24 (TV Series)

Day 6: 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. (2007)

D.B. Woodside: President Wayne Palmer

Quotes 

• Karen Hayes : [after entering the Oval office]  Mr. President, I just got off the phone with Bill Buchanan at CTU: he has intel that four more tactical nuclear weapons were stole along with the one that went off

  President Wayne Palmer : Do we have any idea where they are?

  Karen Hayes : We do not

  President Wayne Palmer : [to Tom]  I want to meet with the Joint Chiefs, right away

  Tom Lennox : I've already let them know

  President Wayne Palmer : [to Karen]  has civilian air traffic been shut down?

  Karen Hayes : Yes Sir. The FAA gave the order as soon as they heard about the bomb

• President Wayne Palmer : [Addressing the country on television]  my fellow Americans, there is no easy way to say the words "America has been hit by a nuclear weapon", but as you know this is a fact. The question remains: what do we as a country, as a people do about it? How do we rationalize the fear and sorrow each one of us feels? Do we let our anger guide us down a dangerous path? Or do we come together to continue to show courage and strength in the face of our enemy? Now this horrible act of evil has struck our great nation is the cowardly action of barbaric men

• Tom Lennox : [Reading over the statement she prepared]  "The latest terrorist "incident?" This was a nuclear bomb: can we call it what it is?

  Ellen Price : We thought it'd give the President a little more "flexibility." Once you mention the word "nuclear", they're not going to hear anything else

  Tom Lennox : No, actually Ellen, they'll hear the truth. Everybody in this country knows what happened today and now they're looking for reassurances that no matter how ugly this "thing" is, the President is in charge

  President Wayne Palmer : [to both of them]  listen, we don't have any tangible leads. If confidence is low, now if I go out there and I lie to the American public and tell them that "we're on top of this"? And some other bomb goes off somewhere, they won't believe a single word I say: that can't happen

  Tom Lennox : I agree Sir and that's why I see an opportunity here

  Karen Hayes : Opportunity?

  Tom Lennox : This bomb is going to remove any remaining doubt that we should be taking more aggressive "measures." Suspension of certain freedoms, internment, and deportation. Now is the time is to start hitting those topics

  Karen Hayes : Tom, you are counseling we embrace the politics of fear

  Tom Lennox : I am saying we "embrace" reality: we are afraid but if fear consolidates public support, for "measures" that saves our nation from extinction? Then you bet I am in support of fear

  President Wayne Palmer : Tom, the people can't be any more afraid than they are now. I would like this message to have a "calming" effect. Yes we will call this "a nuclear bomb" because that is what it is but if we expect civil order on those streets, we cannot "stow" the panic

  President Wayne Palmer : [to Ellen]  we're not going to mention policy in this speech. The American public just needs to know that every single member of this Administration is working with the single purpose of restoring order and making our streets safe again