The mood within the Speaker's office was Grim. The Majority leadership from both Houses was ensconced within the room, along with many of the more rabid members of the party.
The plan was to immediately come out fighting on whatever Bartlett was going to talk about.
Robert Royce was just as grim, but was watching his fellow members more than the television.
At 4:00, the scene changed and there was a podium present. Jed Bartlett walked out in front of the podium, lights flashing in one and off. Those that paid attention would see that the podium had only the White House Seal and not the Seal of the President. Jed Bartlett was also not dressed impeccably in a suit. He wore a casual sweater – and a grin a mile wide. All in all, this was unnerving most of the people in the room. All sounds stopped as he began to speak.
"Good afternoon. Thank you for coming to this press conference in the East Room of the White House. Some of you might notice that I've eschewed a number of things for this event. I've waited until after most of this side of the country has completed their work for the day because, in this instance, I am not talking to you as Josiah Bartlett, President of the United States. Today I'm talking to you as Jed Bartlett, Family Man and Roman Catholic of deep faith. I speak to you not from the vaunted halls of the Executive Branch of the government of the United States of America but from my home."
The President chuckled. "For those listening and watching who are violently opposed to public talk of faith, I apologize for upsetting you; but in this case, I'm not going to dodge the fact that I believe in God. If you can't agree with my stating that, well, maybe you should turn this off so that you won't get any more upset. I'll give you about thirty seconds to do so."
The President paused looking at his watch, waiting for non-believers to turn off their television sets. The Republican leaders were all shocked, looking at each other, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
"Okay, times up. What I am about to tell you begins in February, 1980. My wife and I were, for the last time, at a hospital with my wife giving birth to our final children. We didn't know they were the final ones. That just happened to be the case.
"My wife was giving birth to twins."
There was a shocked silence in millions of homes across America as well as in the audience. It extended to the office of the Speaker of the House.
"And so, on February 20th, 1980, we welcomed into the world Zoey Patricia Bartlett, and Alexandria Grace Bartlett. Both were healthy babies and a joy to finally see after so many months of waiting.
"During the normal course of things, both were being taken care of while my wife recuperated from birth. They were scheduled to leave a few days later – multiple births take more time to recover from.
"On February 22nd, however, the absolute worst news that a parent can receive was given to us: One of our beautiful babies, the youngest girl, was found dead in the maternity ward. She had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."
"I can tell you, that as a grieving father, my faith – ever what had carried me through – was shaken somewhat. But it was never broken. We had another new daughter to take care of and, by God, I would do right by her. I would care for her and protect her, not only for the sake of our family, but for the sake of the daughter lost.
"To keep her from unnecessary pain, she was never told that she was born a twin. When twins are born and one dies, parents are instructed to hide the fact from the surviving twin so that the remaining one doesn't develop Survivor's guilt. We're told to only let them know once the remaining twin has matured to the point where they are emotionally and mentally stable."
The President sighed.
"Still, we – and those family and friends who were in the know – grieved. And we grieved deeply. We had even got our youngest a Christmas ornament which has never been displayed. We've kept it private, hidden away, an unknown to the world reminder of what we had lost. We couldn't let the girls see it – we couldn't take the chance of Zoey finding out."
"Life moved on. I was in politics at the time and have been since. The governorship, the presidency. One daughter getting married and having children. The others going to school. Being diagnosed with MS. Congressional hearings. A re-election campaign – life moved on.
"Yesterday, however, everything changed." The President's smile was coming back. "My best friend, without telling me why, had, this last Saturday morning starting at 5:00 AM, spent several hours calling my children to the White House for a family meeting, on the behalf of one of my family members – and I wasn't told until Sunday morning when they all showed up to go to Mass with us.
"At the same time, this same best friend – who is also my Chief of Staff – worked the West Wing staff to the limit to complete as much of our legislative agenda as he could. His reasoning to me was that he wanted to be able to state that the White House, in light of the upcoming Easter holiday and spring adjournment, was not inconveniencing the Congress of the United States in any way. Regardless of plans for time off, the work of the nation must be completed and, by God, he would see it done."
The President chuckled again. "Leo can be a force of nature. And although he at times can be moody, and grumpy, and a hard taskmaster, in this case he was inordinately cheerful in working our staff all hours of the day and night or Saturday to get everything done. I shrugged and let him do it. He was finally becoming cheerful again, and increased our effectiveness and efficiency. Why would I complain?
"To make a long story short, following Mass on Sunday, our family and a number of close friends, as well as the White House Senior Staff were all called to this family meeting that Leo had put together. Having had a good few days, we were all quite cheerful – well, except the family members who had just travelled hours and hours to get there and were a bit tired from the journey.
"When the meeting started, Leo brought up the Secret Service agent in charge of my detail to tell me – and everyone else – exactly what was going on. It seems that my daughter Zoey, in the course of her charity work, had run into someone who looked …exactly … like … her."
The President paused, waiting for that to sink in.
"Now, in the past, I will admit, I despaired of my youngest ever growing up. Her concerns were the normal concerns of teenage girls everywhere: School, Boys, and trying to be independent from her old fogey parents. But this incident forced her to act like an adult. She was so surprised that she went to the lead agent, in secret, and told him about it. She got her birth certificate – which she had never seen because we always handled everything as her parents – and found out she was a twin. She found out from a family friend that her sister had died and how. And she proposed the most shocking idea to my agent: What if this girl was actually her twin sister?"
"My daughter, with the full help and cooperation of the President's Secret Service detail, began working on checking this out without telling her mom and dad. Why? She didn't want to put us under undo stress." The President paused for a moment, and took on a sad note. "It's a humbling thing for a father to find out that the family roles have been reversed. That instead of his protecting his family – his family was protecting him."
The President's smile came back. "The Secret Service immediately put agents in place to protect this girl – in case they were right. They did it in such a way that this girl never suspected she was being protected. Have I told you lately how good the Secret Service is?" The President chuckled.
"My daughter, having had a connection with this girl, went back and talked to her. Without telling her what the Secret Service had found, she got her to agree to a DNA test. The Secret Service had arranged for testing at a reputable, government agency Lab. From what I've been told, that agency – NCIS – has already been reimbursed for their expenses in doing this on the sly from the normal budget allocated for unusual expenses regarding the First Family.
"I should point out that this isn't a knock on any other agency. I will also point out that the Secret Service ensured that this didn't interfere with the normal operation of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services. They just happened to be the absolute most convenient and quickest method of doing this fast and doing it right without any disruption to normal operations. I'm sure if the FBI had done it, it would have been done just as quickly – but a whole hell of a lot more people would have been involved and other cases might have had to be pushed back – and that wasn't acceptable to my daughter or the Secret Service.
"Zoey and the Secret Service found what they had suspected: This girl, Alex, a girl who had spent years in and out of the Foster system and had no family and no support, was actually her twin sister.
"I think you can imagine her surprise." There were rueful chuckles from the Audience.
"My Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry, was called to NCIS on Friday night after he had already gone home so that the Secret Service could brief him and make arrangements for the family to be told. His night watching Jacques Pepin was interrupted and he was grouchy.
"It also happened that Leo was named Alexandria's godfather when she was born. I think you can infer the reason that my normally grumpy Chief of Staff has been grinning and smirking for the last three days."
There were a few laughs from the reporters.
"Anyway, the rest is history. The Secret Service found who had committed the crime of switching her own dead child with Alexandria. Unfortunately, this person, Anya Kohler was killed only two weeks after this. Her new baby had no other family and the father was unknown. And so the child went into the Foster system."
The President paused and took a deep breath. "After I finish telling you all about this, the FBI will brief you on relevant details, the whos and whats and wherefores. Although I am telling you it is the Secret Service who did the investigation because it had to do with the President's family, the Secret Service does not comment on procedures. I could order them – but they would happily refuse the order and get fired while saying 'The Secret Service does not comment on procedures.'"
The President chuckled as he said, "I think they are the most obstinate people in government. And considering I work with people like Josh Lyman, Leo McGarry, Tony Ziegler, and my wife at times, my saying so should tell you how obstinate that can be."
The President waited for the laughter to die down before he continued. "I'm not going to say much more. I'll let the FBI Director do all of the talking. But I do want to say a few things:
"First of all, I have had a long standing policy of not using my daughters for any political goal, unless they themselves volunteer to do so. I stand by that position and ask that you respect the privacy of my family as we get used to an unexpected but deeply missed member suddenly reappearing.
"Also, my daughter, Alexandria Grace, has been helped and supported by a homeless shelter within this very city. As personal thanks for taking such good care of my daughter in the last few years, I and my wife Abbey are making a personal donation of $33,333 to this shelter. Leo McGarry, Alexandria's Godfather, will be making a further donation of $16,667. This is not money from the US Government. It's a donation from two grateful parents and one grateful godfather to say thank you for keeping our girl safe.
"Also, once again with $33,334 from us and $16,666 from Leo, we are making a $50,000 donation toward research to combat Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."
Jed Bartlett put his hands in his pockets and looked off in thought for a moment. "As the Head of the Executive Branch, if Anya Kohler had been alive, it would be my job to ensure that she was prosecuted and held responsible to the full extent of the law. And I would have done so with great fervor.
"As a father who thought he lost his daughter to SID, I know the terrible grief and horrible desperation of a parent losing a baby, a newborn baby who is their hope and joy, to this terrible circumstance. I personally am having a hard time forgiving her, which is one reason I am going to Mass tonight with my family, to pray for the strength for forgiveness in my inner heart.
"The grave holding whom I thought was my daughter will not be moved from my family's site but will be given a marker with her proper name. She is already buried in consecrated soil, close to the other members of my family who have already passed away. We will not reject her now. I will be consulting with the Bishop as to whether it would be properly respectful to God and Anya Kohler's remains to be moved to my family's cemetery so that she can be closer to the daughter she lost.
"In my faith, we don't ask other parishioner's to pray. We ask the Bishop to ask the congregation to pray. It's part of the rules and I am not a priest. I was studying to be – but I met my wife and that was that.
"And so, I will be asking the Bishop to pray for Anya Kohler's immortal soul, to pray that she found forgiveness from God for her terrible decision made in unimaginable grief. I will ask that he help us pray that Anya found forgiveness for what her pain and grief and temptation made her do and for her to find herself among the martyrs and angels on the last day.
"I will also ask him to pray for the parents of the 4,000 babies per year who die from SID. I will ask that he direct us to pray for God's mercy and love to be felt in their terrible grief.
"My story, I know, might give them false hope. I don't want that to happen. Security and procedures have improved immensely in the last twenty years. This isn't a memorandum on stolen babies. This is a grateful father sharing his news with those who he works for, you, the American people, that a daughter thought lost was, beyond all hope, returned. "And this is a man of faith hoping that all of God's children can experience the everlasting joy of the presence of our redeemer.
"May God continue to bless you all. And May God continue blessing my family. And May God continue Blessing these United States of America. Thank you."