The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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George W. Bush paints the moment that changed his presidency — and America

by

BS BULLETIN:

  • George W. Bush has painted the unforgettable moment when Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered that America was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
  • The self-portrait is among 16 new Bush paintings commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
  • The collection, “Remembering 9/11,” is on display throughout September at the George W. Bush Presidential Museum in Dallas.

It is one of those photographs Americans don’t need a caption to recognize.

President George W. Bush sits in a Florida elementary-school classroom. Chief of Staff Andrew Card leans down and whispers into his ear. And Bush’s face changes.

Twenty-five years later, the former president has returned to that precise moment — this time with a paintbrush.

Bush unveiled a self-portrait depicting the instant Card told him that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center and that the United States was under attack. The painting is part of “Remembering 9/11,” a new collection of 16 works painted by Bush to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“Twenty-five years ago, the actions of an enemy revealed the spirit of the American people,” Bush wrote while sharing images of the collection. “These and other paintings are my reflections of this solemn anniversary and will be on display all month at @thebushcenter.”

“May we always honor the precious lives stolen, and may God bless America.”

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, and listening to second-graders participate in a reading exercise.

He had already been informed that an airplane had struck the World Trade Center. At that point, officials initially believed it might have been an accident. Then Card entered the classroom.

“A second plane hit the second tower,” Card told the president. “America is under attack.”

The cameras captured Bush absorbing the news.

Former student Krystal Davis, who was sitting in that classroom, recently told ABC News that even as a child she could see something had dramatically changed.

“You could see it on his face,” she recalled.

Bush remained seated while the children continued their reading exercise, a decision that became the subject of intense criticism and political debate in the years afterward. Bush has said he deliberately remained calm because he didn’t want to frighten the children.

Now his painting offers something the famous photograph couldn’t: Bush’s own artistic reflection on what it felt like to occupy that chair. The classroom scene isn’t the only memory he put on canvas. The Bush Center says the 16 new works reflect on “the courage, sacrifice, and resilience” that followed the attacks.

Other paintings depict smoke rising above New York, an American flag hanging from a building and the badge of a police officer killed on 9/11. Bush, now 80, began painting after leaving the White House in 2009 and has made art a major part of his post-presidency. Some of his best-known previous works have been portraits of military veterans who served after 9/11.

But this collection is different. This time, the former president isn’t painting somebody else’s history. He’s painting his own.

MY QUICK TAKE

We’ve all seen the photograph.

But there’s something haunting about George W. Bush choosing, 25 years later, to sit down and paint that exact second himself.

No speech. No politics. No hindsight clever enough to change what came next. Just a man in a chair being told that his country is under attack.

DBS WIRE SOURCES

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