Andy Card, who served as chief of staff to President George W. Bush, told CNBC a lesser-known phone call made shortly after whispering to the president that the nation had been attacked by terrorists on the morning of 9/11. of 2001.
“Something a lot of people don’t realize, he called President Putin, one of the first calls he made from Air Force One,” Card said during an interview Friday night on “The News with Shepard Smith.” .
“He said,‘ I don’t think we’re going to war with you, I don’t want you to do anything stupid there. We will be transparent, this is also a problem for you, we can “not allow terrorism to persist.”
Card explained to host Shepard Smith that the Bush administration was paranoid about another attack and pledged to get to the bottom of the attacks that killed 2,977 people that day.
At 8:30 p.m. ET on Sept. 11, Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office and uttered a line that changed the course of history: “We will not distinguish between terrorists who go to commit these acts and those who host them “.
Card recalled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s reaction to Bush’s speech: “Saddam Hussein said I offer a reward of $ 2,000 for every family of a suicide bomber.”
Card added: “The president did not want to go to war in Iraq.” Rather, Card said, the war in Iraq was “more about” Hussein’s inability to deliver on his promises when the Gulf War ended.
“… The UN passed 16 resolutions calling for Saddam Hussein to do things, and many of them came from the agreement reached when the first Gulf War ended and he did not fulfill any of those commitments,” he said. Card.