CNN host Michael Smerconish ended his show on a number he said he simply could not shake.
The figure came from the Buckley Institute's annual survey of undergraduates, which found that 22% of college students agree with the statement that America deserved the September 11 terrorist attacks. Smerconish, as reported by Mediaite, told viewers the results were "revealing and more than a little distressing."
"The Buckley Institute's 2026 survey of undergraduates was released earlier this week, and it's revealing and more than a little distressing," Smerconish said. "Among the results, one particular number caught my eye. 22% of all students, more than one in five, agree with the statement, America deserved September 11."
The timing made the finding land especially hard for the host. "It hit me so hard, maybe because the very day I read the survey, I was about to go interview Navy Seal Rob O'Neill, the guy who killed [Osama] Bin Laden," he explained.
Smerconish described the evening that followed in detail. "And I did it that night, Wednesday night, in front of a rapt audience, I questioned him for 90 minutes," he said.
"We talked about his career, over 400 missions, more than 50 decorations, and of course the raid at Abbottabad. It was one of the most memorable interviews that I've ever been privileged to conduct," Smerconish added.
The survey itself was conducted by Inquire LLC among 803 full-time undergraduates between September 5 and 14, according to the Buckley Institute. Agreement with the 9/11 statement reached 28% among self-described liberal students, compared with 17% of conservatives and 16% of moderates, figures that point to where the problem is concentrated on campus.
Smerconish argued that the result reflects a generation with no memory of the attacks. Every student in the survey was under 25, too young to remember the day itself, and he warned that complacency carries its own danger.
"If we let our guard down, it could certainly happen again," he said. "And if it did, will those students feel they're at fault?"
He then took viewers into the green room before his interview with O'Neill. "I wish they could have been in the green room before my interview with O'Neill. It was there that I told Rob that I had two special invited guests who wanted to shake his hand."
The first was Ellen Saracini, whose husband commanded one of the hijacked jets. "Into the room came Ellen Saracini. She was widowed on 9/11 when her husband Victor, the captain of the United Flight 175, was killed when the hijackers took over and flew the plane into the South Tower," Smerconish said.
Her gesture to the former SEAL was small but unforgettable. "She gave O'Neil a 9/11 'Never Forget' pin. He wore it during the interview," Smerconish recalled.
The second guest carried a loss that has shaped her entire adult life. "And then came Tara Bain. She was 30 when she lost her husband, Michael, who worked on the 100th floor of the North Tower," he said.
"She was tearful when she thanked O'Neill. She brought her son, Cole, who asked him to autograph a Bin Laden 'Wanted' poster," Smerconish continued. "Watching these women, I was a bit overcome with emotion myself."
He closed with a question aimed directly at the students who told pollsters America had it coming. "And to those college students who think that America deserved 9/11, I ask this, what did Ellen Saracini or Tara Bain do to deserve losing their husbands? No, never forget."
Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered on September 11, 2001, and the families they left behind are still living with the consequences a quarter-century later. That more than one in five college students now say the country deserved it raises hard questions about what those students are being taught, and Smerconish's answer was the one the widows themselves embody: never forget.
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