MATT LAUER

“September 11, 2001 strikes me as being a normal, typical late summer day in New York except for one thing. And I remember thinking, if you were going to take a picture of the skyline of New York to lure tourists to come to this city and experience it, that would be the day you would want to take the picture. There was nothing that could have foreshadowed that this was going to be an extraordinary day, much less a day that would change the world and change our lives. So we just went about our day.”

8:47 AM

So just before 8:50am, I am interviewing a guy named Richard Hack who has written a book about Howard Hughes. We wear these earpieces and in the middle of an interview they are rarely saying anything to you. So when a voice does pop up though the earpiece, it does catch your attention.

And we’re looking at these two monitors and the next thing you know it dips to black and up from the black comes this picture of the World Trade Center. I remember looking at the building when I did get a glimpse of the scar on the building and thinking “that had to be a pretty substantial plane.”

9:03 AM

One of our very best producers was a woman named Elliot Walker. Elliot had been there done that, seen everything and when she started to describe what she was witnessing from a real journalist point of view the story started to take shape to me. But then all of a sudden Elliot said something to the effect of

OH MY GOD THERE'S ANOTHER ONE

The instant that second plane hit that second tower, the looks that were exchanged in that studio were chilling. The first thing I did was look at Katie Couric and I remember mouthing the words to her: terrorism. There was an instant realization of the horror of what we were seeing and I think even a realization that our lives would never be the same.

9:37 AM

I remember we did a phone interview with Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon because we obviously wanted to know what the military’s response to these first two planes hitting would be.

DID THEY HAVE ADVANCED NOTICE?
WHAT WERE THEY DOING?


9:45 AM

Some of the reports we were hearing were so devastating that we really had to stop and be careful about what we did and didn’t say on the air. I remember one person telling me, who was down on the scene and who I had a chance to speak to on the phone, telling me from where he was standing he could hear and feel the impact of people jumping out of the building. That’s when as a human being you have to think how awful could it be in that building, in that moment, for these people to decide that their best option was to jump out to certain death.

9:59 AM

I was watching the monitors, the now familiar shot of the twin towers with smoke billowing out, when all of a sudden it was clear something monumental was happening to the South Tower. So I remember just asking the control room to replay the tape. I didn’t want to say the whole building had collapsed because you know by this time after about an hour or so of covering this we were very aware of the fact that there were people watching at home who had loved ones in those buildings. And to be the person who would say on the air that building has collapsed would be final. It would be the end. That was the worst moment of the day for me by far.

BUT THERE WAS ALSO I THINK AN ANGER
IT MADE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH
IT MADE ME ANGRY

10:20 AM

WHEN THE SECOND TOWER WENT DOWN, TOM BROKAW SAID THERE HAS BEEN A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST OUR COUNTRY

I DON’T THINK THAT I HAD VIEWED IT THAT WAY UP UNTIL THAT INSTANCE. I THOUGHT WE HAVE AN ACT OF TERRORISM, BUT WHEN YOU HEAR TOM BROKAW, THE VOICE OF A GENERATION OF NEWS WATCHERS, SAY THE WORDS “THIS IS A DECLARATION OF WAR”

IT KICKS IN.

IT WAS THE MOST DRAMATIC DAY OF MY CAREER, THE MOST DRAMATIC DAY OF MY LIFE THAT I HAD WITNESSED FIRST-HAND. IT EVEN CHANGED THE WAY I LIVE MY LIFE AND DO MY JOB. HOW MUCH MORE DRAMATIC COULD IT BE.

IT WAS SURREAL