When Sam walks into Leo's office towards the end and says "I want to state right here, right now, in terms so plain and clear as to command their assent . . . " he is paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson's explanation for the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson stated its purpose was ". . . to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent . . ."
The episode first screened in Australia on the evening of 11 September 2001. A newsflash reporting the events then unfolding in New York was briefly broadcast in the penultimate commercial break.
This is the first episode that President Barlett calls Mrs Landingham by her first name (Dolores). The only other time this is seen is in a flashback in a later episode.
In the episode, Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) says that "we are eating more beets" at the conclusion of her report on the opinion poll. Garry Trudeau, a famous political cartoonist who has lampooned the real world President and White House, once had a collection of his comics collected in a book entitled "We Are Eating More Beets", some of which include cartoons on the Ronald Reagan/George Bush White House and what was part of the Presidential cover-up of that time period.
When the President (Martin Sheen) asks who the U.S. is using to negotiate in Haiti, Leo (John Spencer) tells him the Canadian Ambassador. During the Iranian hostage crisis, the Canadian Ambassador harbored several Americans who escaped from the U.S. embassy, depicted in the 2012 movie, Argo.