David Hume Kennerly

Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer

David Hume Kennerly

Kennerly Commencement Address at U of Arizona

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David Hume Kennerly’s address to the Commencement and SBS Convocation, 2021 graduating class of the School of Social Sciences & Behavioral Sciences, “The People College” at the University of Arizona, Tucson, December 17, 2021

What an amazing group!

Congratulations to the graduating Class of 2021. You have survived and triumphed over our ongoing Covid nightmare, and from the looks of it have not only emerged intact, but raring to get on to the next step.

I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for University of Arizona president Dr. Robert Robbins the driving force behind the university’s acquisition of my archive for the Center for Creative Photography, the CCP.  I’m assuming that also makes me an official Wildcat, but I don’t want to be presumptuous.  Your most excellent leader Dean John Paul Jones III has become a dear friend and invited me to speak today. Depending on how this goes you may or may not want to thank him.

It’s a real pleasure to speak to you. I’ve had my fair share of significant moments, but none of them include a college graduation, so each of you has already surpassed my academic achievements!

My dear friend Ansel Adams was co-founder of the CCP, I hope you know that his archive is right here on campus. I was privileged to take his portrait for the cover of TIME.

Ansel Adams on cover of TIME Magazine, September 3, 1979
Ansel Adams on cover of TIME Magazine, September 3, 1979

He is the first and only photographer to be featured there. Ansel was also a philosopher.  He said, “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, and the people you have loved.”

I thought I would share this with you because Ansel’s words apply not only to photography, but to life.

After graduating from high school in 1965 the world was changing in ways I couldn’t imagine.

Cops fight off protestors at San Francisco State College, 1968.
Cops fight off protestors at San Francisco State College, 1968.

I felt compelled to tell my generation’s story with my weapon of choice--a 35mm camera. That desire to document turned into a life-long journey that has (so far) produced hundreds of thousands of photos. I’ve photographed 11 presidents, traveled to more than 100 countries, been in several wars, saw the horror of Jonestown, and have produced movies and documentaries.

Five Presidents in the Oval Office, 2009. (former President George Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, former Presidents Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter)
Five Presidents in the Oval Office, 2009. (former President George Bush, President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush, former Presidents Bill Clinton & Jimmy Carter)

I’d like to pass along some wisdom from my dad, O.A. “Tunney” Kennerly who was a traveling salesman.

O.A. “Tunney” Kennerly, David Hume Kennerly’s dad, Portland, Oregon, 1967
O.A. “Tunney” Kennerly, David Hume Kennerly’s dad, Portland, Oregon, 1967

During his life he sold everything from plastic garden tools to automobiles. As a youngster I accompanied him around my home state of Oregon watching him sell people things they didn’t really need, or at least didn’t know they needed! One bit of advice he shared with me was, “If you want to get along with people don’t discuss politics or religion.” That advice might be more pertinent now than ever.

Observing Dad in action helped me understand his real secret. He was selling himself first. He put people at ease and made them laugh. Tunney was a genuine individual who liked his fellow humans and they liked him back. And bought his stuff.

His example helped me get behind closed doors with my camera.

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michell Obama, Inauguration Night, January 20, 2009
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michell Obama, Inauguration Night, January 20, 2009

I became very good at convincing (selling) politicians and others on the idea of letting me into their lives to document their important work and to photograph them in genuine moments.

One of my earliest assignments as a 19-year-old cub newspaper photographer was  covering Sen. Robert Kennedy’s visit to Portland. I set off on that mission with words from the managing editor ringing in my ears, “Don’t screw it up, kid.”

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Kennerly, Portland, Oregon, 1966
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Kennerly, Portland, Oregon, 1966

I arrived at the Portland Labor Hall where Kennedy was going to speak. It was so crowded I couldn’t get in. But I had to or possibly lose my job. I spotted a photographer who was travelling with Kennedy. I asked him, ‘How do you get through all these people?’

He was Bill Eppridge of LIFE Magazine, one of the world’s best. Sensing my panic he said, “Grab onto my coat.” He zigzagged through the crowd and deposited me right up on the stage. He added, “This is the best angle.”

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Portland Labor Hall, 1966
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Portland Labor Hall, 1966

It was also a career saver! This image that I made of Kennedy is still one of my most meaningful pictures.

Afterwards I followed the senator and his entourage out to the airport. RFK plunged into the cheering crowd then he dashed up the airplane’s steps.

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in crowd at Portland Airport, 1966
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in crowd at Portland Airport, 1966

But that’s not what rang my bell. THE moment, the one that’s so clear to me even now, was when Bill Eppridge followed Kennedy, stood on the top of the plane’s stairs then spotted me in the crowd. He flashed me a wink and a smile then turned and disappeared inside the plane. The door closed behind him, and the aircraft taxied out and took off into the night.

I was overwhelmed with emotion. Why? I wanted to be on that plane, to go where history was being made and to photograph the people making it. My path was suddenly clear.  I would run away and join the political circus. (Full circle note: I was right here on campus with him in 1968 when he made a campaign stop).

We’re all here because someone pointed us in the right direction. Somebody cleared away obstacles--or let us hang onto their coat. You haven’t had to walk alone. With luck you’ll run into compassionate and inspiring people like Bill Eppridge who will bless you with their drive, expertise, and most of all kindness.

Kennerly and Bill Eppridge, Jefferson, New York, 2012
Kennerly and Bill Eppridge, Jefferson, New York, 2012

A few months before Bill died I was able to thank him for helping me find my way. It’s hard to express how important that was for me.

As I was coming up through the ranks of photographers I had no idea what decades of my pictures might reveal. I never thought I would make it this far, and there were so many times when I almost didn’t. Overcoming fear to do my job was essential, but trust me, it didn’t make me less scared on occasion!

Kennerly under fire, Chon Thanh, S. Vietnam, 1972
Kennerly under fire, Chon Thanh, S. Vietnam, 1972

Getting the shot and telling the story is what drives me. An example is a picture that I took in Vietnam of a lone soldier carefully picking his way across a devastated hillside.

Lone Soldier above A Shau Valley, S. Vietnam, 1971 One of the photos from David Hume Kennerly's portfolio that won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Photography. The Pulitzer committee described this image as showing, Òthe loneliness and desolation of warÓ. " A Shau Valley, South Vietnam
Lone Soldier above A Shau Valley, S. Vietnam, 1971 One of the photos from David Hume Kennerly's portfolio that won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for Feature Photography. The Pulitzer committee described this image as showing, Òthe loneliness and desolation of warÓ. " A Shau Valley, South Vietnam

I saw him coming from across the way and moved to position where I could frame him through some shattered trees if he stayed on his path. I prayed he would hold that course. He did. That photo became the centerpiece of my Pulitzer Prize-winning portfolio of pictures I took in 1971.

So be patient. Wait for it. Think ahead. And most important don’t give up.  You never know what might come next!

Another Tunney Kennerly saying was, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” People can’t read your mind. They don’t know what you want.  It’s a tough choice because you might rightfully believe that an opportunity could disappear if you push too hard for it. So what? Take a chance. Even if the person you’re talking to is the President of the United States!

President Richard Nixon waves goodbye from his helicopter after resigning, August 9, 1974
President Richard Nixon waves goodbye from his helicopter after resigning, August 9, 1974
Gerald R. Ford Sworn in as President, East Room of the White House, August 9, 1974
Gerald R. Ford Sworn in as President, East Room of the White House, August 9, 1974

I was on the South Lawn of the White House lawn as Richard Nixon departed in disgrace after resigning the presidency. He was the first and last president to do that.

Two hours later Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the nation’s 38th president.

I had covered him for TIME Magazine while he was the vice president, and then watched him go right into presidential history.

Kennerly’s TIME Magazine cover of Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States of America
Kennerly’s TIME Magazine cover of Gerald R. Ford, the 38th President of the United States of America

I got along well with the vice president. He liked me and my pictures. I suspected he might ask me to become his chief photographer, but I wasn’t sure that I wanted the job.

Nixon’s photographer’s legacy was a rough road. He had extremely limited access to his boss, and his photographs showed it. History was not well-served and even though it wasn’t his fault he missed critical moments. There are few photos that show Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War and the Watergate cover-up that brought him down.  I could not and would not work under those restrictive conditions.

That night President Ford and I sat in his living room. He popped the question.

Cover of Kennerly’s book, “Extraordinary Circumstances”
Cover of Kennerly’s book, “Extraordinary Circumstances”

Would I like to be his personal photographer?

I told him I had misgivings and why. Then looked him right in the eye and said, “Mr. President, I would love to take the job, it would be an honor, but I have two conditions:  I report directly to you AND have total access to everything going on in the White House.” (To this day I still can’t believe those words came out of my mouth). President Ford appeared slightly flummoxed and stopped smoking his pipe.  I thought, “OK, I blew that one.” Then he laughed, and said, “You don’t want Air Force One on the weekends?”

Hallelujah! I hadn’t blown it.

Kennerly and President Ford walk along the White House Colonnade, 1975
Kennerly and President Ford walk along the White House Colonnade, 1975

I didn’t have to call my parents to tell them that the president offered me a job but I  told him to shove it. Ford understood that my wanting to always be “in the room” came from my desire to document his presidency from all angles – to create a visual record for history and that I didn’t want to miss anything.

The Ford presidency was one of my most rewarding and exciting assignments.

Gerald R. Ford in the Oval Office after becoming president, 1974
Gerald R. Ford in the Oval Office after becoming president, 1974

I faithfully, objectively, and I hope accurately, documented every moment of history that I could – and history happened 24/7 for the next two-and-a-half years. And yes, I spent hundreds of hours on Air Force One—but only when the president was on board!

Kennerly in the doorway of Air Force one, Portland, Oregon, 1974 (photo by Stanford Smith)
Kennerly in the doorway of Air Force one, Portland, Oregon, 1974 (photo by Stanford Smith)

Documenting history since the 60s has given me a unique perspective of our proud and imperfect nation. We are a place of heroes, villains, and those in between. But I remain an optimist.

No matter how powerful the lens, one person can’t capture it all. I believe my life's work can inspire confidence in our ability to improve as a people. It can also be a sobering reminder of how often we screw things up.

With luck my pictures will motivate a new and diverse generation (you) to be passionate chroniclers and not impartial observers (unless you’re a journalist, of course!) of our collective experience.

You can all participate in this idea. Whether you’re receiving degrees in American Indian Studies, Anthropology, Geography, History, Law, or any field, you can document your own point of view. There are social media vehicles to do that but more important, keep notes about your work and your unique perspective of the world around you. You’re seeing history every single day, so don’t let it slip away. And by all means, supplement those observations with photos!

The best line in any graduation speech is, “And in conclusion.” Here it is:

A long list of people helped and trusted me along the way.  The same goes for you. Look around. You’ll see family, friends, professors, and employers. Thank them for helping you to become the person you are, and for shaping the person you will become. We are all in this together. We’re not flying solo.

Good luck and love to the 2021 graduates of The People College of the University of Arizona. You now have the Wildcat wind at your back, and an incredible journey ahead.

I’m leaving you with one of my favorite photos. I took this on assignment for Bank of America. It even went viral!

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs former President George W. Bush at the opening of the National African Museum of History and Culture, 2016
First Lady Michelle Obama hugs former President George W. Bush at the opening of the National African Museum of History and Culture, 2016

This is First Lady Michelle Obama hugging former President George W. Bush at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and personifies an optimistic note on how we can get along, no matter what gender, color, or political party.  I hope it sums up how you feel today.

I love the University of Arizona’s motto:  Bear Down!

A scholarly cat watches Kennerly's commencement address. (Photo by John Rodrigues).
A scholarly cat watches Kennerly's commencement address. (Photo by John Rodrigues).
A selfie in Centennial Hall after commencement address to University of Arizona’s “The People College.”
A selfie in Centennial Hall after commencement address to University of Arizona’s “The People College.”

General Colin Powell: Soldier & Statesman

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“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Henry Lee’s eulogy honoring General George Washington could well have been written for General Colin Powell.

WASHINGTON DC - FEBRUARY: US Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell February 1991 in Washington, DC. Powell was overseeing military operations both stateside and in Operation Desert Storm during the war against Iraq that broke out in January 1991. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Our paths didn’t cross in Vietnam where he pulled two tours, the first in 1962-63, and then in 1968. During that second deployment Major Colin Powell was decorated for bravery after he survived a helicopter crash and single-handedly rescued three others from the burning wreckage, including his commanding general.

I first got to know Powell in 1991 when he was chairman of the JCS shortly after the U.S. launched Operation Desert Storm against Iraq after they invaded Kuwait.  I flew with him and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to Saudi Arabia where they met with CENTCOM commander General Norman Schwarzkopf in the war room in Riyadh. Schwarzkopf, like Powell, was another Vietnam vet who had also been wounded several times in combat. At this point the Allied forces had been bombarding the Iraqi forces from the air, and Cheney and Powell’s trip was the prelude to the ground invasion that would free Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s military occupiers.

SAUDI ARABIA - FEBRUARY 12: (L-R) General Colin Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, CENTCOM Commander General Norman Schwarzkopf and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz discuss plans for Operation Desert Storm (to re-take Kuwait from Iraq) February 12, 1991 in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Cheney and I knew each other since working closely together in the Ford White House, and he had invited me to accompany them on the Saudi trip. But Powell was new to me. I’m always comfortable around people who shared the Vietnam experience, and Powell was no exception. We immediately hit it off, and even managed to compare a few war stories on that long ride as only those who’ve been through the combat wringer can do. He was confidant, easy-going, and had a terrific sense of humor. Most people who rise through the ranks of the military tend to be rather humble and modest, and Powell was no different. That’s also where he started referring to me as “Kennerly,” and it stuck. Even George W. Bush picked up on it.

During the trip to Saudi Arabia we also visited a secret air base at an “undisclosed location.” Let’s just say it was out in the desert, and in Saudi that covers a lot of territory. I photographed Cheney and Powell addressing the troops framed by warplanes. It was a very dramatic setting, and a visual prelude to the upcoming ground war.

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When we returned to D.C., Cheney and Powell met with President George H.W. Bush to discuss battle plans, then appeared in the Rose Garden for a press conference. The picture typifies how the same people never seem to go away until they pass away.

WASHINGTON DC - FEBRUARY: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) U.S President George H.W. Bush and staff brief the press on the front steps of the White House in regards to the 1991 war with Iraq February 1991 in Washington, DC. Standing next to Bush is Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (L, with eyeglasses), General Colin Powell (r, in uniform), Vice President Dan Quayle (c, back). In the far back stands National Security Advisor Brent Skowcroft (L, holding notebook) and Secretary of State Jim Baker (c, between Quayle and Bush). (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

It was a who’s who, who was who, and who would be who of American politics moment. (left to right), National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, also NSC advisor to President Gerald Ford. CIA Director Robert Gates, future Secretary of Defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, former White House chief of staff for President Gerald R. Ford, congressman, and later Vice President of the United States for President George W. Bush. Vice President Dan Quayle, was a U.S. Senator, and congressman. Secretary of State James Baker, former White House chief of staff and Treasury Secretary for President Ronald Reagan, and later chief of staff for Bush 41. President George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s vice president, CIA Director for Ford, U.S. Ambassador to the UN for Nixon, and congressman. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell, NSC advisor to President Reagan, would become Secretary of State for President George W. Bush. Whew!

Two years later, and during his final months as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, LIFE Magazine assigned me to photograph Powell before he retired from the Army. One of my prized possessions, now in my archive at the Center of Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, is a letter from Powell essentially agreeing to my proposal, but I had to negotiate the terms of my access. He was no pushover, but it ended up working out.

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The highlight of my coverage was a trip that Powell made to Somalia to visit U.S. troops. They were there to help starving people whose lives had been torn apart by war. The operation was Powell’s baby. To underscore that point Powell visited a hospital and held up a newborn child whom the mother named “Colin” in appreciation for America’s help. It might go down as one of the more unusual situations I have photographed, and Powell seemed to enjoy it.

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General Powell loved his troops and they loved him.  He was a rock star to them. They all wanted to have their photo taken with him, and I obliged as many as I could. Powell seemed happiest when he was around his fellow soldiers, and I could see why they liked him. He wasn’t asking any of them to do something he hadn’t already done.

SOMALIA - APRIL: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES ) General Colin Powell smiles with U.S. soldiers1993 in Somalia. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

We also paid a visit to the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship that was cruising of the coast of Somalia in support of the operation. Powell addressed the sailors and Marines on board, and received cheers and applause.

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I caught a quiet moment of him on the ship as he reviewed some documents.

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Back in the states I got a look at Powell the grandfather as he raced across the lawn near his quarters at Ft. Myer with his delighted grandson. He told me that one real regret he had was never getting enough time with his family.

VIRGINIA - APRIL: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES ) General Colin Powell with his grandson at Fort Myer Military Community April 1993 in Fort Myer, VA. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

On the last day of the assignment I rode with Powell on his helicopter back to the Pentagon.  As he looked out the window I had a feeling that there was more in store for him after he left the military.

Flash forward two years later. 1995. People in both political parties were encouraging Powell to run for president. I wrote Powell a letter encouraging him to jump in and also telling him that if he did I would like to cover his campaign. I added that if he won I would also happily become the chief White House photographer for the second time.  But alas, he didn’t go for it, citing a lack of passion for politics. He later told me he absolutely would have had me along for the ride. My close-up observation of thirteen presidential campaigns is that most people who run for president would step over their mother’s body to get to the White House. Powell (and Gerald Ford) were not among them.

CRAWFORD - DECEMBER 16: President elect George Bush announces his first cabinet appointment of General Colin Powell as Secretary of State on December 16, 2000 at an elementary school in Crawford, Texas, near the Bush's ranch. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

But Powell was not out of the game. On Dec. 16, 2000, President-elect George W. Bush named Powell as his choice for Secretary of State, the first Black person to achieve that position. At the announcement in Crawford, Texas, Powell thanked Bush for not holding the ceremony at his nearby ranch and joked, “I’m from the South Bronx,” he said, “and I don’t care what you say, those cows look dangerous.” Bush picked Condoleezza Rice as his NSC adviser. She would replace Powell as Secretary of State four years later.

Powell’s relationship with VP Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was not always warm and fuzzy, but early-on they appeared to get along fine. On one occasion I was with them in Rumsfeld’s office at the Pentagon when Powell became the butt of a joke, and laughed along with them. It was genuinely good natured at that moment, but wasn’t always that way. However, in a statement issued by former VP Cheney after Powell died he said, "I'm deeply saddened to learn that America has lost a leader and statesman. General Powell had a remarkably distinguished career, and I was fortunate to work with him. He was a man who loved his country and served her long and well."

WASHINGTON - APRIL: (L-R) Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell in Rumsfeld's Pentagon office April 2001 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

The graceless Donald Trump on the other hand said, "Wonderful to see Colin Powell, who made big mistakes on Iraq and famously, so-called weapons of mass destruction, be treated in death so beautifully by the Fake News Media. Hope that happens to me someday. He was a classic RINO, if even that, always being the first to attack other Republicans. He made plenty of mistakes, but anyway, may he rest in peace!"  Congresswoman Liz Cheney, the former Vice President’s daughter, called Trump’s words “pathetic garbage.”

Seven months after Powell became Secretary of State TIME Magazine ran a cover story with the headline, “Where Have You Gone Colin Powell?” The story accused him, among other things, of, “leaving shallow footprints.” It was pretty much a hose job, and Powell was pissed. The day it came out he pulled me aside to vent about the story. (I was working for Newsweek then, fortunately for me). I said, “Who cares, they ran a great photo of you on the cover, and that’s all anyone will remember.” Three days later I ran into him again, and he was wearing a big smile. “Goddammit Kennerly, you were right!  Everyone told me how great that story was, they must not have even read it.” I said, “General, you have just discovered the power of photography, so you better treat me nice.” He laughed. Three days later was September 11, 2001, and that Powell story was instantly forgotten.

What’s not ancient history is Powell’s speech at the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003. In it he tried to convince them and the rest of the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for war. It turns out they didn’t, but the war did. Powell told Barbara Walters in 2005 after he left the Bush Administration, that the speech was a “blot” on his life. He said “It will always be part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now.”

Three years ago as I was walking into Union Station in Washington, D.C. I heard someone yell, “Hey Kennerly!”  I turned around and there was General Powell standing by his car after dropping his wife Alma off. We shared a hug. That was the last time I saw him.

General Colin L. Powell. A good guy. I will miss him.

IN FLIGHT - 1996: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) General Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs Colin Powell aboard a Blackhawk heliocopter arriving at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. 1996. GETTY IMAGES UPLOAD 03/10/03 bad scan
Final farewell. General Colin Powell is carried from the Washington National Cathedral by members of his beloved U.S. Military after his funeral service, November 5, 2021

Final farewell. General Colin Powell is carried from the Washington National Cathedral by members of his beloved U.S. Military after his funeral service, November 5, 2021

In and Out of Afghanistan

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September 11, 2001. I was in Washington, D.C. on an assignment for Newsweek. Just before 9 a.m. I tuned in to ABC’s Good Morning America. They were holding on a live shot of the North Tower of the World Trade Center where it appeared that an airplane had crashed into the building. It was smoking and on fire. Minutes later, at 9:03 am, a jetliner streaked in from the right side of the screen and smashed squarely into the adjoining South Tower. A ball of flame exploded a millisecond later. It became instantly clear that this was a coordinated and unprecedented attack on the United States. I grabbed my cameras and headed to my office at Newsweek on Pennsylvania Avenue a block from the White House. I wondered if they were going to attack the nation’s capital next. They did.

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The Pentagon was hit by hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 at 9:37 am, shortly before I arrived at Newsweek. I immediately went out on the deck where I could clearly see the Department of Defense across the Potomac River. Thick black smoke billowed from its west side. I started shooting photos, and also placed a camera on a tripod and trained it on the U.S. Capitol. God only knew what was going to happen next, and I wanted to be ready.

The rest of the day was a blur. The only good news was that neither the Capitol or the White House were attacked thanks to the heroic crew and passengers aboard the fourth hijacked plane, United flight 93. The people aboard fought to retake control of the plane and it crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania before the hijackers reached their target in Washington. Everyone on board died, but most likely the U.S. Capitol Building itself was spared.

WASHINGTON - - Sept 12:The day after. A giant American flag is unfurled by military personnel and firefighters next to where a plane crashed into the Pentagon, September 12, 2001. (David Hume Kennerly/Center for Creative Photography/University of Arizona).

I had became close with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his wife Joyce when I worked with him during President Gerald R. Ford’s Administration. He was White House chief of staff, and then Ford appointed him the 13th (and youngest) Secretary of Defense in 1975. He returned to the post in 2001 when President George W. Bush made him the 21st SECDEF.  Knowing Rumsfeld was at the Pentagon when the plane flew into it, I called Joyce to see how she was doing, and asked about her husband. She told me that she was in shock and that Don had been in his office when the plane hit the other side of the building, but that he was okay. He had also helped pull people from the burning building. In all 184 people died there, including 125 people in the Pentagon, 53 passengers, 6 crew, and 5 hijackers.

The horrors of that day would lead to the longest war that America has ever fought.  Like all wars the end was heartbreaking, messy, and tragic to many.

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At 5 a.m. the next morning I met up with Rumsfeld at his home and rode with him to the Pentagon. His first stop was at the crash site where he talked to first responders, thanking them for their brutally hard work. That early morning visit would become a ritual with Rumsfeld. Later that day President George W. Bush came to see the damage. A giant American flag was unfurled by firemen and military personnel near where the plane crashed into the building. It was an emotional moment for all of us who saw it. My photograph of Bush and Rumsfeld against the backdrop of the crash site was a grim illustration of what had happened the day before. Afterward they gathered in a conference room with the Pentagon’s top brass to discuss what to do next. The smell of burning jet fuel and smoke still permeated the building.

On Sept. 13th I again joined Rumsfeld on his short drive from Northwest Washington across the Potomac to the Pentagon. We immediately went to the site, and he again talked to rescue workers who were still searching for victims. A few minutes later his security guards urgently informed him that another attack might be imminent, and he had to get out of there. We jumped back in his car and left the area. Rumsfeld had previously scheduled a secure  phone call with Secretary of State Colin Powell and instructed his driver to head to the State Department where he could meet Powell in person. As we were driving past the Federal Reserve a block away from State he told the driver to pull over. “Turn around and head back to the Pentagon,” he said, “I’m not going to let terrorists control my life.” I said, “Do you mind if I jump out?” He chuckled, knowing I was kidding, and we sped back to the Pentagon. The attack didn’t happen, but the rumors kept flying. He never let them force him away from the Pentagon again.

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Under the direction of Secretary Rumsfeld the U.S. went into overdrive to plan a strike at the heart of Al-Qaida and their Taliban protectors in Afghanistan.  Rumsfeld didn’t like the terminology “war on terror” but that’s how it was defined by President Bush, and that is how most people looked at it. He also thought it was a mistake to personalize the operation by putting major emphasis on Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammed Omar. He also thought catching them or killing them was unlikely. However, Rumsfeld was all-in on making sure the attackers were made to pay for their crimes, and that became his central mission.

10/4/01, enroute to Tashkent Overhead view of then interior of the C-17 cargo plane carrying Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and party to Uzbekistan from Egypt. Rumsfeld is at the right of table in blue shirt. photo by David Hume Kennerly

In early October I joined Rumsfeld as he set out on a trip to visit with leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. The purpose was to inform them of the American plans to enter Afghanistan, and he wanted to make sure they were on board. They were. He met with Omani ruler Sultan Qaboos in a tent in the desert. The Sultan, a friend of the West, became emotional talking about 9-11, and told Rumsfeld he thought the attacks should be a wake-up call for Americans about the dangers of Islamist extremism. He offered up  the Omani controlled Masira Island in the Arabian Sea as a C-130 base. Rumsfeld’s meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov also went well, and he gave the green light to allow U.S. special operators to use that country as a jumping off point against Afghanistan. Rumsfeld’s last stop in Turkey also extracted a promise to lend  cooperation and military assistance for the upcoming operation.

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When Rumsfeld returned to Washington after his trip he transmitted President Bush’s order authorizing Operation Enduring Freedom to CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks who would run the show. The game was on. Early on October 7th I was in Rumsfeld’s office during the first attack and photographed him watching a video released by Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden saying the United States would fail to oust them from Afghanistan and calling for jihad against the West. I got the definite impression from Rumsfeld that he was pretty sure OBL and company were going to lose. Rumsfeld’s chief of staff Larry DiRita, senior military assistant Vice Admiral Ed Giambastiani, and chief counsel William Haynes were with him at the outset among many others.

Washington DC, Oct. 7, 2001 Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld watches Osama bin Laden and ? as U.S. and British forces attacked terrorists in Afghanistan. photo by David Hume Kennerly
Washington DC, The Pentagon, Oct. 7, 2001 Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld and aides monitor the progress the strike against terrorists in Afghanistan in Rumsfelds's office at the Pentagon. exclusive photo by David Hume Kennerly

Four days later, a month to the day after the 9-11 attacks, the tragedy was remembered in a solemn ceremony at the Pentagon. Everyone who attended was given a small American flag that they held in front of them. President Bush was no exception.

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Rumsfeld made a low-key visit to Afghanistan on December 16, 2001 and I went with him. He was the highest ranking official to visit there in 25 years. American-led forces had displaced Al-Qaeda and their Taliban hosts after the 9-11 attacks on the United States. Rumsfeld sat on a folding chair next to Hamid Karzai in a room with camouflage netting and the 82nd Airborne’s symbol on the wall. The meeting took place at the old Soviet Bagram Airbase a few days before Karzai became president of the country. The place was littered with Soviet-era MiG fighter jets and other airplanes that had fallen into disrepair. American helicopters were lined up and flying around the area. Those Soviet piles of junk, along with the American hopes and dreams for the country, have now been joined by U.S. military hardware abandoned by our forces.

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BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN - APRIL 4: U.S. soldiers April 4, 2002 at Bagram Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

In 2002 Bertram van Munster and I produced a series for ABC called “Profiles from the Front Lines” about special forces and other soldiers in Afghanistan. I returned to Bagram where Big America was alive and well, and bringing in U.S. goods by the megaton.  While there I photographed weary American soldiers returning from patrol, and had my tent blown away by fierce winds one night. A minor inconvenience considering what the troops went through everyday.

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I also went out on the U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy operating in the North Arabian Sea where I photographed combat operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom that were in full swing protecting American soldiers on the ground. In one instance an F-14 Tomcat flew by the ship breaking the sound barrier and produced one helluva picture.

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SONIC BOOM A jet fighter drops flares and breaks the sound barrier as it flies by the U.S. aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Pakistan. The carrier was conducting combat operations into Afghanistan.

One of my most significant trips to Afghanistan was in April of 2012 at the invitation of Eileen O’Connor, a friend and colleague who was working for the U.S. State Department. She asked if I would be interested in giving lectures around the country to students, and meeting with working journalists and photographers. I was all for it. I love what I do, and particularly like sharing experiences and ideas with your people who want to enter the field.

I’ll never forget being picked up by a driver at Kabul International Airport who would take me over to the U.S. Embassy compound where I would be staying. I asked him how things were going, and he said great, there hadn’t been an attack in Kabul in months. Oh jeez, I thought. That’s like talking about how there’s no traffic on the 405 right before it slams to a halt. Yep.

DUBAI TO KABUL -- APR 14: The flight from Dubai, UAE to Kabul, Afghanistan, , April 14, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly)DUBAI TO KABUL -- APR 14: The flight from Dubai, UAE to Kabul, Afghanistan, , April 14, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly)

The next day I was conducting a workshop for more than a dozen Afghan photographers at a compound a block from the Parliament Building. I was accompanied by Esperanza Tilghman from the U.S. Embassy who was handling my logistics. I’d been talking and showing photos for about 15 minutes when gunfire and explosions erupted nearby. It was a full-on terrorist attack against the Parliament and other government building and embassies right down the street. We were trapped, no getting in or out, it was way too dangerous. So against the backdrop of small arms and machinegun fire, and with nowhere to go, I decided to carry on with the show. In one ironic moment I was showing some Vietnam pictures as another loud explosion rocked the building accompanied by the crackle of rapid-firing AK-47s. (I knew that sound well from Vietnam). Esperanza was in touch with the U.S. Embassy, and they were also under attack. She said they were considering sending a rescue force, but I said no, it would be way too dangerous for any vehicles coming up that street. It was a war zone out there. After a few hours the fighting subsided, and we were able to get out in the car that brought us. Esperanza was totally cool under fire, and I was glad she was along for the ride. At the end of that siege around Kabul more than 40 militants were killed, 18 of them just a few hundred yards from us. When I got back to the embassy Eileen asked me if I wanted to stick around or head back to the U.S.  I chose to stay.

What compelled me was my belief in the First Amendment, particularly freedom of the press. So many of my colleagues have died telling the story, and are a tribute to the guarantees we have been given by the Founders. Of course it works differently everywhere else. My audiences were really taken with the notion of a free press and wanted to know more, so I couldn’t just sky out on them. I lectured at Herat and Kabul Universities, and to press agencies, newspapers, camera clubs, anywhere where people would listen. In all I talked to several hundred Afghans.  I also visited schools where young men and women were learning how to paint and draw.

KABUL -- APR 15: Scenes around Kabul, Afghanistan and Kabul University, April 15, 2012 (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images).

A few days ago I had a conversation moderated by Rick Smolan with Afghan photographer Massoud Hossani.  I was deeply moved by Massoud’s comments about losing his country and knowing that he can’t go back. Massoud won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his shocking photo of a girl crying among the dead bodies of people killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul. Despite being badly injured in the blast, Massoud continued to photograph the aftermath.

In our conversation he said that the Americans showed Afghan people the path to democracy, then pulled the rug out from underneath them. Although it’s hard for me to understand what that would be like, I have some idea. During my 2012 trip I could see the hope in the eyes of those I talked to as they looked toward a brighter future for their country, one where democracy could flourish. But that is gone. As Massoud put it, “The Americans have turned control of my country over to the Taliban, the largest and most dangerous terrorist organization on the earth.” He also blamed the corrupt regime of President Ashraf Ghani and others for the swift fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. What’s particularly painful is that all those students and journalists I talked to will most likely be targets of the Taliban for the simple act of pursuing their craft.

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I feel complicit. I was one of those who pointed to that shining city on a hill that represents an idealistic world of individual freedom and optimism. That’s what I’ve always felt and believed.  But it’s not the way it has turned out in Afghanistan. The photo that symbolizes where things are now I took in Herat. It shows a shrouded woman walking. She casts a shadow on the pavement.  She is alone.

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Four Days of The Mayaguez

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On May 12, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Vietnam, President Gerald R. Ford faced another international crisis: an American cargo ship, the SS Mayaguez, was captured by Khmer Rouge forces off the coast of Cambodia near Kom Pong Som. The drama played out over four days in Cambodia, and inside the White House where life and death decisions were made to end the crisis. I was in the room documenting what happened. My son Byron Hume Kennerly recently interviewed me on video about the incident.

After word of the ship’s capture reached the president the administration tried to secure the release of the crew through diplomatic channels.  They sent messages through the Chinese who were allies of the Khmer Rouge. There was no reply, however, and some doubt that anyone, including the Chinese, really knew who was running the show in Cambodia. The president was certain of one thing, he had to get the crew back, and fast. The National Security Council was called into emergency session, and contingency plans were presented to the President Ford, ranging from massive B-52 strikes around the capital of Phnom Penh to more localized military operations.

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Throughout the discussions I shot photographs of the NSC meetings that were primarily held in the Cabinet Room. Assembled around that big table were the nation's big shots: the President, Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of the CIA, Chief of Naval Operations, the White House Chief of Staff, and well you get the picture.

The debate of course centered on the problem of releasing the captured ship. Each proposed solution assumed the existence of a viable government in Phnom Penh, one that would cave in under military pressure. One option on the table was darkening the skies above Cambodia with B-52s and bombing the shit out of them, bringing the Khmer Rouge to their knees. That seemed like a particularly bad option to me.

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I’d never spoken out in a presidential meeting, but this time I couldn't contain myself. I might have been the only person in the room who had ever been in Cambodia, in fact the CIA had flown me in there a few weeks earlier on a fact-finding mission on March 29th just days before the country fell to the Communists.

"Has it occurred to anyone," I asked the startled group, "that this whole thing may have been the act of one local commander taking matters into his own hands and seizing the ship?"

The President did not choose to exercise his strongest option, and the B-52s never took off from Guam. Instead, Navy fighters from a nearby aircraft carrier made an air strike around Kom Pong Som, and the Marines landed on a small island where the seamen were thought to be held. Ford also ordered jet fighters to blow some Cambodian patrol vessels out of water. The local attacks, Captain Miller of the Mayaguez later said, saved him and his crew. I photographed the President jubilantly announcing to his top aides that the crew had been released. You could almost see the weight of the last three days lift from the president's shoulders as he spoke.

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It’s worth noting also that In some of the Mayaguez meetings, the president’s advisers offered up hypotheticals on how certain decisions might “play.” They wanted to make sure the world knew that America might still use overwhelming force in achieving its ends. Mr. Ford didn’t want to hear that. He had no bloodlust. He knew Vietnam was a debacle; it had been his painful duty to oversee the end of that horrible chapter of American history. But he refused to make innocent Cambodians pay for America’s mistakes in Vietnam.

The photo of the president, glasses on his head as he makes a key decision is emblematic of him finally making the presidency his own. If it needs a word to describe it and him, “resolute” comes to mind. The man I came to know, admire, and love had a quiet and powerful sense of self, and he easily passed that confidence on to all who surrounded him.

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An avid golfer to the end, he would never surreptitiously nudge his ball to improve his lie, and that was a central theme to his character. No single picture will ever sum up the life of President Ford.  One picture does, however, cast a momentary glimpse into the soul of a man who will be missed in an era where character doesn’t seem to count as much as it did then.

50th Anniversary of the “Fight of the Century”

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In late 1970 I hounded the bosses at United Press International (UPI) to send me to Vietnam to cover the fighting. The opportunity was slipping away as the U.S. withdrew its troops and transferred the responsibility of conducting the war to the government of South Vietnam. As a young news photographer this was the biggest American story of my generation, the kind I lived to tell, and I didn’t want to miss it.

In January of 1971 UPI finally agreed to transfer me to Saigon. I was going to replace Kent Potter who had been covering Vietnam for three years. Potter and I were the same age, 23. I was really excited about finally being able to get to the action. Although several photographers had died there over the years, I hadn’t let that bother me, until two weeks later on February 10, when four photographers were shot down in a helicopter over Laos and were killed. A personal hero of mine Larry Burrows of LIFE, Henri Huet of AP, Keisaburo Shimamoto of Newsweek, and UPI’s Kent Potter who was supposed to switch out with me. Although I didn’t know Potter it freaked me out to think of stepping into his job under these circumstances. What was I doing? This was seeming totally nuts and even more dangerous all of a sudden.  I started to have grave second thoughts, but the idea of changing my mind and not going seemed like an even worse option. I also didn’t want to look back years later and regret not doing it, an even scarier thought.

The next few weeks turned into one big going away bash. It seemed like I and everyone else thought this was going to be a one-way trip, so the theme became, Let’s Party!

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As a parting gift to me, or perhaps a guilty farewell present because they knew I was going off to my death, the UPI brass offered me a coveted assignment. A ringside position at the Ali-Frazier “Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 8th.  It was my last domestic job before shipping out to Vietnam.

When fight day arrived I was totally fatigued from too much booze, cigarettes, and fun . . . The afternoon of the fight I could barely move. I was staying at friend and mentor Dirck Halstead’s place in NYC. As I was preparing to drag myself out the door to go the fight he took one look at me and said, “Jesus Kennerly, you look like shit, here, take this pill.” I had no idea what it was, but I definitely needed something.

By the time I got to the Garden I was on fire. My eyes were wide, my reflexes cat-like. The spiderwebs had been exorcised from my brain. Bring ‘em on,  I couldn’t wait for the main event.

Screen Shot by David Burnett of me Photographing Fight.
Screen Shot by David Burnett of me Photographing Fight.

I was squeezed in between three other photographers as we all leaned over the apron of the ring trying to shoot under the ropes.  Turned out I couldn’t miss. In the fifth round I froze Frazier as  he drove a right hook into Ali’s head that ricocheted off his face. It happened in a nanosecond. Ali’s expression was contorted by the force of the blow.

NEW YORK -- MARCH 8: Muhummad Ali takes a hit from Joe Frazier during their heavyweight match in Madison Square Garden, March 8, 1971, (photo by David Hume Kennerly)

As the fight culminated in the 15th and final round it appeared that Frazier was ahead.

Smokin’ Joe sealed the deal with a lightning-fast left hook that knocked Ali off his feet. This video shows just how fast it all happened.

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I caught The Greatest as he headed down. In my head it was slow motion, in reality it was a fraction of a second, and I nailed it.

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The final bell rang, and Frazier raised his gloved hand in victory right above me. After the fight, Larry DeSantis, UPI’s chief editor, congratulated me on my coverage.

I woke up the next morning to see my Ali knockdown photo on the front of the New York Times. It was also my 24th birthday. I also scored the front of the New York Daily News with my image of Frazier landing the right to Ali’s head. Being published on page one of both those papers when they had several of their own photogs at the event was unprecedented, and my colleagues most likely weren’t happy about it.  I was probably going to be safer in Vietnam! That photo of Ali falling also became part of my Pulitzer portfolio for the work I did in 1971. It included photos from the Vietnam War, Cambodia combat, and refugees pouring into India from East Pakistan.

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The only other person who caught that decisive moment was Elliot Erwitt who was up in the stands shooting for Magnum.

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His wide shot must have been taken within a millisecond of mine, because it happened so fast and ended almost as soon as it started. I am in Elliott’s frame, second from left of the four photographers on the apron in the foreground as Ali goes down.

The day after the fight I asked Dirck what the hell he gave me. “That was a purple heart,” he said. (Further research revealed that the tag came from the pill’s triangular shape and blue color. Officially it was Dexamyl, a mood elevator that was an amphetamine/barbiturate combo). First and last time I took one of those, but who knows what would have happened otherwise. One thing’s certain, and this can be corroborated by family and friends, I usually produce plenty of my own energy, and that’s normally how I fly!

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How To Transition

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President Gerald R. Ford held his first meeting with President-elect Jimmy Carter on November 22, 1976, thirteen years to the day after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It was the first time Carter had been in the White House.

The two sat in the Oval Office under the portrait of George Washington that hangs over the fireplace. After the press “photo op” they were alone. I was behind the president’s desk looking for an angle when President Ford unexpectedly reached out and shook hands with Carter, saying, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t formally congratulated you on winning the election.” It was a spontaneous moment not for the public benefit, but a genuine signal of respect. My wide angle frame of that gesture featured the desk in the foreground, covered with papers. On the other side of that historic room, the man who would be president shook hands with the man who was. In my mind it showed the vastness of the job with mere mortals in temporary custody of its powers.

President Ford had conceded to Carter the morning after the election, and pledged a smooth transition. Ford’s chief of staff Dick Cheney led the effort for the president, and Jack Watson for Carter. Ford told Cheney to take the lead in the process, and that’s what he did. Ford’s cooperation even went back to before Carter was elected. Right after he was nominated at the Democratic convention in New York, the president directed that Carter be given highly classified intelligence briefings so he would be more prepared if he won the election. To show his seriousness about it, the president had the head of the CIA, George H.W. Bush, personally brief Carter at his home in Plains, Georgia.

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By the time Carter got to the White House for his initial visit, three weeks had elapsed since the election, but the transition was fully underway. The two met privately, and discussed every element of the job, particularly what was happening in the area of national security. Cheney and Watson, along with Counsellor Jack Marsh, talked in the Cabinet Room before joining the oval office meeting. The president and Carter went through binders filled with material that had been provided by the Ford team. They talked about everything from family to foreign leaders.

WASHINGTON DC - NOVEMBER 22: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) President-elect Jimmy Carter meets President FordÕs longtime personal secretary, Dorothy Downton, in the presidentÕs private study November 22, 1976. President Ford offered Carter the use of the office during the transition.(Photo by David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images)

As their meeting ended, President Ford told President-elect Carter that he wanted to show him something. They went to his private “hideway” right next to the oval office. Ford’s personal secretary Dorthey Downton was there. President Ford made a from-the-heart offer. He said, “Jimmy, I’d like you to have this office during the transition if you want.” He told the president-elect that he would be available to him anytime. Carter seemed taken aback at the proposal. Ms. Downtown, on the other hand, appeared to regard Carter as if he had just landed from Mars. Like many of us, this wasn’t a visit she had been welcoming.  As magnanimous as was the proposition to take over his private office, neither Cheney or Watson thought it was a good idea, and apparently not the president-elect either. He didn’t want to muddy the waters as to whom was in charge until he took over, and he spent most of his transition time back home in Plains.

When the two leaders walked out of their meeting to greet the press, President-elect Carter told them, “There cannot have been a better demonstration of unity and friendship and good will than there has been shown to me by President Ford since the election. I believe that this year's debates and the election itself has reached a conclusion which leaves our country unified, and I have expressed many times in the last few weeks my deep appreciation to President Ford for the gracious way in which he has welcomed me.”

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President Ford responded by saying that he had, “re‐emphasized to Governor Carter that my administration would cooperate 100 percent in making certain that the transition would he carried out in the best interest of the American people.”

When they finished talking to reporters after their meeting, President-elect Carter turned to President Ford before walking to his car and said, “God bless you.”

On his final half-day in the White House on January 20, 1977, President Ford was particularly anxious to thank the White House Residence staff for all they had done for him and his family in the two and a half years that they occupied 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He popped into the kitchen to say goodbye, searched the hallways to make sure he didn’t miss anyone, and bid a final farewell to one of his favorite staffers underneath a portrait of Abraham Lincoln in the State Dining Room. It was emotional for all of us.

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Later that morning the Fords greeted the Carters as they arrived at the White House for what has become a traditional rite, a pre-Inaugural coffee in the Blue Room of the Executive Mansion. I caught a glance of Carter looking at Ford with an expression that seemed somewhere between awe and, “what have I gotten myself into?” It was a friendly gathering, considering the circumstances. The two leaders had a quiet and private moment, a portrait of George Washington between them. I felt the history.

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President Ford wanted a group photo of everyone, and assembled Vice President and Mrs. Nelson Rockefeller, and Vice President-elect and Mrs. Walter Mondale. If you didn’t know what was happening it looked like a group of old friends, not the heads of the incoming and outgoing administrations.

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Then it was time for the Fords and Carters to take that short journey up Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol for the Inauguration. Only three outgoing presidents, John Adams in 1801, John Quincy Adams in 1829, and Andrew Johnson in 1869, refused to take that ride to attend their successors' inaugurations. No doubt Donald Trump will become the fourth 152 years later. Trump also has impeachment in common with Johnson, so they would have had a lot to talk about if they’d been sharing a carriage. John Adams, who passed on attending Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration, did speak words that Trump should have heeded: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”  Hmmm. Did he perhaps foresee the fraud-free 2020 election?

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Carter remembered that trip to the Hill many years later as, “an uncomfortable ride.” The picture bears it out. Because there was no room for me to squeeze into the limo, I mounted a camera between Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and Sen. Howard Cannon of the Inaugural Arrangements Committee.  I strung the shutter release cable to the front where the Secret Service agent riding shotgun agreed to take the pictures.  Before the motorcade left the North Portico of the White House, I told the substantially-sized Speaker to lean over to his left so he wouldn’t block the shot. He happily obliged.  Afterwards the agent told me that he didn’t think the photos would be that good because, “the two of them didn’t say much.” He was wrong about the image. As the old cliché goes, the picture told the story.

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Although I would have preferred seeing my boss President Ford being sworn-in, not Jimmy Carter, it was the kind of moment that I live to document.  I was witnessing what our country represents. A peaceful and honorable transfer of power. One where everybody pulls together. An American tradition. A Democratic staple of our free society. We’ve been doing it since George Washington turned over the reins of power to John Adams in 1797.

For the first time in our country's history, this year we are not doing it the right way.

 

Canon

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona: David Hume Kennerly Archive.
© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

How to Concede

By

I’m missing President Gerald R. Ford more than ever.

His graceful and dignified concession of the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter was an exemplar of how to deal with this overwhelmingly painful moment. Gerald R. Ford was not the first or last president to suffer this fate, and he wasn’t alone in doing it right. Only one person in American history has gone to the extreme, and has taken the path of petulance and obstruction. He is an embarrassment to the institution of the presidency and the people of the United States.

On November 2, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford voted in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Afterwards he and Mrs. Ford were upbeat, and walked through cheering crowds shaking hands with everyone in sight. Before heading back to Washington, D.C., he and the first lady attended the unveiling of a large mural in the lobby of Kent County Airport that commemorated the life of the 38th president.  It was a deeply emotional event for President Ford. He talked about his parents, and how important they and his family were to him. Everyone, even the press corps, became teary-eyed as they listened to his heartfelt words.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI. - NOVEMBER 2: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) Exhausted from the grueling campaign, President Ford talks about his life at the dedication of a mural honoring him and his family at the airport on election day November 2, 1976 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images)

That night the president, along with his running mate Sen. Bob Dole, his family and close friends, gathered in the second floor residence of the White House to watch the returns. It was not a happy evening. It turned out to be one of the closest elections ever to that point.  I mainly stayed upstairs with the family, but at one point I dropped in on Chief of Staff Dick Cheney in his office where he was keeping tabs on the tally. He was at his desk surrounded by paperwork and Shlitz beer cans. This wasn’t going to be a champagne occasion.

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The election returns crawled into the wee hours of Nov. 3, and when the president finally went to bed at three a.m., he wasn’t 100% certain that he had lost, but the networks had called it for Carter.  I went to my office in the West Wing and slept on the couch for a few hours. Around nine a.m. I went back up to the Family Residence to see the president. He was in his bathrobe having breakfast alone and reading a newspaper in the family dining room. “I guess we’ve had it,” I said. “Looks that way,” he whispered, his voice shot from the last two weeks of campaigning. “It was great while it lasted,” I said. “I wouldn’t have traded a minute of it,” he said with a smile.

Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia won by a small margin. The final count of almost 80 million votes cast was 50.1% for Carter, 48% for Ford. The Electoral College, the tally that ultimately tells the tale, came in at 297 to 240 a few weeks later.

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Two hours after his breakfast, the president made the tough call to Jimmy Carter to concede the election. He was in the oval office with Dick Cheney and counselor Jack Marsh. He could barely make himself heard because he’d lost his voice, but he managed to congratulate Carter, then asked Cheney, who was on an extension on the other side of the historic room to read his statement.

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“Dear Jimmy:

It is apparent now that you have won our long and intense struggle for the Presidency. I congratulate you on your victory.

As one who has been honored to serve the people of this great land, both in Congress and as President, I believe that we must now put the divisions of the campaign behind us and unite the country once again in the common pursuit of peace and prosperity.

Although there will continue to be disagreements over the best means to use in pursuing our goals, I want to assure you that you will have my complete and wholehearted support as you take the oath of office this January.

I also pledge to you that I, and all members of my Administration, will do all that we can to insure that you begin your term as smoothly and as effectively as possible.

May God bless you and your family as you undertake your new responsibilities.

Signed, Jerry Ford.”

WASHINGTON DC - NOVEMBER 3: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) After President Ford conceded the election in a phone call to Jimmy Carter, the Ford family gathers in the Oval Office, just before the public concession statement was read in the White House press room. Mrs. Ford delivered the remarks because the president had lost his voice during the final days of the campaign November 3, 1976, in Washington, DC. From left are sons Steve and Jack, daughter Susan, daughter in-law Gayle, and son Mike. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images)

After they hung up, the president said, “Well, that’s that, let’s go see the press.” He was joined by the rest of the family, and it was a subdued group. Mrs. Ford, however, managed to rally the troops, and got them all to pose for a photo behind the president’s desk. She gave son Jack, who was pretty down, a playful little slap on the cheek, and the photo was accomplished.

Because of her husband’s lack of voice, the first lady would read the concession statement in the White House press room. He did manage to tell the assembled press corps, “I do want to express on a personal basis my appreciation, and that of my family, for the friendship that all of us have had. And after Betty reads the statement that was sent to Governor Carter by me, I think all of us, Betty, the children, and myself, would like to just come down and shake hands and express our appreciation personally.”

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Mrs. Ford read the same concession statement that Cheney gave to Carter, and as promised, the Fords waded into the gathered members of the press and shook hands. Definitely not an “enemies of the people” moment. Even though Ford, like every other president in history, had been skewered by the press, he never took it personally. Ford once told me, “Their job is to hold us to account, and ours isn’t necessarily to like it, but to understand that’s what Democracy is all about.” Yep, that same pesky old First Amendment that our soon-to-be-ex-president is always complaining about.

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President Ford, close personal aide Terry O’Donnell, and I walked back to the oval office after the press appearance. Terry asked the president if there was anything he could get for him. President Ford came out from behind his desk, put his arm around Terry, and told him, “I’ve never really thanked you for the great job you’ve done for me over the last two years. If there’s anything I can do for you after we leave here, just let me know.” Terry took off his glasses and wiped his eyes, and for the first time it really hit me. Here was a guy who had just lost the biggest prize in the world telling a member of his staff that he would do anything he could to help him. I turned and walked out of the room, tears streaming down my face.

Flash forward to the here and now. No concession from the president whose name shall not be mentioned, and who clearly lost. And no humanity. Instead of an arm around the shoulder, many got a kick in the ass out the door. At least getting fired by this president is a great resume item.

That grand guy Gerald R. Ford who ended our, “Our long national nightmare,” August 9th, 1974, would not have approved, and would have recoiled in disgust at the behavior of the worst person to ever occupy the oval office.

Canon

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona: David Hume Kennerly Archive.
© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

Canon

Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona: David Hume Kennerly Archive.
© Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

My Thirteen Presidential Elections

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This 2020 presidential election campaign is my thirteenth.  I’ve covered them all since 1968, except for 1972 when I was in Vietnam photographing the war. (I have the best excuses.)  Due to Covid-19, this year I only caught the early action in February, during the New Hampshire Primary. Thankfully it produced some telling images.

Campaigning for president is as American as apple pie, and photography has been a part of that process almost since it was invented. Abraham Lincoln was the first presidential candidate who really understood the power of photography, and said that Matthew Brady’s portrait of him, combined with his Cooper Union speech, made him president. The portrait, reproduced through woodcuts and engravings, was disseminated throughout the country, even though it would be another 20 years before the first photograph was published in 1880.

According to historic material about Lincoln in the Roosevelt House archive, one of his supporters noted, “I am coming to believe that likenesses broad cast, are excellent means of electioneering.” And an opponent complained, “the country is flooded with pictures of Lincoln, in all conceivable shapes and sizes, and cheap.”

Politicians like to stand above everyone else, and Teddy Roosevelt was one of them. A picture of him standing on a table talking to a crowd is a good example of that. He understood spin, and used publicity – often in the form of photographs -- to further his goals. Henry Stoddard, a journalist at the time said, “It’s true that TR liked the centre of the stage—loved in fact, but when he sought it he always had something to say or to do that made the stage the appropriate place for him.” Roosevelt’s legend, built on his championing the plight of the common man and his informal style, were re-enforced by photos of him at center stage.

This photo of Abraham Lincoln was made by Matthew Brady in his New York City studio on February 26, 1860. Lincoln later told Brady that this photo and his Cooper Union speech made him president. Lincoln was the first major political leader to understand the power of photography, and this image, reproduced as etchings on posters and in papers, was how people knew who he was. It was early branding.
President Teddy Roosevelt was a turn-of-the-century politician who understood the power of the photographic image.
President Gerald R. Ford, another politician who liked to be above it all, atop the presidential limo campaigns during the 1976 election.

1968 By the time I came along, photography and campaigning for president went hand in hand. My first real presidential election-year photos were taken that year of Robert F. Kennedy as he ran for president. I was a 21-year-old wire service photographer assigned by UPI to cover him on a campaign trip through New Mexico and Arizona, and then in Los Angeles. My pictures of him in the predominately Black neighborhood of Watts in L.A. were very revealing about the kind of man that he was. Watts was the scene of major and lethal rioting in 1965, much of the area had been burned down, and 34 people were killed. That did not stop Kennedy from campaigning there, something that I thought was pretty brave for a white politician.

I was on the scene that horrible night at the Ambassador Hotel when he was gunned down. My last photo of him alive was when he raised his hand and made the “V” sign. Moments later, after he left the stage, he was shot. Two of my friends, Ron Bennett of UPI, and Bill Eppridge of LIFE documented the aftermath and made some incredibly dramatic photos.  Those now historic pictures tell the story better than any words could.

Sen. Robert Kennedy appearing at the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel two nights before he was shot there on June 6, 1968 after he won the California Primary.

Although I photographed Lyndon Johnson once after he left office, the first President I covered extensively was Richard Nixon. My first photos of him were right after he won the Republican nomination in Miami in 1968. He came out to California and was in Mission Bay in San Diego to plot campaign strategy. One of my photos caught a light moment between him and his running mate Spiro Agnew who would later resign as vice president. Nixon would go on to beat Vice President Hubert Humphrey and third party candidate George Wallace that year. It was fairly close in the Electoral College with 301 to Nixon, 191 for Humphrey, and 49 for Wallace.

1972  In Vietnam I followed the news from afar as Richard Nixon won re-election, beating Sen. George McGovern by 18 million votes, winning 49 states, (Massachusetts went for McGovern), and capturing 520 to 17 electoral votes. Apparently, I didn’t miss much drama.

Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon and his running-mate, Gov. Spiro Agnew in Mission Bay, California, where they met after the GOP Convention to discuss campaign strategy, August 12, 1968.

1976 The real excitement began when I got back from Southeast Asia. I was there to see President Nixon wave goodbye on the South Lawn of the White House after he resigned on August 9, 1974, and the next day I became President Gerald Ford’s chief White House photographer.  In that position I got the opportunity to see a White House and an election from the inside.  Ford campaigned heavily against Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in the last two weeks before the election, had two debates with him, and came very close to beating him. But Ford’s pardon of Nixon a month into his presidency had tanked him in the polls,  putting him way behind at the outset of the election, and he just never caught up. The final tally was 297-240 in the Electoral College, and in the no consolation category, Ford won the majority of states 27-23. I personally felt bad about Ford’s loss because I thought he deserved it, and would have done a great job with a full four year term.

Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn walk away from the President and Mrs. Ford after their third and final debate at William & Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia, Oct. 22, 1976. FordÕs running mate Sen. Bob Dole talks to Susan Ford behind them. Carter won the election eleven days later.

1980  This election pitted President Jimmy Carter against former California Governor Ronald Reagan. The popular Reagan had come close to beating President Ford in the 1976 primaries, but was edged out in a squeaker at the Republican Convention.  I was back working for TIME Magazine, and they assigned me to photograph the Quixote-like independent campaign of John Anderson. In June he was polling at 25%, his high point, and he ended up only getting 6.6% of the final vote. Reagan beat the incumbent president in a landslide 472-59 in the Electoral College, and by 17% overall. It was the worst loss for an incumbent president since FDR shellacked Hoover in 1932.

President Jimmy Carter at the 1980 Democratic Convention as Sen. Edward Kennedy waves to the crowd after CarterÕs nomination speech. Kennedy unsuccessfully ran against Carter for the nomination. Carter was defeated by Ronald Reagan in his reelection attempt. New York City, August 14, 1980.
Independent Presidential candidate John Anderson on the campaign trail, Miami, Florida, October 1980. Anderson won about seven percent of the votes in an election where Gov. Ronald Reagan beat President Jimmy Carter.

1984 President Reagan beat former VP Walter Mondale in another landslide, winning 525 of the 538 electoral votes, the most of any presidential candidate in history. Mondale only carried his home state of Minnesota. I was at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles when the crowd chanted “Four more years!” Reagan smiled and said, “I think that’s just been arranged.”

President Ronald Reagan with lipstick on his cheek during a 1984 campaign appearance.

1988 An election year where a photo a photo of a candidate doing something made the difference.  Sorry I wasn’t there to take it! The picture showed Democratic nominee Mike Dukakis riding in an M1 Abrams tank wearing a helmet and waving. Not a good look. Vice President George Bush’s campaign made ads of it that mocked Dukakis. A picture that didn’t cause a problem for VP Bush was President Reagan campaigning for him in California at a rally that featured him holding up the arm, (leg?), of the famous San Diego Chicken. It must have helped. Bush won the Electoral College vote 426-111, carried 40 states, and racked up seven million more votes than his opponent.

President George H.W. Bush addresses his supporters during his campaign whistle stop tour on October 20, 1992 in Norcross, Georgia.
President Ronald Reagan campaigns for his Vice President George Bush at a rally that featured the San Diego Chicken, San Diego, California, November 7, 1988.
First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan congratulate President-elect George Bush in the Rose Garden at the White House after Bush won the 1988 presidential election, November, 9, 1988, Washington, D.C.
President George Bush delivers his concession speech on election night November 3, 1992 in Houston, Texas. The President addressed his supporters after election returns indicated that Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton had won the race.

1992 President George Bush lost to the former governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton, and to make it worse, Clinton was young enough to be his son.  I was with him on the final days of the campaign, and in Houston at the Westin Galleria when he conceded. It was a grim moment for the old warrior. President Bush's 37.5% was the lowest percentage total for a sitting president seeking re-election since William Howard Taft in 1912 who only got 23%. Clinton took the Electoral College 370-168.

1996 I got off on the wrong foot with Sen. Bob Dole who was running against the incumbent President Bill Clinton. I was shooting the campaign for Newsweek, and my first cover for them was a stark black and white portrait of Dole with the headline, “Doubts About Dole.”  My name was also prominently displayed next to the photo, so there was no way he didn’t know who took it!

After it hit the newsstands I saw Dole for the first time in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Manchester, New Hampshire. I was standing next to former U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Dole saw me, and made a beeline over. He didn’t look happy, and sarcastically said, “Really glad we let you spend all that time with us.” I said that I’d taken a lot of good pictures during that couple of weeks. He said, “That photo on the front of Newsweek made me look like I was dug up from the grave.” He then turned and abruptly left. Ambassador Kirkpatrick smiled sweetly and said, “well, it looks like you made a real friend there.”

Newsweek cover of Republican candidate Bob Dole. This image led Dole to tell Kennerly, ÒThat cover photo made me look like I was dug up from the grave.Ó

The next time I saw Senator Dole he was sitting between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and former President George Bush in Houston. During the photo op Dole pointed at me, and said “Do you know Dave Kennerly?” They did. “He took that awful picture of me on the cover of Newsweek. It cost me five points in the polls.”  Guess I hadn’t gotten back in his good graces. It’s worth pointing out that the words accompanying a photo could influence people’s judgment of the person. If the headline had been something like, “Bob Dole’s Presidential Quest,” instead of “Doubts About Dole,” he and others might well have viewed it differently. My job, however, isn’t to please or skewer. Dole went on to lose by almost nine points in the popular vote to Clinton, and Independent candidate Ross Perot picked up a little over 8%. Clinton got 379 Electoral votes to Dole’s 159. Perot zero.

President Bill Clinton and contender Sen. Bob Dole have at it during their 2nd debate at the University of San Diego, San Diego, California, October 16, 1996.

2000 Newsweek gave me my choice of candidates to cover, either Gov. George W. Bush or Sen. John McCain for the turn of the millennium election. Figuring that Bush’s campaign would be restrictive to the press, and very conventional, I chose to follow the political maverick McCain, an ornery and colorful Vietnam War hero. (Note to Donald Trump: He was a hero not for being shot down and captured, but for rejecting the North Vietnamese’s offer for an early release ahead of others who had been POW’s longer. McCain was the first to tell you that getting blown out of the sky and being taken prisoner was by no means heroic.)

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My travels with McCain were a photographer’s dream. Total access to him and his advisors, a permanent seat on his campaign bus, The Straight Talk Express, and a really interesting and honorable guy to photograph on top of it. I calculated that the odds were against McCain winning the Republican nomination for president, but if he was victorious it would be a political earthquake that would shake up the establishment. He almost pulled it off, and whupped Bush in the New Hampshire Primary by 18 points. The victory was short lived, Bush & Co. napalmed McCain in South Carolina, and derailed his momentum. McCain withdrew from the race on March 9 against the backdrop of Sedona, Arizona.

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For a few weeks after McCain’s departure I covered the Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore, and for the last couple of weeks of the campaign switched over to Bush’s running mate Dick Cheney. That move put me in the room at the governor’s mansion in Austin with his inner circle election night.

Gore had conceded to Bush before I arrived at his residence, and everyone was celebrating. Then came the shocker: Gore withdrew his concession in a private call to Bush. I heard about it firsthand before anyone else. I was in the kitchen getting a drink of water when Bush came down the back stairway from the family quarters. He had just talked to Gore and appeared shell shocked.  Bush looked at me and said, “He took it back. He took it back.” I said, “Who took what back?” He said, “Gore. He took back his concession.”  All I could think to say was, “Well that sucks.” He agreed. Gore took it back because Florida, the state that could put either of them over the top in the Electoral College became too close to call.  That’s how the night ended.

It’s worth noting that Gov. Bush’s brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, was also in the room, making for even more drama. Ultimately the Supreme Court gave it to Bush a month later. If John McCain had been the candidate there wouldn’t have been a tie, in my estimation he would have picked up plenty of Democrat votes, and he would have beaten Gore straight up.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush watches the television right after his opponent Vice President Al Gore took back his concession in the wee hours of the next day after the election, Austin, Texas, November 7, 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Bush won.

2004 If life had do-overs, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry probably wouldn’t have gone windsurfing off Nantucket for the photographers. I was out on the boat when he did it, courtesy of his campaign, and was impressed with his athletic ability. At the time I wondered if it was a good idea for him, but hey, it was their call. It turned into a Dukakis-like moment. The GOP made ads featuring Kerry windsurfing and tacking back and forth in a ballet-like scene set to the Strauss waltz, “By the Beautiful Blue Danube.” The ad claimed that his positions shift, “whichever way the wind blows.” I thought it was pretty clever, but the Kerry folks, of course, branded it “tasteless.” They left out very funny. It was a close election, but Bush won 286-251 in the Electoral College, and 50.7% of the popular votes.

Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Sen. John Edwards and his running mate, Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry at their first rally together after Edwards joined the ticket, Cleveland, OH , July 7 2004.
Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry kite sails July 20, 2004 in the water off of Nantucket, MA. This event was used against him in Bush campaign ads.

2008 John McCain was back in the saddle, and this time he got the Republican nomination. His opponent was fellow Senator Barack Obama. I spent a few days with him as he campaigned in New Hampshire. In a superstitious moment on that second New Hampshire Primary election night, McCain gathered all the same people who were there in the room eight years earlier when he kicked Bush’s ass. I was one of them. His victory in the Granite State was a moment that closely replicated his earlier triumph, even though he only edged out his competitor Mitt Romney by five points to win.  In the general campaign McCain showed that he was more patriot than politician. During a town hall in Minnesota a woman said, “She couldn’t trust Obama. I have read about him . . . he’s an Arab.” McCain gently took the microphone from her, and shook his head. She said, “No?”   McCain decisively told her, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.” He then looked up to the crowd and told them. “That’s what this campaign is all about.”  Obama impressively won the election 365 to 173 in the Electoral College, and took almost 53% of the popular vote, becoming the first African-American president of the United States.

John McCain might have lost, but he left the stage with his honor firmly intact.

On election day in New Hampshire, Republican Presidential contender Senator John McCain shows reporters the editorial page of the Manchester Union Leader which features a cartoon of him. His wife Cindy McCain sits beside him on their campaign bus, "The Straight Talk Express," Nashua, New Hampshire, January 8, 2008.

2012 I was with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on his campaign bus in Virginia the day that he announced Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate.  Romney was in a pensive mood, and I took a good photo of him alone thinking about the upcoming campaign. I had looked up his birthday, and discovered that we were born three days apart, mine was March 9, 1947, his March 12. I told him this, but I said there was one big difference between us. “What’s that?” he said. “You’re a tribute to clean living, and I’m not,” I jokingly told him. He thought that was funny. I also discovered we liked a lot of the same kind of music, and the Kingston Trio was right at the top of both of our lists. That fact will not stir any excitement among my three sons! Romney did a bit better than McCain, but not much. The Electoral College tally was 332-206,  and President Obama got 51% of the popular vote.

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a pensive moment aboard his campaign bus in Ashland, Virginia, August 11, 2012.
President and Mrs. Barack Obama at an Inaugural Ball celebrating his 2nd reelection as president at the Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C. January 21, 2013.

2016  This was the election that was supposed to see the first woman in America’s history elected president.  I was asked by CNN to cover the campaign for them.  I photographed the Republican Convention in Cleveland where Donald Trump was nominated, then drove to Philadelphia for the Democratic gathering.  I decided to take some of the back roads through Pennsylvania and was shocked by how many pro Trump displays there were in formerly Democratic areas. There were Hillary Clinton posters out there also, but most of them said, “Lock Her Up!” Not an auspicious sign for HRC’s campaign.

Later in the fall I spent five days on the Clinton campaign.  When I talked to her briefly at St. Anslem College in New Hampshire, she told me, “I wish the election was tomorrow.” She would have won if that had been the case, but unfortunately for her there was an October surprise four days later when FBI Director James Comey reopening an investigation into her emails. The election was eleven days away, and disaster loomed.

The last ten days of the campaign I spent covering Donald Trump, and it was clear he had a lot of support. People would wait in line for hours to get into his rallies. In the last ten days of the campaigned Trump blitzed twelve states with stops in Arizona, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The campaign ended in New York City for both campaigns, the Clintons at the huge Javits Convention Center, and Trump’s in the much smaller Hilton Hotel ballroom.

Trump appeared with his family after being declared the winner. It was unlike any victory celebration I have ever witnessed. The president-elect barely broke a smile, and if you had been watching television with the sound off, you would have thought he was the one who lost. He hadn’t. Just down the street at the Javits Center, Hillary Clinton didn’t make an appearance. Her political career was finished.

A happy Hillary Clinton after accepting the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 28, 2016. She lost the general election to real estate mogul Donald Trump.
NEW YORK-- NOV 9: President-elect Donald J. Trump speaks to supporters in the grand ballroom in the Hilton Hotel after winning the election, November 9, 2016. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

2020  This election year has become the Covid-19 campaign. I was supposed to cover this one for CNN also, but everything changed after the coronavirus hit. Before everything got turned upside-down, I was able to photograph the New Hampshire Primary, my favorite political event of every four-year campaign cycle.

I attended a Trump rally in Manchester that was a carbon copy of the 2016 campaign, and still featured Trump haranguing the press. This time he added “fake news” to the dialogue not elevating his rhetoric in four years. The best photo was a “Daddy Dearest” moment of him kissing Ivanka in front of the crowd. The teleprompter bisects the two, but you get the point.

President Donald Trump kisses his daughter Ivanka during a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, February 10, 2020.

I was most impressed by my stop at a Joe Biden town hall meeting in Hampton Beach. It was a small gathering, maybe a couple hundred people, but it gave me a chance to observe the former vice president at his best. There was a particularly poignant moment when he talked about his son Beau who had died of brain cancer five years earlier.

The beauty of photography is that allows you, when the circumstances are right, to see behind the façade of someone, and to capture who they really are. This was one of those instants. The pain was there, the deep feelings were evident, and it wasn’t an act. There was one other powerful moment when Biden mingled with the crowd that struck me. A woman sought him out to share her grief about the loss of a loved one. He listened, empathized, and comforted her. You feel the emotion in the photograph.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden has some comforting words for a woman who suffered a recent loss as he campaigned in Hampton, New Hampshire, February 9, 2020. Biden went on to win the Democratic nomination.

Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Among his additional duties, and a role that has been AWOL for the last four years, will be an additional responsibility: Consoler-in-Chief. The country needs, and will get that.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden has some comforting words for a woman who suffered a recent loss as he campaigned in Hampton, New Hampshire, February 9, 2020. Biden went on to win the Democratic nomination.

Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. Among his additional duties, and a role that has been AWOL for the last four years, will be an additional responsibility: Consoler-in-Chief. The country needs, and will get that.

The Day Hillary Clinton Lost the Election

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I’d been covering the 2016 presidential campaign for CNN since the year before, but when I showed up to photograph an appearance by Hillary Clinton at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, I hadn’t seen her in a couple of months.

The first time I photographed her was when she was a young lawyer working on the Nixon impeachment hearings in the House Judiciary Committee in 1974.  I’d gotten to know her pretty well since then, even made a trip with her in 1998 where she visited Russia and several other countries in the area. So when Sec. Clinton saw me at the St. Anselm rally she came over to say a cheery hello. I asked how she was doing, and she leaned over and said, “I wish the election was tomorrow.” Had it been the next day she would have won, but two weeks and a day later, on Nov. 8, Donald Trump was elected president.

Hillary Clinton, St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire, Oct. 24, 2016
Hillary Clinton, St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire, Oct. 24, 2016
A young Hillary fan, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Oct. 28, 2016
A young Hillary fan, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Oct. 28, 2016

What Mrs. Clinton and nobody else knew at that moment was that in reality she would lose the election four days later on October 28 when Director of the FBI James Comey reopened the investigation into her emails. It was a shocking and unpleasant twist, particularly being so close to a presidential election. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State had been a campaign issue, but earlier in July the FBI decided not to recommend criminal charges against her, so as far as the campaign was concerned it was case closed. Until suddenly it wasn’t.

On that day I was in the back of Sec. Clinton’s campaign plane traveling from New York to Cedar Rapids, Iowa with her. During the flight word reached us about the new investigation. Mrs. Clinton had no advance warning that the FBI would be doing that. Comey had informed Congress, but not her.

Clinton's top campaign staffers, including her close aide Huma Abedin, had to immediately figure out what to do about the earthshaking revelation. At that point it was only eleven days until the election. They learned later that the emails in question were part of an investigation into Abedin's estranged husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin on the campaign plane in Iowa, Oct. 28, 2016
Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin on the campaign plane in Iowa, Oct. 28, 2016
Kennerly photographing Hillary deplaning in Cedar Rapids after FBI shocker
Kennerly photographing Hillary deplaning in Cedar Rapids after FBI shocker

After landing in Iowa, we waited for almost 45 minutes for Sec. Clinton to exit her plane. It was clear there was an emergency meeting going on about how to deal with this unexpected crisis. The press shouted questions at her when she finally deplaned, but she ducked into her car without saying a word, and headed to her scheduled rally. I was with a pensive Hillary Clinton backstage as she waited to enter the event. Nobody was talking about the FBI.

Clinton waits backstage in Cedar Rapids before her rally after hearing about the FBI reopening her email investigation, Oct. 28, 2016
Clinton waits backstage in Cedar Rapids before her rally after hearing about the FBI reopening her email investigation, Oct. 28, 2016

One poignant and ironic photo I made at her second campaign event in Des Moines was a shot of her striding down the catwalk with a large “Madam Potus” sign in the crowd. The rally wasn’t the story, although like the first one she got through it as if everything was ok. The press conference afterwards was where the news was made. The hastily put together presser was held in the school’s choir room. Clinton appeared grim but resolute. She said, “We don't know what to believe. And I'm sure there will be even more rumors . . . it is incumbent upon the FBI to tell us what they're talking about . . . We are 11 days out from perhaps the most important national election in our lifetimes. Voting is already underway in our country . . . so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately. [Comey] himself has said he doesn’t know whether emails referenced in his letter are significant or not. I’m confident, whatever they are, will not change the conclusion reached in July.”

Clinton at press conference in Des Moines addressing FBI email investigation. She said, "the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately."
Clinton at press conference in Des Moines addressing FBI email investigation. She said, "the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately."

For election night Hillary Clinton's campaign had reserved the huge Javits Convention Center for what they thought would be a monumental celebration of the first woman in American history to become president. A few blocks away, in the smaller New York Hilton ballroom that had been contracted by a campaign who thought they would lose, I was there to document a stunned-looking Donald Trump as he declared victory. But he had really won eleven days earlier.

President-elect Donald J. Trump, wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, in the Hilton Ballroom after winning the election, New York City, Nov. 9, 2016
President-elect Donald J. Trump, wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, in the Hilton Ballroom after winning the election, New York City, Nov. 9, 2016

John McCain (1936-2018): A Remembrance

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Two years ago today, September 2, 2018, Senator John McCain was buried on the grounds of his beloved U.S. Naval Academy.  John’s family asked me to document his last journey from Arizona, to Washington, D.C., and to his final resting place in Annapolis. It was an honor for me to do so.

There were many things to like about John McCain, but the ride with him wasn’t always  smooth. Those of us who knew him were keenly aware that he wasn’t perfect. John could be abrupt, cantankerous, stubborn, temperamental, and opinionated.  But pitted against the better angels of his character, those were only minor defects!

I first photographed McCain when he became a Congressman in 1983, but didn’t get to know him until his second term as a U.S. Senator from Arizona. In 1997 I took a photo of him and Sen. John Kerry just off the Senate floor that remains one of my favorite images. It shows two Vietnam vets, a Democrat and a Republican, locked in a true bi-partisan moment. Both would later run unsuccessfully for president, but first and foremost, they remained friends.

One of the many things I liked about McCain was his ease with the press, and their access to him. You could always pop into his Senate office through a side door to say hello. On one occasion I showed up as McCain was yelling at someone on the phone. He didn’t miss a beat, waved me in, and just kept up his diatribe. I of course made a few shots.

WASHINGTON - 1997: (NO US TABLOID SALES) Senator John Kerry chats with Senator John McCain 1997 in Washington DC. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 19: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) Senator John McCain on the phone in his office in Washington, DC July 10, 2001. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/ Getty Images)

In 2000 I was under contract for Newsweek. I told Managing Editor Jon Meacham that I would like to cover McCain’s Quixotesque run for the Republican nomination against Gov. George W. Bush. I knew that Bush’s well-funded juggernaut would probably prevail, but McCain’s Wild West-like adventure would be a lot more fun to photograph. I of course thought that there was an outside chance that McCain could win, and that would put me right in the center of one helluva political story.

I was permanent party on the Straight Talk Express, McCain’s campaign bus. He crisscrossed New Hampshire, and when not giving speeches, sat in the back of the bus talking non-stop with the reporters who were covering him. It was refreshing, and a real look at Democracy in action. And then a miracle happened. McCain thrashed Bush in the New Hampshire primary, running up the widest margin in that state since Ronald Reagan defeated Bush's father 20 years earlier. Wow! I was in the room when it happened, and photographed the McCain family’s display of utter shock at the results. But the overwhelming Bush forces were then marshalled against McCain in South Carolina where they fought dirty, and in the parlance of Vietnam, napalmed McCain, and retook the momentum. The McCain campaign never recovered, and he bowed out of the race on March 9, 2000. The black and white photo that I took of him with wife Cindy standing by his side above Sedona, puffy clouds in the background as he conceded, appeared to be an, “if Ansel Adams-photographed-politics-like moment.” Election night 2000 basically ended in a tie, and even though George W. Bush ultimately prevailed, I think McCain would have defeated Vice President Al Gore straight up by ten points. We’ll never know.

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McCain continued his work in the Senate, and as always was up-front and transparent. My son Byron Kennerly was an intern in his press office during the summer of 2003, and recalled an instance where McCain had accidentally sideswiped fellow Vietnam vet Sen. Chuck Hagel’s car. The press staff debated whether or not they should try to keep it quiet, but McCain said hell no, put it out there, I don’t care if it makes me look bad. They did, McCain looked fine, but remained a bad driver.

The presidential dream didn’t end for McCain after he lost to Bush. in 2008 he ran in the general election as the Republican nominee for president against fellow Senator Barack Obama and lost. McCain was bloodied, but as usual, unbowed. He returned to the senate. On July 19 of 2017, it was announced that Senator McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Eight days later he dramatically cast the deciding vote in the senate that prevented Obama’s Affordable Care Act from being overturned.  A little more than a year later, on August 25, 2018, he lost the cancer battle, and died.  His story, of course, doesn’t end there. In his final days, among the many things that he attended to, he decided who would eulogize him.

Who else but John McCain would invite the two men who beat him out for the biggest job on the planet to say a few words about him at his funeral?  And who else but John McCain would make sure that the man sitting in the oval office at the time would not be attending his farewell?

Cindy and John after he withdrew in 2000

Former President Barack Obama, in his eulogy at the National Cathedral, captured John’s wry and dry wit. He said, “So for someone like John to ask you, while he’s still alive, to stand and speak of him when he’s gone, is a precious and singular honor. Now, when John called me with that request earlier this year, I’ll admit sadness and also a certain surprise . . . To start with, John liked being unpredictable, even a little contrarian. He had no interest in conforming to some prepackaged version of what a senator should be, and he didn’t want a memorial that was going to be prepackaged either. It also showed John’s disdain for self-pity. He had been to hell and back, and he had somehow never lost his energy, or his optimism, or his zest for life. So cancer did not scare him, and he would maintain that buoyant spirit to very end, too stubborn to sit still, opinionated as ever, fiercely devoted to his friends and most of all, to his family.  It showed his irreverence – his sense of humor, and a little bit of a mischievous streak. After all, what better way to get a last laugh than to make George and I say nice things about him to a national audience?”

WASHINGTON-- SEPT 1: Funeral services for Sen. John McCain featuring Meghan McCain and former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush as speakers, Washington, D.C., September 1, 2018. (Photos by David Hume Kennerly/McCainFamily)

Another of his political opponents whom he invited to talk was former President George W. Bush, who defeated McCain for the Republican nomination for president in 2000. Bush said, “Perhaps above all, John detested the abuse of power. He could not abide bigots and swaggering despots. There was something deep inside him that made him stand up for the little guy – to speak for forgotten people in forgotten places . . .” A friend said, “He can’t stand to stay in the same experience.” One of his books ended with the words: “And I moved on.” John has moved on. He would probably not want us to dwell on it. But we are better for his presence among us. The world is smaller for his departure. And we will remember him as he was: unwavering, undimmed, unequaled.”

The disinvited one, President Donald J. Trump, had this to say about the event. “I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” Trump told a crowd at in Ohio. “I don’t care about this. I didn’t get a thank you, that’s OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn’t a fan of John McCain."  That prompted this memo from the Cathedral spokesperson:  “Washington National Cathedral was honored to host the funeral service for Sen. John McCain. All funerals and memorial services at the Cathedral are organized by the family of the deceased; only a state funeral for a former president involves consultation with government officials. No funeral at the Cathedral requires the approval of the president or any other government official.”  Take that Donnie.

PHOENIX -- AUG 30: The remains of Senator John McCain accompanied by his wife Cindy and family are in church and motorcade to airportPhoenix, Arizona(Photos by David Hume Kennerly/McCainFamily)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, a dear friend of John McCain, said this at services in Phoenix.

“My name is Joe Biden. I’m a Democrat. And I loved John McCain . . . But the way I look at it, the way I thought about it, was that I always thought of John as a brother. We had a hell of a lot of family fights!  Now John is going to take his rightful place in a long line of extraordinary leaders in this nation's history. Who in their time and in their way stood for freedom and stood for liberty and have made the American story the most improbable and most hopeful and most enduring story on earth. I know John said he hoped he played a small part in that story. John, you did much more than that, my friend. To paraphrase Shakespeare, we shall not see his like again."

The end was personal, painful, and a most dignified and perfect sendoff. His casket was carried from the Naval Academy Chapel past rows of Midshipmen who willingly gave up their holidays to be there. At the gravesite, in the final moments before his casket was lowered into the ground, his wife Cindy bid him an emotional adieu. A great love was captured here, and as difficult as it was, I took the photo to memorialize that. The photo would have remained private, but Mrs. McCain later approved its use, which I thought was another brave act on her part. They were one together.

ANNAPOLIS -- SEPT 2: Sen. John McCain's casket, followed by his family, leaves the chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, September 2, 20018, (Photos by David Hume Kennerly/McCainFamily)
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Secretary of Defense and former Marine General James Mattis privately addressed McCain’s immediate family after the burial in Annapolis. He quoted Major General Henry Lee’s eulogy for George Washington, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” He said there were very few people who you could say this about, but John was one of them.

So John McCain joins my list of the most unforgettable people I have known and photographed. I suppose we should just let him rest in peace now, but you know what? That isn’t the way he would have wanted it! I’m pretty sure that McCain is still raising hell, even though he’s in heaven. Cheers to you, JSM, you were the best of the best.

WASHINGTON -- FEB 3: Presidential candidate Senator John McCain boards his plane at Dulles Airport, Washington, DC, February 3, 2008, as he heads off for another day of campaining before Super Tuesday. (David Hume Kennerly/GettyImages)

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