The 20th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I thank my friend for yielding, and I thank my friend for leading us in this genuinely somber and extraordinarily important moment not only for our State and, certainly, for what was then his district but, I think, for Americans everywhere.

Twenty years ago on April 19 of 1995, we saw a domestic tragedy of historic proportions. It is still the largest single act of domestic terrorism in American history. It was totally unexpected, totally unanticipated, and extraordinarily devastating to the people involved and, I think, to the country as a whole. But sometimes out of a tragedy of that proportion a triumph emerges, and that is certainly what occurred in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, and on the days that followed.

Our first thoughts on the 20th anniversary is always of the victims--of the 168 lives who were lost, 19 of them children, unknowing that disaster was about to overtake them--and of the many dozens who were wounded severely and who still, to this day, carry those injuries with them.

Next, we think always of the first responders, particularly of the Oklahoma City fire and police officers who immediately rushed to the scene; of the surrounding fire and police departments that were rapidly mobilized to assist them; of the Oklahoma National Guard, which was there within a matter of hours; and, frankly, of the rescue teams from all across the United States of America that immediately moved in our direction to help our people.

I think of the people of Oklahoma next, who, stunned, rallied with enormous speed and with great courage to try and support, in each and every way that they could, the folks whose lives had been lost and the people who were still in danger.

I still remember that day at the Governor's office--at the end of the day, at 2 o'clock in the morning--and driving from the capitol toward my home in Moore, Oklahoma, and seeing a line of people outside the blood center. At 2 in the morning, they were still there, wanting to help and be supportive in whatever way that they could. We were really blessed at that particular moment in the history of our State and in the history of our country with extraordinary leadership. I think, first, always--because I worked for Governor Keating as his secretary of state--of the manner in which he responded.

Like my friend Mr. Lucas, I heard about this totally unexpectedly. I was, literally, walking into the capitol at 9:02, in the tunnel, and I felt a little shudder. When I walked into my office, my secretary immediately walked in and said, ``Your wife is on the phone.'' She was working two blocks away from the site of the bombing, and she was on the 18th floor of a building.

She said, ``I don't know what has happened, but I am looking down, and I can see enormous smoke--an explosion occurred--rolling out, and there are hundreds of people on the street, fleeing from this disaster.''

My office was below the Governor's office on the first floor of the capitol, and I went up. This was maybe 8 minutes into the event. I walked in because I knew the Governor would be focused on this, obviously. He was standing in the press room immediately to the right as you walked in, and at that time, there were already helicopters in the air, and, on the scene, we were seeing the horrific sights.

The speculation immediately was that it was some sort of natural gas explosion. Well, Frank Keating, who was our Governor, was also a former FBI agent who had been trained in investigating terrorism in the 1960s. He was a former Tulsa prosecutor, a former U.S. attorney, a former Associate Attorney General of the United States, and he knew what he was looking at. He immediately looked at that television set, and I will never forget what he said.

He said: ``That is not a natural gas explosion. That is a car bomb of some sort.'' He knew instantly what he was dealing with.

On that day and on the subsequent days, he led with extraordinary distinction in mobilizing resources, leading from the front, being on the front line. It was an exceptional act of public leadership from an official who was less than 100 days into his first term as Governor of the State.

Equally impressive was the leadership of his wife, our first lady, Cathy Keating. Most of America knows of the memorial service that took place on the Sunday after the disaster. I remember the night after the disaster my being at the Governor's Mansion. We still didn't know how many people had been lost, and we didn't know if there were survivors still in the building. There were search teams. We were dealing with a disaster of national and of, really, international proportions.

Cathy Keating came to the meeting and said: ``We need to have some sort of service to memorialize the people who have been lost. People are grieving, and they want to participate.''

I remember thinking at the time, my goodness, how in the world can we ever pull this off? We are dealing with more than we can deal with, let alone organizing something like that, and I made that point. She said, ``Don't worry. I will take over,'' and she did.

America, not just Oklahoma City and Oklahoma, was given a moment to mourn, a moment that attracted the President of the United States, Billy Graham, a national audience, and thousands of Oklahomans who simply wanted to get together and pay tribute to those who had lost their lives. It was an exceptional act of public leadership on her part. The two of them set up a foundation to take care of the educational needs of anyone who had lost a parent, let alone two parents, in the course of that, and that institution still functions to this day. Again, exceptional leadership.

We have had other moments of tragedy in our country, like 9/11, and just as Rudy Giuliani was quoted as being ``America's mayor'' on that day, Ron Norick in Oklahoma City was ``America's mayor'' that day. It was an amazing performance as he got together his police and his fire firefighters and was immediately on the scene. He is one of the greatest public servants who I have ever seen.

I would be remiss not to mention my friend behind me, Mr. Lucas. As he alluded to in his remarks, that was his district office one building over. That was a place where he was in and out of a lot in the Federal building. My task as secretary of state, assigned by the Governor, was to work in Washington to try and coordinate with the Federal Government long-term rebuilding efforts.

Nobody did more to rebuild Oklahoma City than Frank Lucas. Nobody did more to help secure the funds, get the national support, work with us to get out of the requirements. We had to match this with 25 percent because this was not a natural disaster. This was literally an attack on a Federal facility in Oklahoma City with a unique Federal responsibility. Those were all things that Frank Lucas got done for not just the people of his district, but the people of our State; and, frankly, in that, he set some precedents that served the people of New York on 9/11 awfully well in addition.

The last person I want to mention is the President of the United States at the time. I am a pretty good Republican, and I can't say I ever voted for Bill Clinton, but I was very glad he was President of the United States at that moment. Nobody helped us more.

I will never forget 1 p.m. the day of the disaster. We had moved the Governor to a civil defense facility below ground at the Capitol--he was directing affairs there--and we got a call from the President of the United States. I did not know it at the time, but they--Frank Keating and Bill Clinton--had actually gone to school together. They were both at Georgetown together. Frank Keating was president of the student body when Bill Clinton was president of the sophomore class, so they knew one another.

The first thing that the President asked was: Governor, do you have any idea who is responsible for this?

There were, of course, all sorts of wild reports on television, wild speculation.

The Governor, being a law enforcement professional, immediately responded: Mr. President, we have no idea. We do not know who would do this. I know you are hearing foreign terrorists or all sorts of things. We just don't know yet. It is too chaotic for us to know.

President Clinton at that point said something that really struck me, and struck me more later. He said: Well, I hope it wasn't a foreign national.

And I remember being almost shocked that you would hope that, you know, an American had done something this awful, but then he added, prophetically, as it turned out several years later: Because if it was, we will be at war someplace in the world within 6 months.

He was absolutely right. He, too, understood the dimensions of the tragedy. And in the days ahead, everything we asked for and all the resources and compassion that a great people like the United States of America and its citizens can muster was immediately at our disposal.

I remember President Clinton, when we announced we were doing the ceremony, we were discreetly approached by a member in his administration, who said: You know, the President would like to be here, but we certainly don't want to be here if it is inappropriate.

I said: Look, I have to go clear that with the Governor, but I can tell you, I know what Frank Keating's response is going to be. Of course, we would welcome the President of the United States.

He did, indeed, come. He not only helped us through it, he helped us emotionally through it, as did the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the time also made that journey and was there to help and comfort people.

So we may have our political differences from time to time as Americans, but in times of tragedy, we stick together. We come together; we pull together; and we work to help one another, and certainly President Clinton did that.

Finally, let me just make this observation and this expression of gratitude. I want to use this occasion to thank the millions and millions of Americans who responded with their prayers, with their help, the rescue workers that came, the donations that flowed in from all across the country to help the victims and the families of the victims, that came, frankly, from around the world, because we had international help as well.

I want to remind people that whenever they lose faith in the United States of America or just the sheer decency of people, think of the Oklahoma City bombing; think of the magnificent performance of this country, not just of the people on the scene, but of the support this country directed toward its fellow citizens in a time of difficulty, and of the many prayers and expressions of goodwill and condolence from around the world as people rallied in the face of what was an unspeakable act of terror.

So we had our moment of tragedy, but we have had 20 years of triumph since then; and that triumph is not just the triumph of the people of Oklahoma City or the people of Oklahoma, it is an American triumph, and it is a human triumph of enormous dimensions and of great consequence.

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