On the morning of September 11, 2001, Howard Lutnick brought his five -year -old son to school for his first Children’s Day, making Wall Street CEO arrived a little late to work at his World Trade Center office in New York City.
This delay ended up saving the life of Lutnick, who is now the United States Secretary of Commerce and has become a leading figure in the current trade war with Canada.
But on the 11th of 11, each of its 658 employees of the Investment Bank of Cantor Fitzgerald who was in the office that morning, including Lutnick’s younger brother, Gary, were killed when 1 WTC, the North Tower, was deliberately hit by the Airline Airline Airline Flight Flight. At that time, the firm had 960 New York -based employees.
Two days later, Lutnick appeared in Lutnick a moody and crying Lutnick on television, interviewed by news journalist ABC Connie Chung. Breaking down -several times during the interview, Lutnick described how he went from the hospital to the hospital, in search of employees still without counting.
« I don’t go to a hospital or make anyone go to a hospital and say, » Find Gary Lutnick for me, « he said. » I go with employees lists and say, ‘Here’ my list, here are everyone I have, find someone on this list. I don’t care who they are. ”
Suffered personal and personal loss
After the broadcast, Lutnick made other appearances in the media, especially in CNN with Larry King, and became a national figure, representing only one of those who had suffered both personal and professional losses.
His image certainly contrasts with what the Canadians see now: the Pitchman confident for the tariffs of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, against Canadian exports in the United States.
Since the announcement of February 1, Trump of the 25 percent rates on all the goods in Canada and Mexico that go to the United States, Lutnick, whose responsibilities as Secretary of Commerce include imposing commercial restrictions, has been making the rounds of North -American Media Networks, exploiting Canada for not doing enough to stop the flow of Fentanil, Rates, but there is also a possible exemption or commitment.
(Thursday, Trump announced that he was stopping rates on some Canadian goods until April 2)
But even before Lutnick became Secretary of Commerce, he had been a supporter of the Trump’s Tariff Plan and as part of the Trump’s inner circle, co -chair of his transition team.
When he was appointed Secretary of Commerce, Lutnick left as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, where, according to his website, he directed the signature for four decades and rebuilt it after the 11/11 terrorist attacks.
The firm then had offices between the first five floors of the north tower of 110 floors. When the plane flew to the 93 to 99 floors of the tower at 8:46 AM, those who worked above trapped.
« We have lost all people in our office »
The Lutnick’s company lost more employees than any other company at 11/11, more than two thirds of its labor force and more than a third of the total murder in the north tower.
« We have lost all the people in our office … All runners, all the merchants, all the sellers at work. We lost them all, » he said days later during an interview with Larry King of CNN.
Lutnick said that when he was at his son’s school that morning, his phone continued to sound and disconnecting.
« Later I learned that it was my brother Gary trying to call to say goodbye, » he said on a social media post on September 11, commemorating the attacks.
He also discovered that his brother had called his sister and told him that « he was not going to do it and the smoke came in and things were bad, » he told King, folding.
« And he called and said goodbye and he loved him and told me that he, who loved me. »
Lutnick said that when he finally arrived at the building, he saw people fleeing and « he would grab them and heed them, » asking what floor they were, in the hope of finding someone on the 101 to 105 flats, where the Cantor Fitzgerald offices were located, he told Chung.
« I knew if he had an employee, if a person came down from this floor, I know there should be others, » he said.
Lutnick came in contact with someone fleeing the building from the 91st floor, but nothing taller. It was then forced to run when the second World Trade Center tower began to collapse -after being hit by another plane.
He said he tried to advance the giant smoke, but was demolished below a truck. He was completely covered with dust and walked for hours, finally shouting his wife, he said.
Faced the reaction to cut the salary
That emotional and compelling interview with Chung generated a widespread sympathy, as the audience saw that the CEO of the Wall Street firm was broken.
But this sympathy was short. Lutnick faced a huge contempt soon when it became known that a few days after the attacks, he had cut off the salary of employees who disappeared and boasted dead at that time.
This setback included criticism of some of the widows of these employees. Chung made a tracking story, this time interviewing some of the widows angry with Lutnick’s salary ending.
« Don’t wait for these women to cry for Lutnick, » Chung reported. « Days after the tragedy, he did something that they cannot forgive or forgot. »
At that time, Lutnick acknowledged that he was making widows asking about the salary of his husbands.
« They tell me and they say to me, » How come you can’t pay my salary? Why can’t you pay my husband’s salary? Other companies pay their salary (dead and missing « ), why can’t you, » he told CNN’s King?
« But you see, I’ve lost everyone in the company, so I can’t pay the salary. They think we’re doing something wrong. I can’t pay the salaries, » said Lutnick, again crying.
However, he defended this decision to cut the payments and insisted that he had no choice.
« I needed my bankers to know that I was in control, » Lutnick said to the New York Times in a 2011 interview. « That he was not sentimental and was no less motivated or driven to survive my business. »
He promised his promise to provide families by 25 percent of the firm’s profits for the next five years, for $ 180 million, and pay their health care for the next ten years.
Shortly after the leadership of the United States President Donald Trump in Congress, CBC Katie Simpson, he encountered the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, who suggested that the rates against Canada could still be negotiated.
Meanwhile, some of the family members who had been critical of Lutnick reversed their opinion and praised their efforts.
Lutnick was able to rebuild and grow Cantor Fitzgerald and become a billionaire in the process. But the attacks of September 11, and those who lost their company, are still close to the surface.
Its confirmation audience recently in front of the United States Senate Commerce Committee, Lutnick was stifled while remembering the events of that day and the murders.
« I still can’t say -without exciting it, I’m sorry, » he said.
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