Marlin Fitzwater
Press Secretary
Age at the Time: 46

Originally published Jan. 13, 2001

I had the distinction of being the only press secretary to go up the Hill with one President and down the Hill with another. My most vivid memory of the day was walking down the back of the Capitol steps after the swearing-in and stopping on the edge of the red carpet to watch the Reagans depart on the helicopter, Marine One.

I turned around, and President Bush and his wife were coming down the steps with Mr. and Mrs. James Baker, so I fell in beside them. We just stood at attention, and all five of us turned to go back inside. I was in tears and I was trying to hide it, and I looked up and both the new President and the Secretary of Treasury were crying as well. For all of us, it was just a terribly poignant moment. We got to the top of the steps, and I was able to peel off to another place. They had to go to a luncheon and dab at their eyes with handkerchiefs.

It was a remarkable juxtaposition of emotions. All of us coming into the office were also saying goodbye to a President we had worked with for eight years. It was really a very strange psychological moment, for a Vice President to take over the presidency when they had been so close.

After the parade, we went into the White House. I remember President Bush going into the Oval Office and looking at it as if he had never seen it before. I recall him sitting at the desk, opening the drawer, and finding a note President Reagan had left him. It said, "Don't let the turkeys get you down." President Reagan had written a congratulatory note below it, but I don't know what that said, exactly. The interesting thing for me was that I was there when one President wrote that note and when the other read it.

And then President Bush's mother came into the Oval Office and he offered her the chair that is normally for the Vice President and they just talked about the events of the day. All the family was coming in, and it seemed like there were hundreds of Bushes. I remember there were kids everywhere that day.

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