Latest / Sid & Friends In The Morning / Nicole Parker | Former FBI Special Agent Says 9/11 Motivated Her to Join the Force

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Nicole Parker | Former FBI Special Agent Says 9/11 Motivated Her to Join the Force · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Nicole Parker is an amazing lady, was a great FBI agent.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Her new book is out a couple of months now,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The Two FBIs. In fact, Trump loves that book. She
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: told me this weekend that the reason why she became
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: an FBI agent was a direct result of what she
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: saw on 9-11. So joining me right now live from Miami,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: my friend, Nicole Parker.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Nicole, good morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: How are you?
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I'm doing pretty well. How are you?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'm doing pretty good. Pretty good. Even though it's a very,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: very tough week with Charlie's assassination Thursday on a much larger,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: larger scale, 9-11 on Friday. So you did tell me
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the last couple of days that what you saw that day,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that's why you joined the FBI, yes?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. I was barely 23 years old. I'm
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: originally from Houston, Texas, and I'd taken a job at
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Merrill Lynch. And I was actually working on an executive
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: team with Wynn Smith, who at the time was the
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: chairman of Merrill Lynch International. And I... Even to this day,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: 25 years later, it's almost as if no time passed.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I think that's what happens when you experience something highly traumatic.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I can remember exactly where I was the weekend before 9-11,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: two weekends before 9-11. I remember what I was wearing.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I still have the clothing that I was wearing. I
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: had the navy blue suit with a white sweater and
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: the navy blue heels that I was wearing when I
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: was running out of my building. Um, I remember what
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I was listening to that morning. This is back in
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the day when there were mixtapes and you had a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Walkman and I was on the subway commuting from the
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Upper West Side down to the World Trade Center. I
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: went to the one, uh, I was on the one
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: line on the red line going down the Cortland Street.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I remember walking out of the subway. I went through
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the underground mall of one World Trade Center, the commute
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: that I did every single morning. And And I will
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: never forget crossing that footbridge over the World Financial Center.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I was there early that morning. I arrived down at
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: the World Trade Center around 7.45 in the morning. It
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: was my brother's birthday. It was an election day. I
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: was going to take care of some personal business before
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: my workday started. And what we all experienced and what
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: I saw firsthand, it's just indescribable. It's incomprehensible. And as
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: when I didn't see the first plane, I only heard
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: it because I was at my desk, but it completely...
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: changed the world. It changed America. And I, it changed
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: me as a person. It was the most impactful day
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of my life from eight 46. I still have the
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: email that I sent to my father in Houston. Um,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I literally sent it at eight 49. I was absolutely terrified.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Where were you exactly? Nicole, how far from the trade center?
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I was very close. So the World Financial Center, I'm
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: sure you're very familiar with the financial district. The World
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Financial Center and the World Trade Center are actually connected
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: by just a simple footbridge that crosses over the West
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Side Highway. And so that's where I was. I was
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: at Merrill Lynch in the World Financial Center. And so
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I wasn't directly up against the building. So I could
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: see everything because I was close, but I wasn't, you know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I was in Tower One one hour before, but then
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I walked over to my office and I was in
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: my office when the actual first plane hit at 846.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And so it was, I just, it was indescribable. At
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: first we're like, what was that? And everyone thought it
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: was an accident. Oh, you know, a plane must've, a
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: small plane must've hit. We had no idea. I remember
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: we turned on the news in the conference room and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I was seeing it real time as the news was
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: trying to catch up to what was happening. And I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: remember thinking this, this is horrible. The first thought I
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: had was there are people dying up there and there
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: is nothing there. that we can do. And we didn't
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: know the cause, but we were terrified. And we were thinking,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you know, this must have been a terrible accident. How sad,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: that's so tragic. And you couldn't wrap your head around it.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is the World Trade Center and there
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: was just black smoke everywhere, flames. And we saw whole
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: sheets of paper, toilet paper rolls. And it was like confetti.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: It looked almost like confetti.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: You know what's crazy about that story? My parents lived
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. on Quentin road by Madison high school, believe
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it or not, there were papers from the world trade
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: center on my parents lawn in Brooklyn. And you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you know, you're an FBI agent and look, there's a
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: lot of real scumbags out there, Nicole.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: That say that, Oh, Sid, Mr. Israel first. That's what
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks call me these days, okay? You know,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Israel was the one that did this, or there were
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: no planes. How can you be that stupid? Clearly there
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: were explosives.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I saw it.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: No, I saw it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: It really is infuriating to me to hear these conspiracy theorists,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: because I was like, I was there. That is insulting
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: to the victims, to the survivors, to the fallen FDNY,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Port Authority Police Department, NYPD, all of those heroes. We
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: were there. We saw it. I felt it. I saw it.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: And then when that second plane came in, we're like, okay,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: this is not an accident. And that was the point when...
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I truly started to panic. I was terrified. I just thought,
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: what is going on? Like I'm, you know, this young
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: girl from Texas, just, you know, living the dream in
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: New York City on Wall Street. And then all of
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: a sudden it turned into a horrible nightmare. But the
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: worst part was when people started jumping. Yeah. And that,
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: that changes you.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: That was, believe it or not, that was the next day, Nicole,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the cover of the New York Post, September 12th, 2001
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was pictures of people jumping out of the building because
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: they thought that was an easier death than being burned
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: alive by jet fuel. That was the cover.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: They were hanging off the house because we could see it.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Like we could, I was close enough that we could
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: see it, whether they were hanging and gripping to the side, hoping,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I think what a lot of people, I can't be
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: in someone's head, but I know for me witnessing it,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: I'm like, Oh, why can't a helicopter get in there
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: and get these people off the side of the building?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: And my understanding was they couldn't get that close. It
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: was too hot. They couldn't do it. And so I
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: think it was just like, look, and we heard a
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: lot of the frantic phone calls in the aftermath of
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: those that were up there and they were just, they
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: were desperate. And I mean, when it comes around 9-11,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: especially this anniversary, I am glued to documentaries. I've been
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: to the 9-11 Memorial Museum. I want to learn more
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and more and more because I have such deep respect
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: for and frankly, heartbreak and love for these people and
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: what they endured and what they had to go through
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: at the hand of evil. Sid, can you imagine you're
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: just going to work, going about your day, and then
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden you're vaporized by an airplane at
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: no fault of your own, and you're just sitting there
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, one minute you're here and
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the next minute you're gone. And I learned some very valuable,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: valuable lessons from We need to stop worrying about stupid
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: stuff that doesn't matter because I can tell you when
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: your life is on the line, there was a moment
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: that I had in the, believe it or not, I
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: took the elevator. You're never supposed to take an elevator
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: in the middle of something like that because of a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: potential catastrophic event where you could be stuck in the elevator.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I didn't care. I followed my colleagues. I didn't know
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: what to do. We went and we took the elevator. Thankfully,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: we were fine. But there's a defining moment. I talk
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: about it in my book. Because you witnessed so much.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, people were jumping out of the North Tower
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: is what I saw out of One World Trade Center.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: And I just thought, wow, is my building going to
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: be next? Like, we're just right across the street. Is
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: my building going to be next? And my thought was,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: if I die today, am I ready to die? Hmm.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: And you literally have that thought in your mind. You're
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: not thinking of anything. You're thinking, am I prepared? I
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: believe that when we die, we meet our maker. And
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I just kept asking myself, am I prepared to meet
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: my maker? And that is what changed me. It was
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that moment in the elevator, in the midst of chaos.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I'm a very strong woman of faith. And I literally
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: felt God's love, even in the darkness. That is when
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I made a commitment. I said, one day I will
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: go back and I will serve my country. And it
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: was because of the people from the NYPD. I would
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: have been standing at the base of the World Trade
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Center if it wasn't for them. Because although it was
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: so horrifying to look at, you couldn't not look. Like
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: you couldn't wrap your head around it. It was a
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: terrible nightmare. But it was those first responders and the
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: law enforcement officers that I know many people were killed,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: but many people survived. And it's because of them. And
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: they are heroes. And we cannot forget all of the
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: people that said, get away from the buildings. They were
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: yelling at us. They were telling us to move. And
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: there were sirens blaring. It was chaos. There was debris everywhere.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: There was people jumping. And it was those people that
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: stayed behind to make sure that other people got out safely.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: And I'm telling you, that is the moment that I
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: knew on that elevator, getting out and going outside, I said,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I have to do something to give back. These people
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: have done everything to sacrifice for our country. The least
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: I can do is go back and serve and do something.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: And that's when I made the decision. I didn't go
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: to the FBI. I applied in 2009. I started in 2010.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: And that is why I joined the FBI.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: God bless you. God bless you, Nicole Parker.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: And that's what we all have to do. We have
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: to give back. We may not all be FBI agents.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: We may not all be FDNY or NYPD. But everyone
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: can make a difference in their sphere of influence wherever
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: you live. Helping your neighbor. Helping your friend. Thinking of others.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: That's all you have to do. Make a difference in
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: your sphere of influence or your community. And that's, in
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: my opinion, what we can do to best honor our
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: fallen heroes.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: In the final couple of minutes, a very emotional Nicole Parker,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: former FBI agent, read her book. It's a great book,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: The Two FBI. She's a wonderful lady down in Miami.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: One of the things you and I discussed quite a bit, too,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: is besides the horror that you witnessed firsthand, and I
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was on the air that morning. I say this all
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the time, talking about the football game the night before
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the Giants and the Broncos with Imus when that first
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: plane hit. And I lost a lot of friends in
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: that building that day, especially a bunch that were not
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: supposed to be there. They were traitors, but worked down
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: on Bond Street, other places. They were there for a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: big breakfast at Windows on the World. But you and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I have talked about this for a while, and that is,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: above and beyond the horror, which is bad enough, now
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the anger to see the governor, this tone-deaf governor, wearing
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a hijab in a mosque, and this mayor, who's radical Islam,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: who befriends people who said we deserve 9-11. These two
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: animals are going to be there on Friday. How disgusting
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: is that?
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: That is, it's incomprehensible to me what I saw that morning,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: but I think what was just the most beautiful thing
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: out of that is that all of America united, the
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: whole world united. We all were there for each other.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: We didn't care what political, there was none of that.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: It was like, you genuinely felt the love of complete
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: strangers on the street of New York, which never, ever happens. Okay.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: The city went into hibernation mode. I think for a
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: long time, like people just didn't go out. The city
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: was dead silent. And then when people started coming out,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: we were all there for each other. We helped each other.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: That's not like New York. That's not how it was
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: pre 9-11. It was an amazing and beautiful thing. 25
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: years later, I cannot wrap my head around the fact
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: that people say that we deserve September 11th. That is
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: absolutely abhorrent. It is disgusting. It is evil. And I'm
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: telling you, Sid, there is a battle going on between
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: good and evil and people need to pick what side
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: they're on. I know what side wins in the end.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: It's the good people. But anyone that thinks that we
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: deserve that, I'm sorry, you need to check yourself. And
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: that is disgusting to me. And the fact that look,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: everyone has their own opinions. You can elect whoever you want,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: but you know what? You're going to face the consequence
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: by electing certain individuals. And that's something that you have
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: to deal with across the board. And so I personally
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: was planning to attend the September 11th 25-year anniversary because
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: I was there. It's a part of my history. It
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: was the most impactful day of my life. And then
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: when I found out who was going to be in attendance,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: who was not going to be in attendance, as of
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: right now, I am not planning to be there, but
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I will pay my respects to from Florida, if I
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: make a last-minute decision to be there, because I do.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: It's about the families, the loved ones and our heroes.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, we need to shut
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: out the nonsense of these people that are making it
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: into a political circus. And look, their wishes are all
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: that matters. As an FBI agent, I always had a
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: victim-centered approach. It's what the families want. If they don't
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: want certain people there, they should not be there.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you brought that up. It's about the.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Families and the loved ones.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Let me play this for you. This is a young lady.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: She was on this show about three weeks ago. Her
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: name is Jeanette Pick. Her father, Joseph, was murdered. in
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the North Tower, I believe, that day. And I asked
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to flat out, because as far as I know, Giovanni
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Galante will join me in about 30 minutes. He's the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: man that started the petition. Over 100,000 people have signed it.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: He's going to join me in about a half hour.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: As far as I know, the overwhelming majority of the
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: 9-11 families don't want this creep mayor there. But here's
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Jeanette Pick, 26 seconds, Louis, cut number eight.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Dude, we don't.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Want you there. When I say we, I mean myself
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: and the only and the almost 90,000 people who have
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: signed the Change.org petition. I don't know how else we
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: can say this to you. We've, you know, we've gone
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: to the media. We've, you know, had a petition started. Literally,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Scott Lobato put it in skywriting. I don't know how
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: much clearer we can tell you. We don't want you there. Like, dude,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: I don't like what don't you get?
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: There you have it.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. You know what? They don't want
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: you there. You shouldn't show up. That is it. Bottom line,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: end of story. It's not about someone as a political leader.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I get that it is your job to take care
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: of your city, your state, whatever it might be. But
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: when those that are impacted, this is for them. This
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: is for them. And if they say no, then the
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: answer is no, please do not show up. I actually
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: think it's disrespectful to show up when someone is telling
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: you not to, because you know what? This is a
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: day of mourning for them. They never heal. This is
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: an unimaginable loss, Sid. These individuals who have lost their
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: loved ones, and I can tell you, it's the same
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: thing at the FBI, the Parkland school shooting victims. Anyone
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: that loses someone at the hand of evil, loses someone period,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: but definitely at the hand of evil. you don't heal
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: from that. And so whatever they wish to do in
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: their day of mourning and their day of remembrance, it's
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: a sign of respect to do what they wish. And
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: if that is their wish, then I think that those
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: that are being asked not to attend need to listen
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: because it's not about them. It's about the survivors, the victims,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: the loved ones, families. It is all about what they want.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: End of story. That's it.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Nicole Parker is always amazing appearance, so emotional and Really
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: beautiful this morning. Thank you for doing this today. And listen,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: keep keep by Nicole Parker. You're one of our greats.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you. And again, I have to say thank you
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: to all of our heroes and all of those that
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: lost their loved ones on September 11th. I will never
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: forget and I will do all of my power to
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: make sure that everyone around me does not forget either.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: So God bless.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you. God bless you too. Two FBIs is on
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Nicole's book.
• 15:32
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• 15:35
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• 15:40
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• 15:44
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• 15:49
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• 15:52
  Speaker 4: have to wonder
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here