That morning, with America under attack, my colleagues and I were evacuated from the White House.

We rode with our boss back to an eerily quiet White House and worked with a news crew to set up the Oval Office for the president's address to the nation.

We were in the Oval Office when the president walked in from Marine One on the South Lawn.

We were in the Oval Office when the president walked in from Marine One on the South Lawn.

Believing a second-wave attack on the White House to be imminent, the Secret Service would take the president down to the White House "bunker" multiple times.

With that gas still hanging in the air, President Donald Trump emerged from the White House to march through the park to another national church — not for prayer or to urge national unity but for a photo op.

9/11 wasn't just an attack on American citizens; it was an attack on the very idea of American democracy.

9/11 wasn't just an attack on American citizens; it was an attack on the very idea of American democracy.

That democracy is under attack again today, not just from a foreign adversary (Russia) or a foreign-born virus (COVID-19) but from behind the very desk where presidents since Rutherford B.