On Hardball, Chuck Todd repeatedly claimed Giuliani "owns 9-11"
While discussing the recent Fox News-sponsored Republican presidential debate on the May 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, NBC News political director Chuck Todd repeatedly asserted -- three times during the course of his appearance -- that Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani "owns 9-11."
But two days earlier, The New York Times had reported numerous flaws in the Giuliani administration's approach to the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. The administration's handling of environmental concerns during the cleanup at Ground Zero has led to health problems for thousands of first responders, according to the Times, some of whom are suing the city for damages. The Times reported:
Administration documents and thousands of pages of legal testimony filed in a lawsuit against New York City, along with more than two dozen interviews with people involved in the events of the last four months of Mr. Giuliani's administration, show that while the city had a safety plan for workers, it never meaningfully enforced federal requirements that those at the site wear respirators.
At the same time, the administration warned companies working on the pile that they would face penalties or be fired if work slowed. And according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers.
"The city ran a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns," said David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group.
City officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace. More than 2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory problems. Seventy percent of nearly 10,000 recovery workers screened at Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing. City officials estimate that health care costs related to the air at ground zero have already run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows whether other illnesses, like cancers, will emerge.
Additionally, as Media Matters for America has noted, in their book, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (HarperCollins, August 2006), authors Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins cited what they said were Giuliani's terrorism-related failures before, during, and after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For instance, they wrote that "[e]veryone agrees that a critical problem that day was that the police and fire departments could not communicate; that's one of the reasons the lack of interoperable radios became such a focus of fury" (Page 343). Indeed, on 9-11, the New York fire department was using outdated VHF radios that were incompatible with the police department's UHF radios.
As Media Matters has also noted, a March 15 Cox News Service article reported: "As revered as he is by many for his efforts after the attacks, Giuliani is reviled by some firefighters who believe he mishandled the development of a radio system that could have saved lives on 9/11 and turned his back on first responders' remains in the rubble." A March 30 Associated Press article further noted criticisms by the International Association of Fire Fighters and by Sally Regenhard, chairwoman of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign and mother of a firefighter killed on 9-11. The AP noted that the Giuliani "administration's failure to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios [is] a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center."
Yet, on Hardball and in other MSNBC appearances, host Chris Matthews has repeatedly ignored these reported failures in favor of, as Media Matters has noted, repeatedly reinforcing the notion of Giuliani's purported heroism on the day of the attacks, calling him a "hero," "gutsy," and "tough."
From the May 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball:
GIULIANI [video clip]: Wendell, may I make a comment on that?
That's really an extraordinary statement. That's an extraordinary statement -- as someone who lived through the attack of September 11 -- that we invited the attack, because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11.
MATTHEWS: Well, just in political terms -- and I mean crass political terms -- that was a big moment for Rudy, wasn't it, Jonathan?
JONATHAN CAPEHART (Washington Post editorial member): A big moment -- a home run for Rudy. There's no denying it.
And I knew that what Rudy was saying was heartfelt, and he meant it, because, when you look at his eyes, you've never seen him more serious, more focused. Those -- his pupils were the size of laser beams. He was upset. He was angry. And I think he tapped into, not only the mood of the crowd, but also the mood of the country, in a sense.
MATTHEWS: I think you're right. Chuck?
TODD: He stole the debate from McCain. You know, McCain was on his way to basically winning this debate. I think he was on his way. And maybe on points, if you were scoring like a boxing match --
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
TODD: -- McCain would have won. But it became the moment. It's the one thing this debate will definitely be remembered of. And, you know, he owns 9-11.
MATTHEWS: Ron Paul has a big problem, by the way. I do think we've got to understand the simmering hatred and the hostility -- the sea of hostility over there that allows so many people to commit suicide to kill us, and including the ones who, at 9-11, they flew into those buildings squealing with delight as they killed themselves.
But, you can't say it's because we put troops in Iraq, over the fly -- no-fly zone, because they tried to blow up that same building back in '93, before all these skirmishes over the no-fly zone. You can't say that particular argument. Chuck, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
TODD: No, no, no, it's fine. I mean, I just think -- look, it -- Rudy, he owns 9-11, and he just proved it. The way John McCain has the high ground on torture, and there's no way anybody can question his opinion on the issue --
MATTHEWS: I know.
TODD: -- Rudy owns 9-11, and there's nobody on that stage -- you know what struck me the most after that exchange? You know, they gave -- they gave Paul a chance to respond to Rudy.
And, then, remember when, like, six of them glommed, and they were like, "Ooh, ooh, me, me, please, let me try."
MATTHEWS: [inaudible] "I want a piece of this guy" -- yeah.
TODD: It was pathetic.
MATTHEWS: It reminds me of the old days of the Philadelphia Phillies when Robin Roberts would serve up those gopher pitches, you know, right over the middle, high and fast.
TODD: Oh, right.
MATTHEWS: And Rudy hit that baby right over centerfield wall, and that's what politics is. It's opportunity. It's exploitation --
TODD: He seized it.
MATTHEWS: -- and it's luck. Anyway, thank --
TODD: It's a Reagan microphone moment.
All this Guiliani hysteria over his 9/11 performance by this website is bordering on obsession, in my opinion, 9/11 by itself will not win or lose Guiliani anything next year. I know he wants to make 9/11 the connection to his stance on fighting terrorism, that's his strategy in chief..........but it's going to take more than that.
"All this Guiliani hysteria over his 9/11 performance by this website is bordering on obsession"
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Your hysteria over this site and your incessant whining about it has been nothing but obsession for quite a long time.
What are facts when compared to perception?
Stay on top of theses S.O.B.s.
It's really too bad that investigative journalism is in such a state of disrepair and that sensational, shallow reporting has taken its place.
Any cursory glance at the facts here shows a lack of action by Rudy before 9/11, simply normal responses during the attack and its immediate aftermath - what any Mayor of NYC would have done, and a gross dereliction of duty after the event in regards to the health of the workers at ground zero.
He became a hero because he was there. That's not a lifelong pass on being held responsible for what he did or didn't do, but apparently with our current news media, it is.
This is not investigative journalism by any means. It's a political chat show with pundits offering up their opinions. MMFA doesn't like the opinion and that's why it's here.
You're absolutely right that rudy's relationship to the attacks of September 11, 2001 has ZERO relationship to any security issue at all, and has NOTHING to do with preventing or fighting or getting (or even attempting to get) JUSTICE for those attacks... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
All of these "media" hacks who are presently working overtime at spinning rudy as 'heroic' and a 'combat veteran' and as having National Security and 'anti-terror' credentials, they're all just howling into the wind.
Truly, it's a 100% false perception they're spinning.
This early in the campaign cycle, when the great majority of the American People who shall vote into office the next president, are not asking themselves about the candidates, but are about their business and maybe asking instead "why the heck are they debating so early, nearly a year before the primary?"...
In this early stage, rudy is nothing but a vague and false perception, he's nothing but a dim relation to the attacks of September 11, 2001... these many "media" hacks are spinning that false perception madly, but as I said, they're just howling into the wind.
Because as soon as the majority of the American People involve themselves in the task of deciding their next president, and immediately upon hearing this noise about rudy's 'combat experience', they're simply going to ask themselves:
"Why is rudy's role in the attacks of September 11, 2001, considered to have anything to do with 'anti-terror' or National Security or any kind of security at all, or even with JUSTICE for those attacks?"
Which as you know is a simple question to answer: rudy has ZERO to do with 'anti-terror', and NOTHING to do with National Security or any security at all...
And then POOF!
...the false perception of the man, so vague and diffuse in the first place, just vanishes...
...and these many "media" hacks likewise realize, that they were just howling into the wind, when they trumpeted rudy as some sort of 9/11 hero.
True. Time will tell... just watch.
If he owns it, he owns the whole package.
His initial response, the communications failures between departments, the cleanup and the environmental coverup which may turn out to be more deadly than the initial attacks.
Funny how he never mentions those things.
Amen to that WK. If he wants sole ownership of 9/11, because it his "his" city, then let him take all the negative from it, too. Let him feel responsible for all of it and let's not let him forget his failure in the aftermath.
In a sense Giuliani does "own 9/11" because no other candidate has been identified with that moment in our history as he has been.
Thus this is not MIS-information. It's an observation by Chuck Todd. And a correct one.
Such fawning by a "pundit" is indeed worthy of note here. (It's almost as bad as when Matthews referred to Bush's "nobility".) I disagree that his statement is accurate. Giuliani may be trying to claim 9/11, but he only owns it in the minds of himself, the lazy pundits, and the non-thinking public.
Here's a question...will Giuliani repeat his tale about the comment he made as he watched the WTC collapse? Remember, he supposedly said, "Thank God George Bush is president". Will he repeat that little fib on the campaign trail, now that Bush's approval rating is in the toilet?
If Rudy owns 9/11, does that mean Ray Nagin owns Katrina?
Not sure. Rudy may take undue credit for his response to 9/11, but Nagin never takes blame for his response to Katrina.
"If Rudy owns 9/11, does that mean Ray Nagin owns Katrina?"
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George Bush's ignorance owns 9/11. George Bush's arrogance owns Iraq. And George Bush's racism owns New Orleans.
Rudy "OWNS" p-11 like Bush "OWNS" Iraq.
Then it's good to see you agree that this "owns 9/11" comment is not misinformation after all, since I assume you believe that Bush owns Iraq.
It really depends on the context that you use hte Phrase.
GWB own the clusterf+++ that is Iraq, Just Like Rudy clusterf+++ that was 9/11.
Rudy does not own 9/11 in the sense that he is some hero or he did something to prevent it or the reason he wasn't in a bunker somewhere is because it just got hit by a freaking plain or he manage to the insure the safety (air quality) of the rescue workers who worked on the site after the attacks etc etc
If American took the time to think about Rudy's actual contribution to the event encompassing 9/11 trust me he would be so quick to bring it up every two seconds. Rudy is a hack and a disgrace rewrite the history of 9/11.
It should be pointed out that Giuliani is totally wrong and unbelievably ignorant and these clowns act like he knows what he is talking about! Giuliani doesn't know that US crimes against Iraq was indeed one of the grievances spelled out in bin Laden's declaration of war? Giuliani is really THAT ignorant? To say he "owns 9/11" when he is so off the wall ignorant is amazing. All of the reporters and pundits in mainstream media have showed their colors once again. Giuliani is a devious liar when he claims that foreign policies are not what motivates the terrorists. Giuliani has again proven he is NOT qualified to be president. The MSM has proven they are NOT qualified to present the news.
The media is not publicizing Ron Paul's press release: "It is clear from his interruption that former Mayor Giuliani has not read the 9-11 Commission Report and has no clue on how to keep America safe." Guiliani "never heard" that anger at what the US was doing to Iraq was one of the motives?!?! And the mainstream media acts like he is a superstar!?!
The 1998 fatwa specifically lists Iraq as the second grievance: "Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation. So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors "
Thank you comon sense is so refreshing.
(BTW the more I read about Ron Paul, the more he's winning me over. I'm actually sending his campaign $20 for sticking it to Hannity so well. Moments like that are priceless!)
The inherent flaw is that when somebody says Rudy "owns" 9/11, he only owns the positive memories of it, and the shortcomings before, during and after the event are conveniently forgotten.
I agree with Chuck Todd, Among the Republican candidates Giuliani does own 9/11... bit ti's all based on imagery and impressions that were locked in at the time of an unprecedented national crisis. It was a time of high anxiety and disbelief and the images and reports of Giuliani working tirelessly in the midst of the chaos will be forever ingrained in the minds of many people. Now that the dust has settled (figuratively) it's been revealed that perhaps Giuliani's leadership wasn't as perfect and heroic as it was originally depicted. However, how many people are going to actually read about and learn the details of Giuliani's failings and allow those "details" to overshadow the emotional impressions that became so deeply imbedded in their minds in a highly charged emotional state? 9/11 is Giuliani's cow and he's going to milk it and ride it this entire campaign.
No Mr Todd
America owns 9/11, America was attacked on 9/11. Guiliani continues to exploit this event.
He "owns" it? Like "pwns" it? Wow... that's not something you should say out loud 0.0
This is what I said in the other Giuliani post:
"Would any other mayor not have done the exact same things Giuliani did in the aftermath? No, it's hyperbole. Calling Giuliani "America's Mayor" furthers the hyperbole to the benefit of a Republican. Thus, "America's Mayor" is simply conservative misinformation, whether it's said on CNN, MSNBC or Fox News."
The standard is the same with Giuliani "owning" 9/11, because the panelist isn't going to say Rudy "owns" inadequate radios for first responders, hazardous air for work crews in the aftermath, or that human remains were found more than five years after the attack.
According to pundits like Chuck Todd, Mr. Giuliani only "owns" the glossed-over version of the heroic mayor who spread his message of NYC's resiliency.
We're basically getting the military's version of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman applied to Giuliani's mayoral performance.
Tommy, MMFA is "obsessed" with the matter because Todd and others showed prior obsession by spreading this conservative misinformation.
Accurate and to-the-point. Bravo.
A man bad in most all respects. He wanted to be held over as Da Mayor past Jan 1. The indispensable Man. Better on display in an Amoco gas station...
Chuck Todd isn't nearly the objective talking head I had hoped he would be. He should stick to his former blog gig. As head of a political "news" organ, he forgot that we all saw the debate ourselves. Duh... Don't spin me , pal. Ron Paul made Giuliani seem like an unintelligent bully. Paul merely gave his premise that going back to the late 80's , our interference in the Middle East has contributed to hatred for America. Any student of history would agree. Paul NEVER said that we invited 9/11by the recent Iraq war. Almost every mainstream outlet is reporting unfair spin to Paul's remarks. Giuliani looked almost gleeful in his response. But , although that terrible day of 9/11 made Giuliani this one issue candidate, he has to answer for serious defensive errors that could have made a difference in saving lives. He had put the emergency response offices BACK into the WTC building that was hit in '93. Judgement matters.
Rudy has had some shifting explanations why he put the city's command and control/emergency response center in the World Trade Center (Bld. #7?)--a known target for terrorist attacks. I can't find the citation but I recall he said at one time the reason was that it would provide a view of the city--even though it was only on the 23rd floor. More recently, he said it would be located near other command centers, the FBI, FEMA, etc.
If I were his parent, I'd say, "Rudy, if all your friend jumped off the roof would you do it too?"
Is Chuck Todd related to Gerry Todd?
Who would you rather vote for, someone who invented the internet or someone who thinks they own 9/11 ???