmful to national security, they can stop it from being made public.

So it's not that people can't bring cases in court, it's just that if it's classified information, the government does not have to declassify it. Got it. Um right now, uh Andy How does it feel for you 25 years later knowing That you were ahead of the game because you started researching, you got the blind shake case, and you researched to try this guy, and you realize he is Muslim Brotherhood. You realize he's a scholar, you realize everyone's pointing to him. This is not only a guy that wants to blow up every bridge and tunnel in New York City, this guy's got global aspirations.

And then when 9-11 happens, you're one of the few people who would say, I knew these guys were capable of this. What's it like for you today?

Well, I'm thankful, Brian, that we haven't had a recurrence of the attack. And I think it was a lot of fits and starts in political arguments over the last 25 years, but we did get to a counterterrorism strategy that protects the country and is a more whole of government approach than having just the Justice Department try to handle it, which it can't do by itself. I think the big problem we continue to have is that we've never faced up to the ideology.

So, for example, people ask me all the time, what do you think of what happened on the campuses after October 7th and the Hamas atrocities of that day? And my only response, and I've been complaining about this for a number of years, but if you the Muslim Brotherhood established the Muslim Students Associations in the 1960s, we've had four generations of students. go through that robust program. And I don't know what you would expect if you allow that sort of thing to fester for half a century. You wake up one morning after something like October 7th and the campuses are aflame.

In favor? Actually, saying things that echo what you hear from Hamas.

So I think it's been a big mistake. not to confront the ideology. It's a totalitarian political ideology. We should be able to call it out without being seen as condemning all of Islam. Uh I hear you.

And the other thing is I never forget the video of the Palestinians in Gaza cheering The news that our towers were burning and eventually would fall, and 2,934 people would lose their lives. They cheered that day, and that video exists. I don't imagine their sentiment has changed today. Andy McCarthy, thanks so much. Always great having you on.

Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it. All right, we'll be back. I have a few minutes to take some of your calls and some reflections as we look back at 25 years since 9-11. Also, eventually, I'm going to get to what happened last night at the RNC.

You'll listen to the Brian Killmead Show. It's Brian Killmead. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmead. Today, our fellow citizens.

our way of life. Our very freedom came under attack. in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes. or in their offices.

secretaries, businessmen, and women. military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil.

despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing. have filled us with disbelief. Terrible sadness. and acquired unyielding anger.

President George W. Bush, 9-11 days later, talking about putting in perspective the attacks on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and the crash of Fight 93. Coming up next, Frank, we're going to be joined by Frank Pellegrino, retired FBI special agent, who interviewed and interrogated and got the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who admitted, I'm the mastermind, I did everything A to Z. It's going to be part of a special on another network, on CBS. But I think it's really important for you to hear from him on this day, 25 years ago since the attacks.

We are in Jersey City. You can't see us if you're not watching the stream, but do it on Fox Nation, or if you just go to the app, you could see it. Just click on the headsets. We are just across from where the World Trade Center once stood. You listen to the Brian Kill Meat Show on a very special day on this Friday.

Don't move. Frank Pellegrino, next. Then we'll squeeze in your calls. The talk show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmead.

Comment shirt. Admitted it. And still, not one single person has been tried and convicted for nine months. Oh. Spend 25 years of our lives without Find out.

My Relationship with KSM. Starts from 1993 and continues till today. If Frank Pellegrino had picked up Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, 9-11 probably never have happened. The reason we still don't have one single verdict is because of the torture program. It's not the way the FBI would have done it.

It's not the way I would have done it. We find out the FBI is going to be able to interview KSM. He spoke to me voluntarily and he told us just about everything about 9-11. He was involved in planning, training operatives, and getting them the funding. It's a disservice to us both, and it's a disservice to the American people that this is still ongoing.

We are back, and that is some of the special that's going to air on CBS. The Daughters of 9-11 is going to be on tonight at 9 o'clock. And it's where we find out the first clean confession from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that he was the architect of the whole thing A to Z. And I believe also the 93 bombing after that and wanted to do a ton more. This guy is as evil as he got.

And also, this guy went to a U.S. college. He went to North Carolina AT. He understood our culture and understood the damage he can do. And man, did he do it?

Frank Pellegrino joins me now, retired FBI agent who spent over a decade hunting KSM and ultimately got his confession and interrogated him at Gitmo. Frank, great to see you. Thanks for having me. Sir, sir, what was it like for you to first find out that we got him in 2003? and that you eventually would have a chance, when you found out that you eventually would have a chance to confront her.

Well obviously I was happy when we got him. It had been a long search, so when we finally got him it was very satisfying. Uh I was hoping at that time I'd be able to talk to him right away. But it was clear that That wasn't going to happen.

So, you know, I went down to headquarters, tried to help out as I could, but It was indicated to me early that we were not going to be involved in the interview initially and that That was going to be the end of our CIA had him first? They had him, yeah. And at that time, he went under extreme interrogation. Yes. Right?

At that time, they did waterboarding. He was waterboarded. And because he was able to confess to them, but when you got him, you was at?

Well, we finally got him to speak to him when he was sent to Gitmo. We saw him in January of... 2007. And he had confessed back in 2003, almost the day that we got him?

Well in 2003 when he was with the agency You know, he said a lot of things. What he said to them, he said, according to people, they were set under duress. When we went to speak to him, the whole idea was that it would be a clean team. It wouldn't be. under the same situation.

No water boarding. No water boarding, no Voluntary.

So you would definitely voluntary. And he uh He came in and and spoke to us and I Made it clear to him that he didn't have to talk to us, it was up to him. And he was interested in speaking for a few days. And when he didn't want to talk anymore, he stopped talking. He said, I've had it.

I don't want to talk anymore. You speak English? Spoke English very well, yeah.

So he speaks English, you talk to him, and what did he say?

Well, he went through the whole uh What happened, I don't want to get into details because it's still up in the air and everything, but he. He gave us. The fact that he was involved in 9-11 and the planning of it and who was involved in it. talked about other plots that they had thought about. We went back in history a little bit, talked about 93, talked about his nephew, Ramsey Yosef.

Talked about the. Who's been arrested for the 93 bombing? Who had rented one of those trucks? Yes. He was arrested, tried in the Southern District of New York.

He's now in Supermax prison. He's been in Colorado since, yes.

So that's his nephew. Yes. He was involved in 93, KSN? He sent money. To Ramsey, $660, not much, but it was something, you know, he knew he was there.

I don't know if at the time he uh was aware of any details of what uh Ramsey Yosef was planning, but he was certainly supporting him. Do you have reason to believe that he knew detail enough during his confession that he was telling the truth? Oh yeah, he was telling the truth. Yeah. He gave us...

There was no reason at that point for him not to tell the truth. And he wasn't going to gain anything from lying or or uh And it was consistent with the other evidence and other information that we have. And he's not the only person we have spoken to.

So you put everything together and you can tell whether you're sitting there. It's a puzzle. After 9-11, it wasn't like there was a Napoleon's army standing waiting for us. We had to go find our enemy who was hiding. And you guys did a brilliant job in doing that.

And nobody ever gives you credit. Dismantling al-Qaeda, ISIS that followed, and finding out who was attached to who and who was up against that. You get Abu Zubaida, the first big arrest. You get him in Karachi, I believe it was. I think he was arrested in Lahore.

Lahore, okay. Pakistan. It's Pakistan. And then you get, soon after, Abu Zubaidah leads to Ramzi bin al-Sheib. Yes.

And then sooner or later you get the mother load, the guy that looks all dumpy and looks like they woke him up in the middle of the night. I think his nickname in college was Bluto 'cause he was a bit of a partier when he was at North Carolina ANT and they grabbed him.

So when you grab them, they took him, they realized not only did they want to find out what he was up to, they wanted to stop the next plot.

So time mattered when the CIA got him, right?

Well, time always matters. Listen, when Decisions have to be made, policy decisions have to be made, decisions have to be made. Nothing is perfect. Everything has Trade-offs. And if you're going to Decide that you need something and you need to do it that way, you're going to have trade-offs.

If you then plan to have any kind of trial.

So that decision had to be made. And you can argue that decision or not. But that's what happens when you make these decisions. If we're going to do an aggressive kind of interrogation You're gonna have a problem then when you try to bring him into any kind of court.

So was he proud of himself for doing this? Did he take pride in saying this plaque came off and I'm responsible for all these deaths? Yeah, I mean, he was, that's what he's planning to do. I mean, I think he was surprised. Uh uh that the buildings went down, and it may have struck him as A little bit of a of a moment that maybe we Did a little too much here.

We didn't know, you know, if the buildings came down, how are they going to react to that? You know, that's a little bit different than. you know, bombing someplace. I mean, the buildings fell down. And I think maybe there was a bit of a lump in his throat that What are they going to do?

This might not be good. It's been said that bin Laden did not anticipate that we were going to respond like this. That after the coal, after the embassy bombings. We didn't do much. And they miscalculated.

They did. Um One thing he mention was that He said, I'm not quoting it, but basically said, we didn't know what the cowboy was going to do. Us. Yeah. Frank Poe Greeno, our guest, retired FBI special agent, spent over a decade hunting people like KSM.

He's on a special tonight, Daughters of 9-11. It's on CBS at 9. And personally, as somebody who tried to read everything possible, talked to important people like you along the way, I would love to see the day this guy got justice, but I also would like to unwind why he thought this was necessary. Why is a guy that understood America thought I want to do the best I can to hurt America? What do you think it is?

Well, you know, it's interesting. This whole family has a history of being involved in this stuff. his brothers, his uncles. Ramziosa's father was involved. They grew up on the Iranian side of.

in Balochistan, on the Iranian side of that border. They were Sunni. They lived in a bit of a Shiite area, so there was always some conflict there.

So I think they grew up with the. you know, that kind of anger. And and They just bought into it. They bought into the issues. I don't know, it's uh I don't know how you know, he came here, went to school, and I think they found some of what they saw here disturbing.

Um you know, why people took good care of their lawns or why You know, women would dress provocatively, and it bothered them. And I mean, why it should bother them enough to. bombers like that. It makes no sense to anyone. But they bought into it like a lot of young people did at the time.

Because you study this, you do have to, in the FBI, study motivation, right? Yeah. So You had to unwind the next plot. Do you feel there were more coming down the pike? There were always more coming down the pike.

As scripted as this one? Um I think after 9-11 when we then were very aggressive both Trying to find these guys. We were looking for KSN before 9-11. We almost had him in gutter. There was another chance we could probably...

What do you mean them? Him? We almost had KSM in Gutter in 1995. We knew he was there. We went there.

So you thought he was part of 93? No, because he was part of the Bojinka plot. He was part of that plot. Yeah, but 11 planes flying from Southeast Asia to the United States. And you found that out when something exploded in the Philippines in a lab.

No, there was a fire in their apartment in Ramsey Osa, and smoke was going out the window. Cops came. Ramsey Osp was a fugitive at that time, so we went to the Philippines. We found out they had this other plot. and that it included KSM.

He wasn't there at the time. but we did indict him. for that in 1996. And that's what we were looking for before 9-11. uh ever happened.

Um Interesting was in Qatar. Felt comfortable there? Yeah. Yes. Um yeah.

A lot of people distrustful of Carter. Are you? I agree. Yeah, what what what's my involved in them other than this and and this makes me distrustful. They knew he was there.

And then Supposedly they were watching him for us when we were getting ready to try to make a plan to grab him. And then they lost him. Yeah, okay. country the size of Rhode Island, they lost it. Um Unacceptable.

You know, and and How do you lose them? We are there. We have a plane ready to take them back, an indictment. An indicted guy, and they lose him. I mean, yeah.

Hey, guys, back in the control room, if you would queue up the Bill Clinton sot, the one from yesterday, let me know when it's ready. I just wanted, because I had a chance to talk to Bill Clinton a couple of days after. We're going to pull it up in a second. When Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession has been thrown out when he's going to be tried in 2028, Uh the reasoning behind that. Mm.

Well the reasoning my understanding from reading the ruling was the judge determined and and he said he was basing it just on the voluntariness of the interview. that he felt that we did not do enough. to separate how he was treated before. to this interview now. Ah, yeah.

You know Which I found a little bit frustrating because He was still in jail. He was a prisoner. And it was four years. Yeah, some time had gone by. We were different people interviewing, and we made it clear to him he's not in CIA custody now.

This is a different type of interview. And he was happy to talk to us for.

So it's a BS. In your view, it's a BS judge decision. I thought, listen, this terrorist-first attitude with these judges is ridiculous. I think if he. I would have been happier if the judge would have come out and said, listen, there's no way I can...

Say this is voluntary because of what had happened before. If you want to make that legal decision, I may disagree with it, but I understand that, but don't say that. We didn't do enough separate. How about asking you?

Well, we we had. I was going to say, Frank Palgrino, I need to see you.

Well, we had a hearing in 2023 on this issue down in Gitmo. And I was on the stand for nearly a week. It was a different judge. Judges Rotate. Rotate.

That judge understood. I don't know. Maybe. But he didn't have to make the decision. Do you think he'd confess again if you walked in there?

Where does he want to live now?

Okay. Why? Believes he's not going anywhere and I you know I think he would continue to talk. You do. That's interesting.

I do. I mean his lawyers wouldn't let him, but I think he would continue to talk. He's lawyered up right now. Oh yeah. Didn't they have lawyers then?

Well no. Um when we interviewed him in 2007 And this was The judge brought this up too. They weren't charged at that point in the military.

So the legal advice we got was that since he's not charged, He doesn't have any right to attorney at that point.

So he asked us, you know, go have a kind of get an attorney and we would say, well, you're not charged yet, so you don't have a right. If you get charged, we provide an attorney. I'm not sure this is going to help you, but I like your opinion on this.

So a couple of days after 9-11, I was outside the armory, and Bill Clinton came from Australia. landed and said, if anyone in the press wants to talk to me, I'm available. There was a story in the Wall Street Journal that he had a shot at him before he left in that portion after George W. It might have been the part when George W. and Al Gore go back and forth on who the next president would be.

And he didn't take the shot.

So I asked him that. Listen.

Mr. President, there's a report today that you had a good, the best shot at this guy in December, the waning weeks of your presidency, and at the last minute you said no, too much of a risk. How true is it? No, it's not true. The best shot we had at him was when I bombed Osama bin Laden, was when I bombed his training camp in 1998.

And we just missed him by a matter of hours, maybe even less than an hour. Feel somewhat responsible?

Well, let me say this. We tripled the intelligence budget for counterintelligence, for counterterrorism. Because I believe, as I said, that these kinds of threats would be the most likely to be said. Just I just want your your opinion on that. Yeah, I mean my understanding was that You know, there was a group set up, and everybody has heard about it, in the agency, and we kind of worked together with them a little bit in order to locate KSM during the 90s.

And It was basically run by the CIA, and they did a great job. I know they've got some bad press over the years. Especially the guy who led them, but George Tennant. No, no, he was the director, the guy who led this group. Oh.

But I mean, he was a workaholic guy, and he located him a few times and gave the policymakers an opportunity. Uh and you know political decisions were made to do it or not do it. Do you think Clinton did everything he could to get bin Laden? You know, I think it's important that people look at it. It is through the lens.

of the 9-11 not happening. Everything post 9-11 has a different feel to it.

So before 9-11 You know, he asked, look, do I want to send Marines in and lose 100 Marines for a guy that nobody knows or cares about? Obviously, he turned out to be an important person, but that's a decision he's got to make. Frank, it's been great to talk to you. Hopefully, we would do this again. The Daughters of 9-11 on CBS tonight at 9.

Frank Pellegrino, who interrogated and got a confession from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9-11 attacks as we sit here in Jersey City overlooking downtown New York City. Frank, great to see you. Great to be here. Thanks for everything you do. You bet.

Back in a moment. You're with Brian Kilmead. Yeah. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmead.

Hey, we just got a minute here. We're talking about this country. I have a book coming out that I think gets the spirit of 250. And we can't forget about 25 years since 9/11, but 250 is called Uniting the States. It comes out October 13th, the six crucial moments to forge the American Miracle.

I think you guys are really going to like it. We're going to have a special on it on Fox Nation. It's going to air on the Fox Channel too. Just go to BrianKilmey.com and also to see us live on stage. It's going to be streamed on Fox Nation as well.

Go to BrianKilmey.com for tickets. I'm going to be in New Jersey, New York, Jacksonville, and Clearwater. From the five Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmead.

Hi everyone, so glad you're here. It's a special day. 25 years since the 9-11 attacks. I'm in Jersey City. I don't know if you can, if you're listening in your car, you can't see, and if you're watching the stream, you can.

Behind me is this overlooking downtown New York City, which has really been transformed. It used to be the 5 o'clock. There'll be nobody here. Five a car cut a Friday, people are out of here because no one really lived downtown.

Now there's a lot of residents downtown. They really, that's part of the transformation. I think that's really the story in New York City overall because a lot of people are working in different places because they did this thing where hiring the worst politicians ever to jack up your taxes and not watch crime.

So you combine those two things and people say, I'm probably better off on my business elsewhere, especially with Tennessee, Texas, and Florida come calling. Frank Bizignano doesn't need any need me to do his math. He understands why sometimes in New York City people have not moved back and others have. He is the Commissioner of Social Security as well as Social Security, as well as You also have another title, and you're in charge of, is it Medicare? CEO of IRS.

Of IRS, that's right. What's more important? They're both. I mean, one is the revenue of the country, which is, you know, $5.4 trillion, 96% of the revenue. The other is paying out $1.7 trillion in retirement plus disability banks.

Which has got to be looked at quickly, yeah. And I'm quite positive that that will work out fine, like it always does.

So, Frank, on 9-11, 25 years ago, where were you? I was at 388 Greenwich Street, which is about five blocks. down from uh the World Trade Center site. I'm sat at the top floor. Uh my o my view was the towers, but Seven World Trade Center had 3,800 of our people in it.

It was about what company is this? This is uh I was the chief administrative officer and the head of ops and tech for all of Citigroup, the world's largest bank at the time, and that left us a big uh responsibility to keep funds flowing. Yeah. Uh I overseen it, so all of that, but more importantly, uh I owned everything from real estate to business resiliency.

So the idea that we were going to stay up and running to keep the funds flowing and keep the financial markets while getting 16,000 people who we had in Lower Manhattan to safety. Refresh our memory, how soon was the market open after the attack? The equity markets never opened that day. That was one of the things. I made an early call before the equity markets made the call because I saw the damage to building, the first building, and I saw the plane hit the second building.

And even though Dick Rosso hadn't yet called it, it was clear to me, I called over to Tom Jones, who ran our asset management company, was a wonderful executive. He had 3,800 people in 7 World Trade Center, which was the old Solomon. Brothers building that we took over when we bought Solomon and created Solomon Smith Barney. And Jones is like, I'm being told to stay in the building. I'm like, Tom, you need to get out of that building.

They said 93. Yeah, staying there. You need to get out of that. That building went down to the floor that day, right? And Tom, till today, and that crowd, you know, all got to safety.

They walked up past us and we got everybody up to 34th Street where our recovery command center was. We had built trading fors in Rutherford, New Jersey, so we'd be able to come up and trade. The government bond market was still. Trading, but no equities traded. But the next day, trading resumed, and the biggest thing that day was being able to have money flow.

You know, airlines were in trouble, there was a potential debt crisis going to happen for corporations, and we were the largest bank in the world. And with the leadership of Sandy Weill and Bob Druskin, who were my close partners, we managed through it. Right. I want you to hear Mark Waymohan, who's now running DHS, talks about what has happened, what he learned from that day, Cut Five. Keep in mind, 9-11 is a reason why DHS exists because we had siloed so many of these agencies that they were only looking at what they were looking at and they weren't looking at the whole picture.

DHS brought all those components together that's in charge of federal agencies that protect our homeland. We look at it the whole picture every single day and we're constantly fighting back the adversaries that are trying to harm the American people and our homeland. Mm-hmm.

So and that's what DHS was formed. And one thing that we learned is, and that we see it with Scott Besson now, if you want to stop terrorists, you can go find them, or you can find out where their money is. Oh, it's always important. How important was that? Finding the streams of money.

Well, it was usually important as today. And, you know, I mean, the Treasury Secretary is completely committed to it. The President. One thing about this administration is a good team, right? And you can't, and I worked in companies that were great teams, and I'd say we're a great team too.

You cannot succeed if all the parts don't work together. I mean, obviously, you know, IRS is integral. Just to, you know, there was a brown shooter, and ultimately we found out exactly where he was following the money trail.

So to his storage locker? Yes, exactly, because he bought it on a credit card. Yeah. And so, you know, we honored all those. Because they like to launch it through America.

Yeah. You would think they wouldn't take the risk, but we find the Iranians were using American banks, right? 100%. And, you know, I think, you know, both the OCC and the work of Treasury and OCC sits within there has done a great job in turning what we know about bad actors into stopping them. I mean, if you think about what the president's done here, if you think about what he's done to the border, what he's, and you talked about Mark Wayne Mullen, my dad, my dad spent 44 years in Treasury, but he would be.

In ICE today because he had retired before 9-11. But even there, they were highly focused on how to stop bad guys on the money and drugs coming into their country. Frank Bizignano runs Social Security. He also runs the IRS, and he played a big role in helping us rebuild afterwards.

So after these towers go down and we get the markets back up and they begin to clear out what was there, and we see what's there now. What role did you play in rebuilding New York, getting the plans together? And getting industry back?

Well, I think, first of all, the thing I saw Dick Grosso this morning, who was running the New York Stock Exchange, there, and Dickie and I had this thing. You know, the president was going to come down, and he did come down on that Friday. The event happened on Tuesday, the president was going to come back down there, and I got a message that we were going to open up the stock exchange because the president wanted to ring the opening bell. And my conclusion was that was going to be technically a high-risk transaction. Thousands of trading floor lines and many brokerage firms, whether it was Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Solomon Smith-Barney Citigroup, still weren't up and running on that Thursday.

And I just said, I called up and said, I think it's a bad idea. We got Verizon, AT, and T on the phone, and they agreed. And that was the beginning of the rebuild, actually. Getting the infrastructure. And, you know, like I like to say, is I never Left.

You know, I was standing at the memorial this morning. I like to say to people, you know, and I was down, you know, I never left.

So I say I've been there for 25 years, right? I was there on the first 9-11 roll call of names when nothing was there. I was a founding member of the memorial and museum. We made conclusions about bringing business back to Lower Manhattan. I actually had bought an apartment in Lower Manhattan.

I was so committed to Lower Manhattan and the growth of it. And, you know, businesses came back. We had to get our buildings in acceptable shape. I'll never forget getting bomb-sniffing dogs, machines to check everybody when they came in at three, and all our buildings because people were scared. And there were other plots.

Yeah. We just stopped them.

So our job as business leaders. Is to, especially when you're running the largest financial institution in America, is to keep the funds flowing, bring peace, bring calm. And work with government. Yeah. Right?

Are you feeling okay? Are you feeling from the air that you have?

Well, you know, I had throat cancer ten years later, ten years later. And I like to say I was blessed to it. It brought clarity to my life. I had a six-month-old son at the time. And you want to have clarity in your life, learn that you got cancer.

But I was at J.P. Morgan at the time, and I worked every day when he got ready. And you're convinced it came from World Trade? Yeah. Yeah.

So the doctors, you know, they ask you all these questions and then they say, where are we on 9-11? I said, I was downtown, and how close?

Well, I never left. You know, I was down, you know, going back and forth to Wall Street. Even when I had gone home to New Jersey. I drive in every day. You know, I was a different first responder.

I had access to get Internet Allen Tunnel. I was a technical leader, first responder. Interesting.

So, Frank, on your other job, balancing the budget, the president came out and he said, Hey, I think we're going to get, if I can get the House and Senate, I want to find $5,000 for everybody.

So, you must have flipped out because you're trying to balance the budget. We got $5.4 trillion coming in. That's a 7% increase from the previous year, is that correct? It's an increase.

So, I asked Howard Luttnick yesterday afterwards. He said that. And he told me his whole story, and that's been on. It's going to be, by the way, if you want to hear the whole Howard Luttnick interview, it is on our YouTube page, youtube.com at the Brian Kilmey Show. We were down there 9-11.

We saw all his 694 people, their names, that lost their lives that day, including his younger brother. But I said, Howard, we just moved to a different location. I said, just about, can we talk a little bit? That news, and I he said yes. And here's what I asked him about where the five thousand dollars come from.

He said this, Cut 19. The president is not going to use taxpayer money for that. The key is the president is the businessman in chief. I mean, you know, you got the greatest businessman in the Oval Office, he's got me as his commerce secretary, and we're going to go earn that money not from taxpayers.

Okay. And we're going to make that payment. And an example would be the platinum card. Right, you pay five million dollars and you stay a little longer under your visa, you stay up to 270 days, but the same visa. You had 200,000 people, 5 million each.

That's a trillion dollars. That makes that payment, not from taxpayers. And that's what makes President Trump special.

So do you think that could happen? Is that a wave to generate that? I think there's a huge. Opportunities and Howard's a good partner. He's a great executive, been a friend before, is a friend now.

But I'd say the pies are all there, right? Like, we are making a lot of progress on so many fronts. You know, look at what we did during this Working Families Tax Cut Act and our ability to deliver a better product for America through that. What we're doing right now in Trump accounts, right? I oversee the Trump accounts.

You know, we have 7 million Trump accounts opened up already. We're going to have 70 million. And so, why am I veering to this when you're asking me this question? We have a very large organization that has lots of sources and uses of funds, and it doesn't have to be on the taxpayers' back. Exactly.

Back in a moment, one with Frank. Oh, you can stick around? Yeah. Yeah, more with Frank Bizignano. We go about his reflections on 9-11, talk about what we're doing now in stopping Iran, stopping their finances, as well as how about this thing, fixing Social Security.

Both sides have to understand we got to fix that together, and Frank's in charge. Don't move. 25 years later, and we will never forget remembering 9-11 on the Brian Kill Meat Show. Yeah. Information you want, truth you demand.

This is the Brian Kill Me Show.

How surprised were you that the Canadian deal didn't get across the finish line and what happened made no sense to me? We had come to a deal. The president spoke to Prime Minister Carney and they sorted out the final details and then the president truthed out we have a deal and we were just writing up the finer points and we had to get it done by sort of the end of the day Friday. and Friday at 4 o'clock. They start changing things, coming up with all sorts of Stuff that made no sense.

So I said to my counterpart, Are you trying to blow this up? He says, I'm not allowed to say that.

So And then the deal just died. Yeah. So Howard Ludnick yesterday, I had to ask him some other questions regarding we talked about 9-11, Canon Fitzgerald losing his guys, and that's I've mentioned on YouTube. But Frank Pizzignano is with us right now and he's running the IRS. He's running Social Security.

And he went on to say, Howard, that Carney has called the President since. Would it help to get that deal back on track?

Well, you know, I think the country is blessed. to have President Trump. I mean, there is no better deal maker in the world than President Trump. He's got 20 trade deals already. Yeah, I mean he's, but like, it's instinctive for him, it's natural for him, he knows exactly what to do.

And I'm positive that like all the other things, he will get a great deal done if there's a deal to be done. But it will only be a great deal that he would want for the country. Inflation figures came in, it's up. Yeah. Market doesn't like that.

It looks like rates are going to go up too. What could you do?

Well, I think the uh things we can do Are continue to run the country really, really well, right? Like the most important thing in anything you have is to have it work really, really well, get good economic outcomes by doing the job, right?

So, you know, in my case, that means. You know, the objective will be to collect more dollars in tax season. We have opportunity there to do a better job while providing much better service to the American public at a lower cost. And then in Social Security, you know, we've kind of crushed it. We went from a crowd that had more people and took longer to serve the client.

We've given hundreds of millions of hours and minutes back to the American public, serving them better. You know, I think it was taking 40 minutes to answer the phone, and probably this week it took less than three minutes.

So all those things are serving, you know, we have to serve the country well. And that does mean also ensuring we collect all the money we should. It can be done with good service and good use of technology. The IRS can be thought of very highly, in my opinion. Revenue is up since the big beautiful bill passed.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I mean understand that uh We also, you know. Put The largest refunds in the history of the country in people's hands that stimulated an economy, also. You know, that tax act really was a Working Families Tax Act, led by the president and getting Congress to go along with them.

And I think Americans really felt it, and you saw it in spending numbers. The Doge. I know you kind of did Doge to your own apartment, but did Doge help overall in changing systems?

Well, you can't change systems that fast, you know. I mean, I think, I think, look at, you know, I was asked on my last earnings call how I was going to work with Doge when I was on TV, and I said, Well, of course, I'll work with them if they can be helpful. I said, But you know, I think I am my whole career Doge. It's gonna take a little bit. Yeah, Frank Bizziano, thanks so much.

Appreciate your reflections. More in just a moment. You're listening to Brian Kill Me Chill. Thanks so much for being here. Show that's getting you talking.

You're with Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back and it's a big day, 9-11, looking back 25 years later. And the one thing that's come out of it that is so prideful is if you go to the 9-11 Museum and you see the memorial and you see all those things that are there, they remind everybody of those days and knowing how many school kids and tourists come down and say, I gotta go see this. And they did such a fantastic job. It needs constant financing and attendance.

Joe Daniels knows all about it. He's the former president and CEO of the National September 11th Memorial Museum and a crisis leadership expert. He led the transformation of the eight acres of Ground Zero. And his vision was fantastic, and it really paid off. Here's my interview with Joe Daniels.

Joseph, you there from the time it was the hole in the ground after the 9-11 attacks, the rebuild seemed to be the number one story. What was taking so long at the same time to know the footprints would eventually be a memorial? Can you talk about that process and where we're at today? Yeah, I just first want to say my 9-11 story preceded my involvement with the project. I happened to be there right outside the North Tower on 9-11.

I used to go to work at American Express every day. I took the E-Train down that morning. I was going to go see a Yankee game that night with my wife, so I was a little bit late. I remember emerging out of the subway, up the stairwell, and there's just a whole line of people looking up at the North Tower. And at that point, We just saw a hole in the building and smoke pouring out.

It seemed comprehensible. Maybe two minutes later, of all of us staring up, I see the first person jump from the building. And then the second person. And at that moment, it turned to absolutely incomprehensible thinking about people a thousand feet up, a hundred stories, feeling like they had to leap out of a building. And then a couple minutes later, of course.

United 175 slams into the South Tower. It was dead quiet for a second as light travels faster than sound. And then this roar just rips through lower Manhattan. Everyone started running. I lived in the village at the time, so I'm heading north towards Washington Square Park.

And I remember a group of older women stopped me and they grabbed my arm and they said, Did you hear? Did you hear the Pentagon's been attacked?

So having not seen this through media at all, right, I'm at the World Trade Center, they're telling me the Pentagon's been attacked. It felt like this generalized attack against our nation. And so after that experience, I knew that I wanted to do something to be involved in the project. I felt my dominant emotions were. Sadness and anger.

Like, how could they do this to us? You know, they attacked the most diverse city. in the United States, in the world. With At our symbol of economic, of who we are, the American dream, the Twin Towers. 92 nations, there were people from 92 nations that lost people that day.

And so, this attack made me want to get involved. I was lucky enough when they created the foundation. There was actually a president there before me, and she hired me as the general counsel. And about eight months into it, you remember it was just a mess down there. The headlines, mess at ground zero, a lot of controversy.

The first president moved on. It was sort of a battlefield promotion. I became acting president. I remember thinking if I could just keep this on my resume for a couple of weeks, it'd be great for my career. And then our Chairman John Whitehead stepped back.

Mike Bloomberg, who was of course the mayor at the time, became chair. Interviewed a whole bunch of people, but he doesn't care if you're nine or 90 years old. He gave me the job in October 2006 and it's like, Joe, I'm going to take a chance on you. Permanent job. I said, Thank you, sir.

He said, One more thing, don't F it up. And it was an experience of a lifetime being there.

So, what was your approach to doing it? Because we know the towers are built, they look like the tower is built, it looks like he's been there forever, but it had to be moved over, right? Yes, the Freedom Tower One World Trade Center went through a lot of changes, security reasons, went through a lot of changes. But our area was the eight acres and the footprints where the actual memorial, I mean, where the actual Twin Towers stood. And our general approach, I mean, look, there were so many controversies, some of them kind of wacky and some of them very emotional for the families.

Initially, the memorial was going to be underground. And there were family members that, you know, cried out that they didn't want to have to go underground to see the names. The names were brought up, which was an incredibly prescient move given how 2,983 names, which includes the six victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. But our general approach was. Build a memorial, which is It still to this day brings a lot of emotion out of people.

You're standing there in front of the names, you have this sound of the waterfalls, and it's just this peaceful reflection time. With the museum, it was a totally different approach. We knew, as we sit here today, that there were going to be. Lots of people born after the event. A third of New Yorkers now didn't weren't alive on 9-11.

So we wanted to take a very first person emotionally engaged with the visitors so that it would leave a mark on them. And when you talk to them today, they feel that. They experience, they see the names, the monumental artifacts, the fire truck smashed. And they also see these personal mementos, the wallets that were found. And it still works.

It's not enough, though, but we're so glad that so many people still go there. Joe Daniels is our guest. He's a former president and CEO of the National September 11th Memorial Museum. And Joe also reflecting back on that day as we have our special coverage 25 years since the attacks.

So when did you decide what it should be like? And so interactive as it is, right? The voices, the contacts, because some of it might be personal.

Some of the families, did they push back and say, listen, I don't want my husband or wife's voice to be on there?

Well, as far as the voices, we always got permission from families. Did some say no? There are some voicemails and calls from within the towers that. In concert with families, we decided not to include because They're they're too awful. I mean, people that Argument.

Feeling the actual heat from the fires, they know that they're going to die. and they're having these conversations or leaving voicemails, that's too much. For some of them. But as far as content in the museum, yeah, like one thing that caught me off guard at first, I remember I gave an update on the museum, I think it was in 2009, and a reporter asked me, you know, are you going to show the terrorists at Ground Zero? And my immediate answer was, yeah, of course we are.

You don't build a Holocaust museum and not show that the Nazis did it. But then the families, some of the families came to us, and it had changed my perspective, or at least widened it. And they said, look. 1,100 families, even to this day, never got any human remains of their loved ones. Ground zero, the foundation of the museum, that is sacred ground.

And maybe a family doesn't want to be there and see Muhammad Atta or bin Laden. But ultimately, we engaged the 12 family members on the board, and the educational aspect was just too important.

So we did it, you know, in the right way. We needed to show who did this to us. Yeah, so how many years did it take to put this together?

Well, that's one of the biggest misnomers. I mean, you lived through it, I lived through it, was this, what is taking so long? The fact that we opened a memorial exactly to the day 10 years after the event is unprecedented in American history. I mean, look at the Vietnam Memorial. It took 25, 30 years from the first time.

Oklahoma City, like this was 10 years, but for New Yorkers, it was a wound in the middle of the city.

So I understand the question of like, when's it going to get done? Why is it taking so long? But 10 years to build something of this scale. We ended up being really proud of it. And so to be funded, you need to have people go.

So how do you do that?

Well, it's interesting.

Well, first of all, of course, the building of the Memorial Museum, we got some government support. President Bush authorized $250 million. The state of New York gave us $80 million. And then we fundraised from so many individuals and companies actually that, of course, lost people down there. And today, though, they do rely on ticket sales.

The reason why it still works, I mean, think about this. The Statue of Liberty doesn't change. Yet they get 4 million visitors each year. We have a big enough country, and New York is such a draw for international visitors. It's become something that you just have to go to.

And so I know, especially in the year of the 25th anniversary, that things are going well and a lot of people are coming.

So, Joe Daniels, obviously, is passionate about what he's doing. I want to talk a little bit more about him, what he feels 25 years later, and how we keep that spirit going with or without tunnel for towers and others as the families continue to make this day special. More with Joe Daniels in a moment. You're listening to a special edition of the Brian Kilmeat Show on location just overlooking. The attacks on 9-11, where the World Trade Center once stood.

Do Don't go anywhere. Brian Kilmead will be right back. Yeah. Oh, busy, he'll make your hat spin. It's Brian Killmead.

Hi everyone, welcome back. I saw more of my interview with Joe Daniels. You were able to catch up with him earlier because I thought it would be so appropriate to talk to the former president and CEO of the 9-11 Memorial Museum.

Now I'm talking to him in this part, keeping it very simple: how they laid out the whole thing with so many artifacts and so many personal stories. How do you do it? How do you keep it fresh?

Well, always remember. What happened 25 years ago? Let's listen. Do you find that this has been people punching this ticket when they come to New York as tourists? 100%.

I mean, it's become, if you haven't, I mean, look, 9-11, they say, was witnessed by somewhere up to 2 billion people as it was happening.

So if you're in Bali or some nation very far away and you have your chance to come to New York and go to the very site. Where this, the, you know, the this happened, it's a must-do. And of course, we can't ever forget the Flight 77. Crashing into the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Shanksville, but this is New York City. This is a destination in and of itself, and people feel like.

I can't go to the city without going to the city. Yeah, I've been to been to Shanksville. It's pretty they did a fantastic job too. But that's in the middle of nowhere. You can build whatever you want.

There's not going to be pressure from the outgoing. There's woods around it. There's a small school there. Thankfully, they didn't hit it. But you guys had to go by regulation.

At the same time, they're trying to rebuild a tower.

So, you're trying to get the memorial going, and they're trying to get a first renderings that are going to be approved to have a tower that's 1,776 feet high.

So, what do we see in the memorial for people who haven't been there yet?

So, in the museum, there's essentially you can break it into two different parts. One is about the individuals, the 2,977 people that died that day. We have on the south footprint in the museum, an image of every one of those. People that were murdered that day. You have the personal reflections where you hear the voices of the individuals whose family wanted to contribute things.

You see wedding photographs. You hear the families reflecting on their love for those that were killed. And then on the north footprint is what we call the primary exhibition. You walk through, starting with the news breaking. You know, you hear the radio, you hear the TV coverage as anchors are hearing in their earpieces, there's something going on at the World Trade Center.

And this wasn't my experience, as I said, since my experience wasn't through media, but you know, it starts with a small plane may have hit the towers. And then, of course, as the eyes of the world start training on the World Trade Center, most people didn't see Flight 11 hit the North Tower the first plane, but by the time United 175, everybody was watching this. And as a New Yorker, it was It wasn't it was devastating, but Literally, in the hours, days, weeks after, there was this incredible. Oh my god. Expression of humanity as complete strangers came together.

Across every line of division, race. Political stripe, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, to support one another. Standing on the West Side Highway, I remember cheering on the first responder vehicles. President Bush's visit, it was a Complete outpouring of put everything else aside. At base, we are all Americans, and America was attacked.

So you feel like we have changed dramatically since then?

Well, I'm concerned about it. I mean, I think you look at recent July 4th holidays, questions about what does the flag stand for. It's idiotic. It's idiotic, and we need to recapture. A sense of being an American.

I mean, think about this. You know, there's a debate about the expansion of the socialists in this country, but at base, The American dream, right? The American ideals is that an individual, a family can come here, work there intensely, and improve economically. That is capitalism, free market, opportunity, not outcomes. Absolutely.

Equality of opportunity, and of course, safe regulation, trying to make everything, the opportunity side fair. But the more we drift from that, we're literally drifting from one of the absolute core pillars of America. And it concerns me now. Hopefully, the pendulum is going to swing back. But individuals and families and companies have a responsibility to not only embrace patriotism, but make sure that the tent of patriotism is wide enough because America was also founded on heated debate that is part of our country.

It's supposed to be that way. Absolutely. But at base, it is we are Americans. We have an attachment to the ideals of the founding fathers, free speech. Free press, exercising religion.

And being an American together. 9-11 was the best, post-9-11 was the best example of that. 25 years later, I hope this anniversary, as the world watches, can re or America watches can rekindle just a bit of that patriotism and build from that. And in the 30 seconds we have left, you know what helped? The World Cup.

to have other people come to America and go, wow, this place is great. Because it's hard.

Sometimes people come over to your house and you go, Wow. You really like my house that much? I had no idea. You take for granted your house. You know, different things, the size of your rooms, the size of your backyard.

Well, you kind of took it for granted.

Sometimes you need people to see, you need to see America through their eyes. I love that. I mean, there's so many TikToks and Instagram and reels of just what you said. And they come in and they're shocked because whatever they're hearing when they're in their home countries turned out to be so different than the reality. Just the kindness of Americans, the fun of Americans.

It was the best part of the World Cup. And 25 years later, we will not forget, and Joe Daniels lasted too, and no one's going to forget because of what you did as the former president, maybe the first, and CEO of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum and a crisis leadership expert. Joe, thanks so much. Thanks so much, Brian.

So it was just great. It's been a fantastic show to be on three hours in Fox and Friends and to overlook where the World Trade Center once stood and see the rebuild is somewhat heartening. But it's also great to get a perspective and know that American people have not forgotten about 9-11. As you know, and I've mentioned it before on the air, that I was on the air, and I did go down. And I did see it up close.

It did go down many times after.

So you don't have to convince me that it was a Titanic event in my history and in American history. I just hope other people get that understanding too. You can't fault the Memorial. The Memorial is just fantastic. They did a great job remembering what happened on that day.

And the voices and everything seems real. It almost seems like yesterday. And I just got a salute in Police Commissioner Jessica Tish. When she comes out and says this week that there's got to be a moral clarity, understand who the good guys were. If you want in there to save people, you're a hero.

If you attacked and hijacked that plane and supported the people that did it, you are a terrorist. And I remember the Palestinians celebrating that day. The video still exists. These people chanting Palestine forever and river to the sea. Take a look at that.

Don't tell me you're pro-American. And you're going to look at that footage and say, yeah, I really, my heart goes out to the Palestinians. You know exactly how they feel about us and how they feel about women.

So on this day, when we're marking this year, they're marking 250 years of America's history. We cannot forget about that 25 years when on 9-11, everything changed, just like predicted. It'd take a while. But also, give credit to the men and women who took out al-Qaeda, the first two generations, three generations and more. And every time they popped up, they got whacked.

because our guys were better and no attack happened in here because our people were better. All right, don't forget One Nation Sunday at 10 p.m. We got a great show coming your way only on Fox News Channel.