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*** Gephardt was the Minority Leader at that point, we were in the minority.
And this was in the Capitol building, it was in his back office.
And there were about 20 of us, give or take a few, and this was people in leadership,
committee chairs, and committee ranking members.
And my recollection is that we were talking about budgetary issues, it may have been something else.
And we were all seated around the table, we'd been in there probably for about 30 minutes,
and someone from Congressman Gephardt's staff came in.
First, I think they passed him a note, and then either he or they said,
because there was a TV in the room said you should turn on the TV and look what's going on.
So we turned on the TV, and there was the report of the first plane having hit
the World Trade Center in New York, and then shortly thereafter,
there was the report of the second plane having hit it.
And we all just kind of sat around stunned, and really didn’t know what to make of it.
And shortly thereafter, and I don’t remember the exact time, but shortly thereafter,
Sharon Daniels, who is, who was Gephardt's executive assistant, and personal secretary,
came into the room, threw open the door, and said, “You guys need to get the hell out of here!”
And we all just kind of looked at each other, and we said, and,
and either Gephardt or someone said, “Well—that's right, we'd better get out of the building.”
And so we all left. We all walked out the door, and headed back to various places.
I headed back to my office in the Rayburn Building.
As it turned out, of course, we now know that the fourth plane,
and the one that crashed in Pennsylvania, was headed towards Washington, D.C.,
either toward the Capitol or toward the White House.
Most people think it probably was headed toward the Capitol.
And the exact time sequence is a little hazy,
but my recollection is that this was about somewhere around 10:00.
It could have been, give or take 15 minutes. And had that plane taken off on time from Newark,
it was delayed about 45 minutes because of air control issues, had it taken off on time,
it would not, of course, not have been brought down by the passengers, because they would not have
heard about the hit—they would not have gotten the word about the rest of the attacks.
And it would have, in fact, come to Washington, D.C.,
and probably would have crashed into the Capitol.
Had we still been in the Capitol at the time that plane would have hit,
a bunch of us would have been killed. It's that simple.