Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer Retires Annual 9/11 Commemorative Tweets Months After Getting Hired By Saudi LIV Golf Tour

Sarah RumpfSep 11th, 2022, 9:51 pm
 
Ari Fleischer as GWBush Press Secretary

Photo by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images.

For years, Ari Fleischer has recognized the anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks on Twitter by sharing his minute-by-minute recollection of the day, but announced this year he would be retiring his tweeted commemorations — just a few months after he was hired as a consultant by the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.

As the White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush, Fleischer had a front row seat to history on that tragic day. Twitter didn’t launch until 2006, and Fleischer signed up his @AriFleischer account in 2009. He regularly shared his memories on the 9/11 anniversary, such as this tweet from 2011:

At some point — media reports vary but it seems to have started in 2013 or 2014 — Fleischer started an annual tradition of sharing a minute-by-minute chain of tweets covering his experiences that day, including photos and quotes from the president and other government officials, all drawn from his notes and conversations with other Bush White House staffers.

The tweets would go viral and get a lot of media coverage. As a sampling, NBC News covered it in 2014 (“Ari Fleischer Live-Tweets 9/11 Experience 13 Years Later“), the Washington Post in 2015 (“Ari Fleischer tweets what 9/11 was like behind-the-scenes“), Business Insider in 2016 (“Former White House official tweets gripping play-by-play of what it was like to be with Bush on 9/11“), and Huffington Post in 2017 (“Ari Fleischer Tweets His Gripping Eyewitness Account Of 9/11 Attacks“).

This year, however, Fleischer tweeted that he would not be live-tweeting the anniversary and did not intend to do so ever again, posting a thread saying that he skipped tweeting last year because he was at the 20th anniversary events at Ground Zero and would be on a plane this year, and also adding that it was “exhausting to relive the day,” and  it “wears me down to go through it, even though I am not the one who has suffered the most.”

“I’m still amazed by the reaction my tweets have gotten,” he concluded. “But now it’s time to let it rest. There is nothing new to say or reveal. Thank you for reading and for caring about our nation’s history. May God Bless America.”

Twitter users were skeptical of Fleischer’s explanation, with the majority of replies pointing out his new gig as a communications consultant for LIV Golf, the controversial Saudi-backed competitor to the PGA that has drawn criticism for its ties to a regime blamed for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — not to mention the fact that the majority of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

PR Week reported in June that LIV Golf had hired Fleischer Communications, the former White House press secretary’s firm, as a communications consultant, with Fleischer himself saying that the work encompassed “assisting on everything under ‘the comms consulting umbrella'” with “almost all” of his work on a retainer basis.

Fleischer helped moderate LIV Golf’s opening press conferences, and touted them to the PR Week reporter as “incredibly accessible, open, and reporters got what they wanted, which was access to the players.” He lauded his new client as “seeking to bring change to the sport, which not everybody wants,” but “it’s one of the best opportunities for players and an opportunity for fans to see golf in a different, more entertaining light.”

“Different, more entertaining light” is certainly one way to describe the new sports organization so far. PR Week detailed multiple moments of “awkwardness” at the initial news conferences, with an AP reporter escorted out by security “after arguing with an LIV official,” and another reporter asking several golfers if they would also be willing to play in a tournament backed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Former President Donald Trump is cashing in by hosting LIV Golf events at his unprofitable courses in Doral, Florida and Bedminster, New Jersey, after he was spurned by the PGA.

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Sarah Rumpf - Contributing Editor

Sarah Rumpf joined Mediaite in 2020 and is a Contributing Editor focusing on politics, law, and the media. A native Floridian, Sarah attended the University of Florida, graduating with a double major in Political Science and German, and earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the UF College of Law. Sarah's writing has been featured at National Review, The Daily Beast, Reason, Law&Crime, Independent Journal Review, Texas Monthly, The Capitolist, Breitbart Texas, Townhall, RedState, The Orlando Sentinel, and the Austin-American Statesman, and her political commentary has led to appearances on television, radio, and podcast programs across the globe. Follow Sarah on Threads, Twitter, and Bluesky.