Kennison State Bombing — C.J.'s Emergency Briefing
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
C.J. concludes the briefing but is called back to deliver urgent, devastating news about a bombing at Kennison State University.
C.J. prepares to manage the press's reaction to the bombing, demonstrating crisis management under intense scrutiny.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Curious and procedural; not yet alarmed when he asks the question.
Arthur asks a logistical question about the President's podium time, representing routine press business before the briefing shifts into crisis.
- • Confirm presidential schedule for reporting
- • Secure precise timing for access to the President
- • Timing matters for coverage and accountability
- • Press should pin down officials for clear information
Composed but expectant, ready to ask probing questions amid the shock.
Fran is named third in the questioning order after the announcement and waits as part of the press rotation to press for details.
- • Obtain clear, actionable information to report
- • Test administration statements for inconsistencies
- • Press briefings must deliver accountable answers in crises
- • Officials' words matter and will be scrutinized
Measured professionalism with underlying urgency — outwardly steady while privately bracing for unfolding facts.
C.J. opens with light banter, handles routine questions, steps offstage, is whispered to by Carol, re-enters and converts to crisis-mode: delivers casualty figures, inserts a hearing device, triages question order, and asserts control over the briefing.
- • Provide accurate, usable information without speculating
- • Maintain control of the briefing to prevent panic and misinformation
- • Buy time for intelligence to firm up facts
- • Protect the President/administration from premature error
- • The public deserves immediate facts even when incomplete
- • Controlled statements reduce chaos and political fallout
- • She must be the anchor who stabilizes the room
- • Hearing incoming intelligence directly will improve her answers
Professional and focused; question-driven, briefly displaced by the emergency.
Katie asks about legislative appropriations in the pre-crisis exchange; she represents routine probing that is immediately overshadowed by the bombing news.
- • Extract an administration position on appropriations
- • Keep fiscal reporting on the agenda
- • Legislative details matter to accountability
- • The press must ask tough, specific policy questions
Urgent and focused — her whisper is professional but carries the weight of sudden catastrophe.
Carol moves between the podium and backstage, leans in to whisper urgent information to C.J., and directly triggers C.J.'s re-entry and the briefing's transformation into crisis communications.
- • Alert C.J. to breaking, verified information
- • Ensure the administration responds promptly and accurately
- • Timely internal communication can shape the public response
- • Staff must move quickly without creating panic
Not present in scene; implied responsibility and looming leadership duty.
President Bartlet is referenced by Arthur and C.J. regarding the scheduled podium time; he is offstage but his planned appearance shapes reporters' questions and the administration's immediate considerations.
- • Address the nation later with authority
- • Preserve credibility by ensuring accurate, measured initial statements
- • The President must be informed before making public statements
- • Public addresses should be timed and substantive
Not present; implied shock and grief as a rostered visiting team.
Illinois is named by C.J. as one of the visiting teams at the meet, implicitly included among victims and next-of-kin affected by the bombing.
- • Account for and assist affected team members
- • Coordinate with authorities and the host school
- • Universities must be involved in response and support
- • Athletic programs have duty of care for students
Not present in room; implied shock and urgent concern for students
Minnesota is named as a visiting team impacted by the explosion, included implicitly as victim organization and part of the casualty context C.J. provides.
- • Ensure welfare of team members and coordinate with responders
- • Clarify status of injured or missing athletes
- • Universities share responsibility in emergency response
- • Public institutions will be scrutinized for preparedness
Alert and expectant — poised to demand clarifying information.
Sydney is named by C.J. as second in the question rotation after the bombing announcement, standing ready and alert to press for follow-ups.
- • Get specific follow-up answers for reporting
- • Clarify the administration's immediate steps
- • Follow-up questions are essential in breaking-news briefings
- • Officials should be held to clear, factual answers
Shifts from routine professional skepticism to alarmed, insistent demand for information after the bombing is announced.
A reporter presses C.J. on CBO deficit numbers before the bomb news — and the 'reporters' chorus later erupts vocally after the announcement, shouting and demanding details.
- • Hold the administration accountable on fiscal claims
- • Obtain immediate facts about the bombing for reporting
- • Force clear statements from officials under pressure
- • Data (CBO numbers) are important to public understanding
- • In a crisis, officials must be pressed for timely answers
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Two pipe bombs are the central physical cause cited by C.J.; they function narratively as the inciting violent act that converts a routine press lid into national crisis, producing the casualty figures she reads aloud and setting off immediate operational response.
C.J. inserts a compact hearing device into her ear mid-briefing so she can listen to incoming intelligence while speaking. It functions as a conduit for live updates and a theatrical signal that she is simultaneously delivering public statements and ingesting real-time facts.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Geiger Indoor Arena is the site of the detonations C.J. announces; though offstage, its condition — damaged, smoky, and strewn with casualties — supplies the grim facts and emotional weight that catalyze White House action and public grief.
Kennison State University is named as the institutional setting of the attack; it anchors the event to a community — students, staff, parents — and becomes the locus of grief, investigation, and political response.
The Press Briefing Room is the theatrical stage where routine banter, accountability questioning, and the sudden breaking-news announcement all occur; it shifts from a familiar, controlled forum into an improvisational crisis center, its optics and acoustics amplifying every reaction.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The University of Michigan is named as one of the visiting teams, thereby implicated as having students and staff affected; its presence emphasizes the multi-institutional scope of victims.
The Big Ten is invoked by C.J. to contextualize the meet and the cross-institutional impact of the bombing; it frames the event as affecting a regional athletic conference rather than a single campus.
The Kennison Hawkeyes (host team) are the immediate group directly affected, named as the home team whose facility and athletes were present; their losses and survivors form the human core of the briefing's casualty figures.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The bombing at Kennison State University directly leads to Bartlet's impassioned speech at the DNC fundraiser, transforming grief into a call for national courage."
"The bombing at Kennison State University directly leads to Bartlet's impassioned speech at the DNC fundraiser, transforming grief into a call for national courage."
Key Dialogue
"C.J.: The First Lady loves two out of the three of her children but she doesn't to tell them which two."
"C.J.: Hang on a second. Okay, today at 5:32 PM Central Saving Time, two pipe bombs were set off inside the Geiger Indoor Arena, which is the swimming team's facility at Kennison State University. The Kennison Hawkeyes. The women's team was hosting a match. A meet with Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota. They're all Big Ten schools. 44 people are dead. Looks like about 100 people are injured, about 20 critically."
"C.J.: ([puts a hearing device in her ear]) I'm going to have to listen in while I talk to you. Barry, then Sydney, then Fran."