What do you remember most about 9-11? And then secondly, after that, what do you remember most about what you inherited at the Department of Homeland Security?

Well, on September 11th, I was relatively new as head of the criminal division at the department.

I'd been on the job for about three months.

And I was driving into work.

I had my car phone on.

I was talking to my deputy, and he said, you know, a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.

And like a lot of people, I assumed it was some small plane with a pilot who got confused.

it's always on, it's exhausting.

Chertoff rushed to the FBI's Operations Center and met with FBI Director Robert Mueller.

When I got up there, we had just heard about the third plane hitting the Pentagon.

I'd also heard about the fourth hijacking.

And I remember sitting in a room hearing people talking about what would be done with respect to the fourth plane.

And I heard the order transmitted electronically to shoot the fourth plane down because it was headed towards Washington.

As we know, the courageous passengers wound up eliminating the threat themselves by taking the plane down on their own.

Immediately, the question became, who did this, and how do we make sure there aren't more attacks in the wings?

America was under attack on multiple fronts, and it felt like the threats could come from anywhere.

Wow.

And like a lot of people, I assumed some small plane got turned around and hit the tower.

But as I continued to drive and speak to him, he said, "A second plane hit," watching the news.

"A second plane hit the World Trade Center." And I said, "This is not an accident." So we met in the Department of Justice and walked over to the command center at the FBI, which was the operational hub of any response to terrorism.

And there I met an old friend, the now late Robert Mueller, who had just become FBI director within a couple of weeks before.

And as we began to be briefed, I heard about the plane that hit the Pentagon, and we heard about the plane that was, uh, taken down before it could hit a target.

We didn't know for a while how that happened, and then we learned eventually it was the passengers who took control of the plane and, and crashed it.

G- give us, give us a little bit.