Tom Lennox

Thomas "Tom" Lennox was President Wayne Palmer's Chief of Staff during the events of Day 6.

Education

 * PhD, Government - Harvard University
 * Bachelor of Arts, Political Science - Yale University (graduated magna cum laude in three years)

Experience

 * White House Chief of Staff
 * Special Advisor to the President
 * Palmer-Daniels Presidential Campaign - Policy Director
 * Commerce Department - Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Secretary of Commerce
 * White House - Special Assistant to the President/Domestic Policy Council
 * Palmer-Prescott presidential campaign - Policy Advisor
 * Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government - Visiting Professor in Political Philosophy
 * Commerce Department - Chief of Economic Development Administration
 * University of Pennsylvania - Visiting Professor in American Politics

Other

 * Former Member, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
 * Serves on the boards of the Georgetown Institute, the James P. Williams Center for Public Affairs, and the Catalyn Foundation
 * Has published numerous articles and essays on topics including constitutional law, political philosophy, and public policy, and has co-edited several books

Before Day 6
Before becoming Wayne Palmer's Chief of Staff, Tom worked as the Policy Director for both Wayne Palmer's and David Palmer's presidential campaigns. Despite their history, he and David Palmer were never close friends and often disagreed on several issues.

It was Lennox who encouraged a reluctant Wayne to seek the Presidency after Charles Logan was arrested for murder and treason.

During the terrorist attacks over a twelve-week period prior to the beginning of Day 6, Tom had proposed to President Palmer that detention centers be built to hold American Muslims, in an attempt to stop the terrorist attacks. Up until Day 6, President Palmer had decided not to implement Tom's detention center plan.

Day 6


Prior to the start of Day 6, Wayne Palmer was elected to president and Tom Lennox earned the position as his Chief of Staff. America was suffering from a series of terrorist attacks and the only way to stop them was to give Abu Fayed $25 million and Jack Bauer, as he agreed to give up leader Hamri Al-Assad in exchange.

When Karen Hayes learned that Lennox was willing to create detention centers to detain Islamic-Americans, she became furious and opposed Lennox's actions. When Jack Bauer escaped from Fayed's control and told President Palmer that Assad was innocent and that Fayed was really behind the attacks, both Karen and Lennox opposed President Palmer calling off the strike against Assad. The FBI tried to gain control of personnel files at the Islamic-American Alliance, Sandra Palmer called her brother to discuss the issue. She was convinced that Tom was behind it, and told Wayne that she, nor their brother President David Palmer, ever liked Tom.

When Fayed called President Palmer and demanded the release of prisoners, it was apparent that Jack was right all along, and it was later revealed that Jack helped Assad escape before the strike occurred. President Palmer, Karen, and Tom were all horrified when they witnessed a suitcase nuke go off in Valencia.



When Lennox authorized detention centers without the consent of the president, Karen became furious and confronted him about it. Lennox felt that Karen was a threat to him, and he asked Reed Pollock to help him dispose of her. Pollock got back to Lennox and gave him a list of names. The people on the list were willing to testify against Karen's husband Bill Buchanan, who signed off on Fayed's release 18 months earlier. Karen was given no other choice but to resign in order to protect her husband.

Following Karen's resignation, Tom presented his revised plan to deny civil liberties to President Palmer. Wayne was about to give in an called a meeting with his cabinet. However, upon receiving a call from Sandra, Wayne decided against the plan and stated he would not endorse the actions that were stated on Lennox's plan. It also became clear that Lennox was working with Vice President Noah Daniels in deceiving President Palmer.

Feeling ashamed by Palmer not considering any of his proposals, Lennox informed Reed that he planned on resigning and wanted a letter of resignation immediately. Unbeknown to Lennox, Pollock needed access to the White House, as associates of his planned on taking immediate action to make Vice President Daniels the country's leader. When Pollock confronted Lennox with his plan, Lennox eventually decided to not resign.



When Reed told Tom that he would have to give clearance to the assassin Reed's conspirators were sending in, Tom was convinced it would come straight to him. Reed assured Tom wouldn't even be investigated, as Assad would serve as their cover. Tom was later forced to leave the room when the president asked to speak to him. President Palmer had Tom give his opinion on Assad's speech, and Palmer told Tom he made very valid points.

Tom confronted Reed and told him he was working on getting clearance. However, Tom had second thoughts and called Agent Hollister, needing to speak with him. Realizing Tom was planning to double-cross him, Reed knocked Tom out with a flashlight and tied him up. Reed called to have Tom's meeting with Hollister canceled, and held Tom in the boiler room of the bunker.

Pollock arrived at the boiler room with Carson, who suggested for them to kill Lennox. He wanted to make it look like a suicide, but Pollock insisted on holding off on killing Lennox. When Pollock learned that Lennox played him the entire time, he became furious. Lennox later made an attempt to escape, but Carson stopped him and warned him that he would be killed if he tried that again. When Carson armed the bomb, Lennox looked in horror, knowing the president would be assassinated in any given time.



Lennox later learned that President Palmer survived the explosion, but it was too early to make a proper prognosis. Assad was killed in the blast and Carson was convinced it was time to kill Lennox. Pollock insisted killing Lennox would make them murderers, and they could reason with Lennox. Pollock told Lennox that it would be best to make the best decision, as getting rid of President Palmer was in the best interest for the country. They realized Lennox, but Lennox informed Agent Lowry about Pollock and Carson's role in Palmer's assassination attempt. He then set up a meeting with the Attorney General.

When Lennox was giving his statement, Vice President Daniels arrived in the room and requested to speak alone with Tom. Daniels told Lennox that he would be charged if he didn't allow to have Assad become the scapegoat. Daniels insisted blaming Assad for the incident was in the best interest of the country, as it would make the national security plan easier for the people to accept. Daniels also instructed Tom that he needed to stay on board with his original national security plan, as people would become suspicious if Tom was suddenly against it.

Tom accepted Daniels' terms, omitting any mention of Assad's innocence in the assassination attempt from his official statement, but confronted Daniels thereafter, insisting that the truth must come out eventually, once the current crisis was over, and that Reed and Carson must be charged and punished. Daniels agreed, but then shocked Tom by requesting Tom lie to the Middle Eastern Ambassador about witnessing Assad actually planting the bomb. Daniels hoped to falsify additional justification for his intimidation tactics against the Ambassador. Although incredibly reluctant to lie so blatantly to the representative of another nation, Tom ultimately did so.



Daniels called a meeting with the Cabinet and revealed his plan to retaliate against Fayed and Assad's country if another nuclear bomb went off. Daniels had Admiral John Smith find a place to set off a warning shot, where there would be minimum casualties. Karen strongly opposed at this idea, as she was convinced Russia and China would get involved, creating a third World War. Karen later confronted Tom about Daniels plan, and he told her she better pray CTU is able to stop the nuclear drone from hitting its target.

CTU discovered that the target was San Francisco and they managed to stop the drone from hitting its target. The drone crash landed in an industrial park, but radioactive poison was released. However, the casualty estimate was minimum and both Karen and Tom were convinced Daniels would go through with the military action. When Daniels announced he planned on having the missile launched, both Tom and Karen opposed the idea.

Despite the entire Cabinet opposing Daniels' idea of going forward with a nuclear strike, nobody would step up and voice their opinion. The only one who did so was Karen, who attempted to have Wayne brought out of his chemically induced coma. When Daniels was go over the strike plan, he asked Tom to go over some of the details. Tom clearly wasn't on the same page as Daniels, as he hesitated to go over the Intel. When Admiral John Smith called for the military to go forward with the strike, he learned the military was ordered to stand down. President Palmer was brought out of his coma and was resuming his duties as president.



Displeased with Palmer's cancellation of the nuclear strike, Daniels contacted Attorney General Graves and moved to convene the cabinet for the sake of evoking the 25th Amendment, claiming that it was "clear" Wayne Palmer was unable to act as president. When the cabinet gathered to decide the matter, Lennox led the meeting. He called forward the President's doctor, Arthur Welton, to testify regarding Wayne's medical condition, but interrupted and dismissed him immediately after one member of the cabinet asked Welton to offer his explicit opinion on which way their votes should go, insisting that was for the cabinet alone to decide without direct external influence.

Ultimately, the cabinet's vote was evenly split, which meant Wayne Palmer was to remain President, as the 25th Amendment specifically demands a majority within the cabinet for removing a President from office. However, dissatisfied with the result, Daniels insisted Karen Hayes' vote was invalid, as she had resigned earlier in the day and never been formally and officially reinstated as National Security Advisor.

Knowing their case was weak, Daniels and his aide Lisa Miller conspired to lie to the Supreme Court, fabricating a story that Miller intended to tell Hayes that she was not a cabinet member, but was unable to do so before Palmer regained consciousness. Just as his assistant left him to submit their affidavit, which contained the falsehood regarding Karen Hayes, Lennox entered and revealed to Daniels that he had bugged that room a few hours earlier, stating that the way Daniels forced him to lie to the Middle Eastern Ambassador had left him feeling he needed to take steps to protect himself. He played back his audio recording of Daniels' conversation with his assistant, which would undeniably implicate them both in conspiring to commit perjury, and used it to secretly blackmail Daniels into canceling his motion against Karen Hayes' validity as a member of the cabinet.



Soon after, Karen came to speak with Lennox in his office, asking that they agree upon a truce between them, saying she knew he was simply striving for what he believed to be the good of the country, as she herself was, and would like to continue working together without the threats which plagued their relationship up until then. Lennox agreed to that, but was suddenly interrupted by a call warning him that Wayne was about to proceed with the very same nuclear strike Daniels had been pushing for. Shocked, Lennox rushed to confront Wayne and urged him to change his mind, but Wayne refused and defended his choice by pointing out how even Lennox himself felt his policies and decisions throughout the day had been weak. Mere seconds later, it was simply too late, as the nuclear missile had already been launched.

Both Lennox and Karen tried to convince Palmer to call off the nuclear strike, but he refused. The ambassador of Fayed's country called to speak with Palmer, and it was revealed that General Mohmar Habib was arrested, as he worked with Fayed. Palmer called off the strike and asked the ambassador to come to the bunker. Lennox was shocked that the government of Fayed's country withheld information from them. Admiral John Smith then revealed the nuclear weapon was unarmed, it was all a bluff.

President Palmer later confronted Lennox on Vice President Daniels' withdrawal of his affidavit. Palmer asked Tom if he had something on Daniels, but this conversation was interrupted when Palmer collapsed. Before Palmer collapsed, he told Tom to not tell anybody about his medical condition. Dr. Welton arrived in Wayne's office and was able to bring him into a conscious state. Welton advised him to check himself back into medical, but Palmer refused. When Palmer asked for another shot of adrenaline, Welton said it would kill him and he would submit his resignation before he administrated the drug. Before Welton left, he asked Tom to talk some common sense into Palmer, and Lennox insisted it was Wayne's decision.



When Palmer began to lose some of his strength, Tom suggested for him to check himself at medical. Palmer refused to do so, as he felt Daniels would use it against him, but Tom informed him that it wouldn't be a problem. When Palmer asked what Tom had over Daniels, Tom revealed he had a recording of the vice president and Lisa Miller, that proved they conspired to commit perjury. Karen then interrupted Tom and Palmer, and she revealed that Fayed had been killed and that the suitcase nukes had been secured. Palmer's resistance to medical attention later resulted in a cardiac arrest, allowing Daniels to assume presidential authority once again.

Daniels' first order as the acting president was to shut down an operation Palmer authorized, which was a personal request of Jack Bauer, the man who secured the nukes and killed Fayed. The operation required Bauer to hand over a circuit board over to Cheng Zhi, the man behind Bauer's torture and interrogation in China. The Chinese would be able to access Russian technology through the component, and it could cause the third World War. Jack planned to destroy the component once the hostage, Audrey Raines, was safe. Despite Audrey being the daughter of Former Secretary of Defense James Heller, Daniels had the operation shut down, against the arguments of Tom and Karen.

Approximately at 3am EST, Ellen Price, Palmer's Press Secretary, gave a televised announcement that regarded Palmer's health. She then announced that Vice President Daniels would give a national address at 9am EST. After the announcement, Daniels asked for Tom to meet with him in his office. Noah asked what Tom planned to due with the recording that implicated him in a perjury plot. Tom told him that the recording's sole purpose was to protect him and President Palmer. It was never his decision to have Daniels resign, that was Palmer's own action. Noah thanked Tom for his support, who agreed to not use the recording as blackmail. Tom began to discuss a matter with Karen, but Peter Hock, from the Department of Justice, was in her office. Karen excused herself in order to speak with Hock, and Tom continued down the hall. Karen then informed Tom on that information he used to blackmail with her earlier, and how Reed planned to use it to avoid the death penalty.



When Russian President Yuri Suvarov requested a video conference with Noah, the vice president realized that the Russians must of became aware of the situation with the Chinese. Daniels asked for Tom and Karen to sit with him during the conference. Suvarov revealed that his generals informed him about the situation with the FB sub-circuit board, military technology only Russia and the US were in possession of. Suvarov warned Daniels that the Chinese agent most not be allowed to smuggle the component out of the country, or military action would be taken. Suvarov proclaimed that if the agent smuggled the circuit board out of the country, his generals would initiate a military assault against a US military base in Central Asia.

With only selected White House officials and CTU agents being aware of the situation with Cheng Zhi, Tom suggested that someone leaked the information. Tom decided to perform an internal investigation at the White House, while Karen would oversee an investigation at CTU LA. Tom monitored all White House calls in the past hour and discovered that Daniels' chief aide, Lisa Miller, was the leak. She had unknowingly shared information with Mark Bishop, a lobbyist who was in relations with the Russians. When Tom confronted Noah on the matter, he revealed that he was also romantically linked to Miller. Tom suggested to use Lisa's relationship with Mark to their advantage. Once Lisa returned to the White House, Noah gave her complicit instructions to follow all of Tom's commands.



Tom informed Lisa that she would return to her apartment and create an opportunity for Bishop to be alone with her PDA. Tom would wait outside her apartment in a van, with Agent Hollister. After Lisa phoned Bishop, she left the White House with Tom and Hollister. They arrived at her apartment building around 5:30am EST and Lisa went up to her apartment. Bishop opened the door and immediately seduced her. With audio and video surveillance, Tom and Hollister had access to her every movement. Lisa was unable to create a diversion to get away and she was pressured into bed with Bishop. Lennox sent a status report to Daniels and told him he didn't believe the operation fit his job description. Daniels felt that they had to keep the circle as small as possible, in order to protect the administration.

Memorable quotes

 * Tom Lennox: Mr. President, the people are losing faith in our ability to protect them.


 * Karen Hayes: Did someone push you down the stairs?
 * Tom Lennox: No, Karen, I tripped over your ineptitude.


 * Tom Lennox: The President is talking, Admiral. Do not interrupt!


 * Tom Lennox: Security has its price!
 * Wayne Palmer: So does freedom Tom.


 * Tom Lennox: Agent Lowry, these men are responsible for the attempted assassination of the President. I'm surrenduring myself into custody until I can talk to the Attorney General, but I want them arrested now.


 * Tom Lennox: Plain English does not allow for the nuances my job requires, Karen.


 * Tom Lennox: Sir, it is my job to inform and protect you. Those two do not always work in combination.


 * Tom Lennox: I was against you from the start.


 * Noah Daniels: I appreciate you doing this Tom, I know this doesn't exactly fall under your job description.
 * Tom Lennox: Well we're all doing a little improvising today aren't we, sir?