Harriet Miers played three key roles in the George W. Bush administration. She served as White House staff secretary from 2001 to 2003, White House deputy chief of staff for policy from 2003 until 2005, and White House counsel from 2005 to 2007. 

She recorded her oral history for the Miller Center on January 31 and February 1, 2013, and was interviewed by the Center's Barbara Perry and Russell Riley.

Read Harriet Miers' complete oral history interview

 

Harriet Miers

We were in Florida, so it was out of the White House for the night and I was along. The day couldn't have been brighter, the surroundings were beautiful, everything was happy. You had little kids and the President was reading with them. It was one of those days when things were really lovely. We were back in the area where all of the TV cameras are, the monitors, not the actual—

Barbara Perry

This was at the school.

Miers

This was at the school, yes. He had entered the classroom and was reading, and of course the monitors started flashing the news that a small plane had hit one of the towers. We all thought it was an accident at first, we just thought it was an accident, and we thought it was a small plane. That triggers a whole lot of action in the White House and on the road, because it is the White House.

You are seeing and hearing and realizing that events are occurring that are so horrific that you can't really contemplate that they would happen

We started to figure--Oh my goodness, we're going to have to make a statement. We've got to get all the facts. Who are we going to call? All of that so we could put the President in a position, if he needed to, of saying, "This is a very tragic incident and we're sorry and our heart goes out and we'll do whatever we need to do." That's our mindset for the next few seconds or minutes until the second plane hits and then we know this is not an accident and it's not a small plane, and the horror of it was just emerging and you're overwhelmed, really. Truth be known, you are seeing and hearing and realizing that events are occurring that are so horrific that you can't really contemplate that they would happen, like people jumping out of the sides of buildings to keep themselves from being burned to death. It was just massively awful.

The first concern was not to scare the kids, and so we had to figure out--Really, Andy, I should say, had to figure out how was he going to convey to the President as quickly as possible what was happening that he needed to know about but not react to. Have you done Andy?

Russell Riley

Not yet, no.

Miers

Andy figured out some way and he had enough experience that he could react to that situation. The experience factor here was huge because he knew he didn't want the President going like that, which would be on camera, and he didn't want him to have to answer anything, which would not be good. So he figured out some way to say to the President, "The nation is under attack," where he could just hear it, take it in, keep doing what he was doing, and then get finished, which he did of course, and as we know was criticized for. But he made the decision to finish, adjourn, let the kids disburse, and then make his statement. He went from the classroom into the room where he wrote out his notes about what he was going to say and got as much information as he could get and then made his remarks.

He wanted very much to go immediately back to the White House, as it's been reported. That certainly was true at every moment of the day, but they told him he couldn't. They were communicating, assembling all the staff at the White House, assembling the Congressional people, making sure everybody was where they knew they were there and not in harm's way, and they of course got Mrs. Bush and then they were tracking down the girls, the family. He made his remarks and we all got on Air Force One. The President dismissed from the plane anyone that he didn't want to put in harm's way, as I understand it. I didn't hear this. For example, Blake, who was young. He didn't think he needed to be involved in all this.

So we all got on Air Force One and headed to Barksdale, where they knew there was already a security situation there where we could land, and he started preparing his next set of remarks. Those were more expansive than the initial remarks and he was getting more information as we were flying, of course. We were getting as much information as we could get, although the information available was scanty, coming in kind of sporadically. We heard things about the State Department being bombed and all this other information that really hadn't happened. Somebody just thought they saw that. We did hear about the Pentagon, of course, which was massively significant. Secretary Mineta started landing all of the airplanes. We learned about Flight 93.

Perry

Did you hear about the White House being evacuated and the possibility that there was a flight headed toward the White House?

Miers

Yes, we did.

Perry

Were you with the President throughout this time on Air Force One?

Miers

Yes.

Perry

How was he reacting to this news?

Miers

I wasn't with him all the time, of course, but he was in fact-gathering mode, and we were in the process of trying to prepare his remarks for when he landed in Barksdale. Again, I hate to harp about the equipment, but I couldn't get his speech printed because the printer wouldn't work, so this is a bit of levity in the middle of a pretty difficult situation. As we were landing, I finally got the speech printed and literally grabbed it off the printer, went running out of the office because I knew he needed them. We were about to land. He's supposed to go give this speech.

I ran out of the office and started running down the hall to the President's office and he was coming the other direction and I almost ran into him. I didn't know what to say except hand him the cards. I remember that very distinctly. He took them and didn't say anything, other than, "Good hustle." Then he went off to go make the speech, and I guess from there we were going to Nebraska, because there hadn't been any location where the kind of communication that needed to happen, the most significant could occur, because the security wasn't there. So we went to Nebraska, to that underground bunker where that kind of security existed, which at least I never knew before.

The behavior of the people involved on the aircraft was amazing. The military officer, I mean no one—no, there was one person that sort of lost their cool and used a curse word and was a little bit exaggerated.

Perry

In anger or upset?

Miers

No, in just sort of being official. The person didn't mean anything by it, they were just reacting to the situation that way, but everybody else—the president was calm, trying to reassure the rest of the folks. We were told not to use our cell phones because they were concerned that our cell phones could be tracked. It wasn't until we landed somewhere that we were able to call and let people know that we were OK.

The effort was just to find out who did this and how did they do it and what do we know about it and who all is still in danger, so bringing all the planes down was a huge part of just making sure there weren't any other planes that were either unaccounted for or still in the sky. But that didn't mean that they weren't going to do something else. We had no idea whether there would be a staged--If first it was the planes, then it was bombs and what. Of course they did not manifest themselves, so this turned out to be the isolated instances that it was. I know there was a great sense, at least I had it and I assume others did, of vulnerability, that you just don't think it's possible that the United States can be attacked like this, but there was a great sense of vulnerability that we can be and we have been.

Going back a little bit, the first was just the airplane going into the building, and then of course there is the meltdown of the building, which no one anticipated until it happened, so that horror and the realization of what that meant. It was just one horrible thing right after the other. I certainly never saw the President lose his temper or act out in any way. I was very impressed with the young military officer who carries "the football." He was just no-nonsense, get it done. You couldn't tell it was any other day, you know? He was very impressive in terms of coordination and getting the plane where it needed to be and all that kind of stuff.

I don't know what else about that day would be helpful to know. We finally were given clearance to go back to the White House, and he was going to make a speech again, which means we were then working on that speech. We kept having things to do.

It was my responsibility to make sure that everything that was said was consistent with his past statements and that there wasn't anything said that didn't have a factual and identifiable basis for it being said

Riley

When you're seeing these speeches, do you just have a ministerial function, or do you contribute to text if you have an idea?

Miers

I could offer ideas, and from time to time would have suggested things. That wasn't my principal role, but it was my responsibility to make sure that everything that was said was consistent with his past statements and that there wasn't anything said that didn't have a factual and identifiable basis for it being said. If it sounded like it could be misconstrued, or if you say this, you know it might sound like you're saying this, do you mean this or is this the right word? Do you want to mention this? That sort of thing. Of course you had that sort of opportunity and interplay.

Riley

I think there was a White House meeting that night?

Miers

I don't remember that, Russell.

Riley

Maybe not, maybe not. Maybe the next morning?

Miers

I don't remember that either. I'm sure we had one at 7:30 in the morning, but I don't remember a special meeting. We did have a lot of trauma in the White House staff and that was definitely--There was a lot of trauma.

Perry

So when you arrive back in Washington, did you go to the White House with the President and go to your office? Were you allowed to go to your office?

Miers

Oh, yes.

Perry

And staff--Had they been allowed back in after the evacuation? Did you have your staff there?

Miers

I don't remember how much staff was there. I would have had at least an administrative person there. I don't remember whether my deputy was there or not, but I would have--When you're on Air Force One, you land at Andrews. The President took off in the helicopter, which gets him to the White House sooner, and the rest of us all went in vans. I don't know who went with the President. I'm sure Andy did, but he needed to get there sooner, so he gets there first.

Perry

Where did you watch the President's address?

Miers

I would assume I was close by, but I don't really remember.

Perry

A blur.

Miers

As I recall he did it in the Oval Office, so I was probably around the periphery somewhere.