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American Morning

Interview with Gov. George Pataki

Aired September 11, 2003 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm going to talk with the governor right now from the State of New York. George Pataki my guest here on a day which will be, yet again, a very busy one for you.
September 21, 2001, you and I together walked through ground zero. I can still see quite vividly that steam coming out of that mangled steel from the pile behind us.

Your thoughts today, two years removed from that?

GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R), NEW YORK: Bill, that's a day I'll never forget, of course. September 11 is a day that I don't think any American will ever forget. For all the passage of time, now two years, the sense of loss is like it happened yesterday. The people that, the friends and workers that I knew so well and I can still see their smiles and hear their jokes and -- so I don't think that sense of sorrow will diminish.

But at the same time, you can't help but feel pride. You look down and see the firefighters, you hear the bagpipes, you see the people and you have a tremendous sense of pride that the heroism and the courage that New Yorkers showed on September 11 is something that we still feel two years later so...

HEMMER: I can hear it in your voice and yet even on this day, you're taking quite a bit of heat from a number of family members protesting last night throughout Manhattan. They say this reconstruction project is going way too fast, it should slow down. They say the memorial should be put before any consideration is given to buildings.

How do you defend your project going forth right now?

PATAKI: Well, I agree. The memorial should be the centerpiece and it is the centerpiece. When we looked at the competing designs -- and the public had more than 10 million actual responses on the Internet to the Lower Manhattan Corporation's proposals for different designs -- the one that was chosen is the one that had it as its centerpiece a memorial that would allow people to reflect and to remember. That's the most important thing about this site and that's the most important thing that we're going to do.

HEMMER: Would you reconsider, though, the following prospect. The current plans right now say one acre where the North Tower stood and one acre where the South Tower stood will be protected, nothing is built there. There are others who are saying this entire area, nine acres, that area that's known as The Bathtub, the slurry wall that kept the Hudson River out, that entire area should be off limits.

PATAKI: Bill, there are those who say all of ground zero should never be rebuilt. There are those who say that we should build towers and commercial activity right over the site to show our strength. And what you have to achieve is a balance.

The most important part is to remember and to honor the legacy and the heroes who lost their lives on September 11 and be respectful for their families. And we are going to do that. But at the same time, you have to renew. And you have to show our pride and our confidence in the future. And I believe the Libeskind plan does both of those things appropriately.

We have a memorial committee, a jury, right now looking at more than 5,200 submissions from more than 60 countries and every state. And by the end of October, they're going to be revealing to myself and to the public the handful of finalists. And I have no doubt that that memorial will be something that makes New Yorkers proud and makes Americans proud and that generations from now people will come and say this was a spot of heroes, this was a spot of courage and this is a place that has been appropriately remembered for future generations.

HEMMER: I only have a few seconds left here. Your former colleague, the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, had strong words yesterday, saying it's going too fast. Construction is slated to begin on the tower known as the Freedom Tower, 1,776 feet tall, this summer, perhaps to open by 2006 to 2008. He says it's too fast, slow down.

Would you consider that?

PATAKI: Well, I think the most important thing is the memorial. And we're moving fast with everything. But by far, the place that I want to see done first is that memorial. And we, by the end of October, expect to have the finalist designs. We expect to start construction relatively soon after that. And that will be built and finished long before any of the towers.

HEMMER: Thank you, Governor, and good luck today.

I know later tonight you're going to be with Paula Zahn on a town hall meeting here down near the area of ground zero, 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Good to see you, Governor.

PATAKI: Good to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: Thanks for your time today.

PATAKI: Thank you very much.

HEMMER: You got it.

Next hour we'll talk with the mayor, the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, live here on AMERICAN MORNING. But for now, back again to Soledad -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, at the Pentagon this morning, a wreath laying and a moment of silence. One hundred and eighty-four people were killed there two years ago today when Flight 77 crashed into that building at about 9:43 in the morning.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning with more on the ceremony there today -- Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Like the rest of the country, it will be a very somber, quiet morning here at the Pentagon, as the remembrance unfolds.

We are sitting at the place of the attack, indeed, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into this building, killing 184 people. There will be a moment of silence later today here at the very moment at which the attack occurred.

Now, we talked to a very interesting man a couple of days ago, Chaplain Ralph Benson. He is an Army colonel. He is the Pentagon chaplain, the man in charge of the spiritual health, if you will, of the 23,000 people who work in this place, the only building to have survived the direct attack. The building, of course, remaining open, everyone mainly coming back to work the very next morning. So this is a very unique site in the history of the 9/11 attacks.

Chaplain Benson talked to us about why this 9/11 is so different, why the remembrance is so quiet and somber. Are people trying to move on or are they just trying to forget?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. RALPH BENSON, PENTAGON CHAPLAIN: I think, number one, we've moved on a year. There have been a war in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq, there's been a recession, all the historic things that people experience. And we tend to forget. We tend to want to deny those things, if you will, that were painful. And yet it's important that we remember and never forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: There will be a remembrance today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later this morning will lay a wreath at Arlington Cemetery, just up the hill from where we are. And then he will come back. And just on the other side of this wall, there is a private chapel that is not open to the public that is in remembrance of the 9/11 victims. There will be a private service inside that chapel where they will dedicate four stained glass windows remembering everyone who died here, the people inside the building and those on the airplane. Those four stained glass windows were assembled last week by the survivors in this building -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And, again, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. two years ago today. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon.

Barbara, of course, will continue to check in with you throughout the next couple of hours.

And in just under an hour, Bill and I will be joined by Wolf Blitzer for a CNN special, "America Rebuilds: 9/11 Memorials." That will begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 11, 2003 - 07:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm going to talk with the governor right now from the State of New York. George Pataki my guest here on a day which will be, yet again, a very busy one for you.
September 21, 2001, you and I together walked through ground zero. I can still see quite vividly that steam coming out of that mangled steel from the pile behind us.

Your thoughts today, two years removed from that?

GOV. GEORGE PATAKI (R), NEW YORK: Bill, that's a day I'll never forget, of course. September 11 is a day that I don't think any American will ever forget. For all the passage of time, now two years, the sense of loss is like it happened yesterday. The people that, the friends and workers that I knew so well and I can still see their smiles and hear their jokes and -- so I don't think that sense of sorrow will diminish.

But at the same time, you can't help but feel pride. You look down and see the firefighters, you hear the bagpipes, you see the people and you have a tremendous sense of pride that the heroism and the courage that New Yorkers showed on September 11 is something that we still feel two years later so...

HEMMER: I can hear it in your voice and yet even on this day, you're taking quite a bit of heat from a number of family members protesting last night throughout Manhattan. They say this reconstruction project is going way too fast, it should slow down. They say the memorial should be put before any consideration is given to buildings.

How do you defend your project going forth right now?

PATAKI: Well, I agree. The memorial should be the centerpiece and it is the centerpiece. When we looked at the competing designs -- and the public had more than 10 million actual responses on the Internet to the Lower Manhattan Corporation's proposals for different designs -- the one that was chosen is the one that had it as its centerpiece a memorial that would allow people to reflect and to remember. That's the most important thing about this site and that's the most important thing that we're going to do.

HEMMER: Would you reconsider, though, the following prospect. The current plans right now say one acre where the North Tower stood and one acre where the South Tower stood will be protected, nothing is built there. There are others who are saying this entire area, nine acres, that area that's known as The Bathtub, the slurry wall that kept the Hudson River out, that entire area should be off limits.

PATAKI: Bill, there are those who say all of ground zero should never be rebuilt. There are those who say that we should build towers and commercial activity right over the site to show our strength. And what you have to achieve is a balance.

The most important part is to remember and to honor the legacy and the heroes who lost their lives on September 11 and be respectful for their families. And we are going to do that. But at the same time, you have to renew. And you have to show our pride and our confidence in the future. And I believe the Libeskind plan does both of those things appropriately.

We have a memorial committee, a jury, right now looking at more than 5,200 submissions from more than 60 countries and every state. And by the end of October, they're going to be revealing to myself and to the public the handful of finalists. And I have no doubt that that memorial will be something that makes New Yorkers proud and makes Americans proud and that generations from now people will come and say this was a spot of heroes, this was a spot of courage and this is a place that has been appropriately remembered for future generations.

HEMMER: I only have a few seconds left here. Your former colleague, the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, had strong words yesterday, saying it's going too fast. Construction is slated to begin on the tower known as the Freedom Tower, 1,776 feet tall, this summer, perhaps to open by 2006 to 2008. He says it's too fast, slow down.

Would you consider that?

PATAKI: Well, I think the most important thing is the memorial. And we're moving fast with everything. But by far, the place that I want to see done first is that memorial. And we, by the end of October, expect to have the finalist designs. We expect to start construction relatively soon after that. And that will be built and finished long before any of the towers.

HEMMER: Thank you, Governor, and good luck today.

I know later tonight you're going to be with Paula Zahn on a town hall meeting here down near the area of ground zero, 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Good to see you, Governor.

PATAKI: Good to see you, Bill.

HEMMER: Thanks for your time today.

PATAKI: Thank you very much.

HEMMER: You got it.

Next hour we'll talk with the mayor, the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, live here on AMERICAN MORNING. But for now, back again to Soledad -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Bill, at the Pentagon this morning, a wreath laying and a moment of silence. One hundred and eighty-four people were killed there two years ago today when Flight 77 crashed into that building at about 9:43 in the morning.

Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon for us this morning with more on the ceremony there today -- Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Like the rest of the country, it will be a very somber, quiet morning here at the Pentagon, as the remembrance unfolds.

We are sitting at the place of the attack, indeed, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into this building, killing 184 people. There will be a moment of silence later today here at the very moment at which the attack occurred.

Now, we talked to a very interesting man a couple of days ago, Chaplain Ralph Benson. He is an Army colonel. He is the Pentagon chaplain, the man in charge of the spiritual health, if you will, of the 23,000 people who work in this place, the only building to have survived the direct attack. The building, of course, remaining open, everyone mainly coming back to work the very next morning. So this is a very unique site in the history of the 9/11 attacks.

Chaplain Benson talked to us about why this 9/11 is so different, why the remembrance is so quiet and somber. Are people trying to move on or are they just trying to forget?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. RALPH BENSON, PENTAGON CHAPLAIN: I think, number one, we've moved on a year. There have been a war in Afghanistan, a war in Iraq, there's been a recession, all the historic things that people experience. And we tend to forget. We tend to want to deny those things, if you will, that were painful. And yet it's important that we remember and never forget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: There will be a remembrance today. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later this morning will lay a wreath at Arlington Cemetery, just up the hill from where we are. And then he will come back. And just on the other side of this wall, there is a private chapel that is not open to the public that is in remembrance of the 9/11 victims. There will be a private service inside that chapel where they will dedicate four stained glass windows remembering everyone who died here, the people inside the building and those on the airplane. Those four stained glass windows were assembled last week by the survivors in this building -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And, again, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. two years ago today. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon.

Barbara, of course, will continue to check in with you throughout the next couple of hours.

And in just under an hour, Bill and I will be joined by Wolf Blitzer for a CNN special, "America Rebuilds: 9/11 Memorials." That will begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com