Laura Bush, the president’s wife, and her entourage stay in the office of Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) as they wait for the Secret Service emergency response team to arrive and take them away from Capitol Hill. Bush and those with her in the Russell Senate Office Building headed to Gregg’s office after they learned of the attack on the Pentagon and Bush’s Secret Service agents told them to go to the basement (see (9:45 a.m.-9:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). (Gregg’s office is on a lower floor of the building, though whether it is in the basement is unclear.)
First Lady Unable to Contact Daughters – From Gregg’s office, Bush tries calling her daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who are both at university. [Bush, 2010, pp. 200] She is unable to reach them at this time. According to journalist and author Christopher Andersen, she is told that “they had both already been hustled off to what the Secret Service called ‘secure locations.’” [Newsweek, 12/3/2001; Andersen, 2002, pp. 6]
First Lady and Senator Talk about Families – The first lady then sits with Gregg, who is a longtime Bush family friend, and, she will later recall, they talk “quietly about our families and our worries for them, and the overwhelming shock we both felt.” [New York Times, 10/4/2004; Bush, 2010, pp. 200] Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who is also in Gregg’s office at this time, will recall, “We kept the television set off and simply talked for a while.” [Kennedy, 2009, pp. 492]
Reporters Cannot Travel with First Lady – Noelia Rodriguez, the first lady’s press secretary, is worried about the pool reporters who are with them. She will describe, “We put them all in a room,” but Bush’s Secret Service agents tell her, “We have to leave here and we can’t take [the pool reporters] with us.” Laurence McQuillan, of USA Today, reassures Rodriguez, telling her, “Don’t worry about us.” [National Journal, 8/31/2002] Bush remains in Gregg’s office until members of the Secret Service, including the emergency response team, collect her from there (see (Shortly After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Bush, 2010, pp. 200] She and her staff leave the Russell Senate Office Building at around 10:10 a.m., and are then driven to a “secure location” (see (10:10 a.m.-10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Journal, 8/31/2002]
10:37 a.m. September 11, 2001: President Bush Notified that His Wife and Daughters Are at Safe Locations
President Bush, who is on Air Force One, is informed that his wife, Laura Bush, and his daughters, Jenna and Barbara, have been moved to safe locations. When he got on Air Force One in Sarasota, Florida, Bush was concerned about the safety of his wife and daughters, and requested additional protection for them (see (9:44 a.m.) September 11, 2001). At that time, the first lady was on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC (see 9:16 a.m.-9:40 a.m. September 11, 2001 and 9:41 a.m. September 11, 2001). Barbara and Jenna Bush are students at Yale and the University of Texas, respectively. [New Yorker, 9/25/2001; Sammon, 2002, pp. 100, 108]
President Told Wife and Daughters Are Safe – Edward Marinzel, the head of Bush’s Secret Service detail, who is with the president on Air Force One, has been contacted by Secret Service Director Brian Stafford, and told that the first lady and the president’s daughters have all been safely relocated. [United States Secret Service, 2001] This news is now passed on to the president by Andrew Card, Bush’s chief of staff. Card tells Bush that the first lady is “in a secure location with the Secret Service and that his daughters had been removed to safer locations,” Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward will later write. [Woodward, 2002, pp. 18] The first lady is taken to the Secret Service headquarters, in Washington (see (10:10 a.m.-10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Bush, 2010, pp. 200-201] Barbara and Jenna Bush are taken to the Secret Service office in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas, respectively (see 10:51 a.m.-10:57 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Woodward, 2002, pp. 17]
President Given Phone Number for First Lady – Bush then asks Card, jokingly, about Barney, his Scottish terrier. Card replies, “He’s nipping at the heels of Osama bin Laden now.” [New Yorker, 9/25/2001; Sammon, 2002, pp. 108] Bush also requests, and is provided with, a direct contact telephone number for the first lady. [United States Secret Service, 2001] But according to the president’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, who is on Air Force One at this time, the news that his wife and daughters have been secured “reassured the president and allowed him to put off calling Laura until later in the morning, when events provided a brief window to do so.” [Rove, 2010, pp. 258] It will be nearly 11:45 a.m. before Bush is able to talk to the first lady (see (Shortly Before 11:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Bush, 2010, pp. 132]
10:51 a.m.-10:57 a.m. September 11, 2001: President Bush’s Daughters Taken to Safe Locations by Secret Service
Jenna Bush and Barbara Bush, President Bush’s 19-year-old twin daughters, arrive at “secure locations,” where they have been brought by their Secret Service agents. Barbara Bush, a student at Yale University, is taken to the Secret Service’s New Haven, Connecticut, office; Jenna Bush, a student at the University of Texas, is taken to a room at the Driskill Hotel in Austin. [Us Weekly, 10/15/2001; Woodward, 2002, pp. 17; Dish Magazine, 4/1/2002; Draper, 2007, pp. 141]
President’s Daughters Asleep When Attacks Began – Jenna Bush was asleep in her dormitory room at the University of Texas when the terrorist attacks began, and learned of the catastrophic events when a Secret Service agent knocked on her door a few minutes after 9:00 a.m. Barbara Bush was also asleep when the attacks began, in her dormitory room at Yale. She heard what was happening on her clock radio, when the alarm woke her up at 9:00 a.m. “I found out the same way everybody else did,” she will later recall. “At first, we thought it was just an accident,” she will say. “Then, next door, there was another student sobbing, and that’s how we found out.” [Andersen, 2002, pp. 6; Bush, 2010, pp. 202; Winnipeg Free Press, 6/5/2010]
Concern that Bush Daughter’s Presence Makes University a Target – There was concern that Barbara Bush’s presence at Yale could make the university a possible target for terrorists. Richard Levin, the university president, will say, “Our first concern was actually that Yale could potentially be a target because of President Bush’s daughter.” Therefore, he will say, “The first thing we did [in response to the attacks] was call the Secret Service.” He will add, “By the time we got in touch with the Secret Service, she was already evacuated from Yale.” [Yale Daily News, 9/9/2011] However, Barbara Bush is only “relocated” to the Secret Service’s New Haven office at 10:51 a.m., according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. And Jenna Bush is only relocated to the Driskill Hotel minutes later, at 10:57 a.m. [Woodward, 2002, pp. 17]
Secret Service Must Keep President’s Daughters ‘out of Harm’s Way’ – As the president’s daughters are considered to be among the nation’s “most visible targets,” the Secret Service is responsible for protecting them. [US Department of the Treasury, 5/8/2001; Office of Management and Budget, 7/2001, pp. 82 
; United States Secret Service, 2002] The agency’s mission includes keeping the president’s children “in sight and out of harm’s way,” according to a book about the Secret Service by author Philip Melanson. [Melanson, 2002, pp. 273]
Between 11:00 a.m. and 11:40 a.m. September 11, 2001: First Lady Calls Daughters and Mother from Secret Service Headquarters
Laura Bush, the president’s wife, talks over the phone to her daughters, Jenna and Barbara, and then to her mother, after arriving at the Secret Service headquarters in Washington, DC. [ABC, 9/18/2001 ; Bush, 2010, pp. 202] Bush and her entourage were brought to the Secret Service headquarters for their own security (see (10:10 a.m.-10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Upon arriving, they were taken to the director’s office (see (10:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Kessler, 2006, pp. 136; Bush, 2010, pp. 200-201] There, Bush told her staffers to call their families and let them know they were alright. [National Journal, 8/31/2002]
First Lady Calls Daughters at ‘Secure Locations’ – Bush now makes her own calls. First, she calls her twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, who are both at university. [Us Weekly, 10/15/2001; Bush, 2010, pp. 202] She tried to call them earlier this morning, but was told they had been taken to “secure locations” (see (9:50 a.m.-10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Newsweek, 12/3/2001; Andersen, 2002, pp. 6] Barbara and Jenna Bush have now reached these “secure locations” (see 10:51 a.m.-10:57 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Sammon, 2002, pp. 108; Woodward, 2002, pp. 17] The first lady will later recall that she calls her daughters now “to make sure they were fine and to tell them I was fine.” [Us Weekly, 10/15/2001] She tells them they are “going to be safe and that… I loved them and… that things were going to be alright,” she will say. [ABC, 9/18/2001 ]
First Lady Calls Mother for Reassurance – Bush then calls her mother, Jenna Welch, at her home in Midland, Texas. [Andersen, 2002, pp. 7; Bush, 2010, pp. 202] Bush will describe: “I called my mother to tell her I was fine. But the fact is I was calling her to hear her voice, to be reassured myself.” [Us Weekly, 10/15/2001] However, when she tries phoning President Bush at this time, her calls cannot get through. She will eventually talk to him at around 11:45 a.m. (see (Shortly Before 11:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Bush, 2010, pp. 132; Bush, 2010, pp. 202-203]
