Are always important, but never more so important than the time that were living in. We heard former president bill clinton use the words total class. And we heard former president barack obama, a democrat, say a gentleman. And i think civility, his graciousness, the way he handled himself is a role model we all will miss. Jamie, dana, thank you. This is cnn breaking news. Im don lemon. It is the top of the hour. Here is our breaking news. The 41st president of the United States, george h. W. Bush has died at the age of 94. The flag at the white house flying at halfstaff right now as flowers pile up outside the bush home in houston, texas. Tributes are pouring in from President Trump and former president S Barack Obama and bill clinton. As well as former Vice President al gore and condoleezza rice, james baker, and so many more. The nation mourning the man who devoted his life to service to his country and to his family. Cnns john king now with the story of george h. W. Bush, the politician. Reporter it was the defining promise of his president ial campaign. Read my lips. No new taxes. Reporter that was his 1988 Republican Convention speech. Just two years later, during the buildup to the gulf war, he broke it, knowing it would infuriate conservative, and perhaps cost him his job. As we speak, our nation is standing together against Saddam Husseins aggression. But here at home there is
another threat, a cancer gnawing away at our nations health. That cancer is the budget deficit. All his political people said dont raise taxes, but president bush was convinced he had to and put his t country ahead of his own political standing, agreeing in the end to a compromise that was 3 in cuts to every dollar in taxes. There is a time when you have to make tough decisions, give a little to get what is best for the country. If you do the math, you dont get the clinton era balanced budgets without the bueschesh e taxes. He was the last world war ii veteran to win the white house. He served a couple of terms in congress, lost a couple of u. S. Senate races and was Republican Party chairman during the Wilderness Years of watergate. He decided to challenge jimmy carter in 1980, but an incumbent
president wasnt his biggest problem. I am paying for this microphone. Despite winning the iowa caucus, bush couldnt sustain what he called the big mo, as in momentum. I Ronald Reagan do solemnly swear and he lost the nomination to reagan. When reagan couldnt convince gerald ford to join the ticket, he turned to bush, who accepted. Despite eight loyal years as Vice President , nearly derailed bushs 1988 campaign. By the time he locked up the nomination, bush was 17 points behind the democratic nominee michael dukakis. Three months ago i remember some of the great publications in this country had written me off. Reporter bush and his allies made up the ground by Attacking Dukakis as too liberal, soft on defense they said and soft on crime. A Revolving Door Prison Giving Furloughs to firstdegree murderers not eligible for parole. One was willie horton, who
murdered a boy in a robbery. In the end dukakis lost 40 states and bush was president. President bush was immensely popular after the 1991 gulf war, but the glow faded fast. By 1992, voters were frustrated with the sour economy and impatient with the president who at times seemed out of touch with their concerns. How has the National Debt personally affected each of your lives . Maybe ill get it wrong, but youre suggesting that somebody has means that the National Debt doesnt affect them . Im not sure i get it. Help me with the question and ill try to answer it. Businessman ross perot was rich enough to mount a third party challenge. Wherever the seeds of freedom are sprouting. Look members of the debate audience in the eye and feel their pain. But as time moves on, george h. W. Bush will be remembered more kindly than the voters
treated him in 1992. John king, cnn. Lets bring in now marykate kerry. She was a Speech Writer for george h. W. Bush and a continuing oped writer at the New York Times who served in the george h. W. Bush administration. Good evening to both of you. Its so good to have you on. Mary, if i may start with you, and i may say my condolences since you worked with this president. Youre a Speech Writer from 1989 to 1992. What do you feel like tonight . I am actually full of joy in a weird way for a tremendous american life. And as president bush said it many times, he led a life of meaning and adventure through service to others. And i talk about him all the time to young people across this nation, and i say to them, you know, youre 16 years old. What do you think you could
learn from a man who is 94 years old. And there is two things you can learn. One is that this amazing life of service, he often said that politics is a path to Public Service. And because of things like House Of Cards and some of the other things in our culture today, politics has gotten kind of a bad name. But i believe that young people are tremendously drawn to Public Service and making the world a better place. And as jamie said earlier, the president often said from now on in america, no definition of a successful life will not include service to others. And he certainly lived that. And the second thing they can learn is that one person can make a tremendous difference in the life of this country george bush had a front row seat. What he did at the cia, watergate as head of the
republican national committee, Vice President , president , and then afterwards as a great humanitarian, a sportsman, father and a grandfather, just a tremendous life that affected so many people in this country. Thats a great lesson for young people that one person really can make a tremendous difference. Its a great loss for our country, but i prefer to think about all the things we gained because of him. Peter, you served in the administration as well. You were the deputy Speech Writer, am i correct in the administration . I was deputy Speech Writer for his son, and then i worked in the office of National Drug control policy for 41. Talk to me about 41 is who were here to celebrate the life of and remember and his legacy. What do you remember most about . I think what i remember most about him is he was a man of so
many parts. He was just a deeply impressive man. We lost one of the great ones. He was a person who was a remarkable combination of characteristics in my mind there was strength and dignity and humility and gentleness, and as a president he was a person of a lot of wisdom and prudence, conservative virtue and real steadiness at a time when the world and the United States needed steadiness at the helm. I dont think he was a great natural politician, but i do think he was great public servant. And he had the right order of the loves. St. Augustin has a line the right word of the loves. And he had the right ones. Family and friends and faith and country. You know, he is a person who seemed to belong to a different generation, an older generation,
and in many ways i think a better generation. I looked to him as a person and the feelings i have tonight are gratitude for what he did and admiration for who he was. Some residents more than other others, when they speak you feel the gravitas, you feel the comfort in their voices in times of sadness and sorrow in the country. George h. W. Bush was one of those men, one of those voices. Remember the thousand Points Of Lights speech, which was one of the greatest in modern history. As a matter of fact, the former president barack obama reference ared it in his statement of the passing of george h. W. Bush. He said after 73 years of marriage, george and barbara bush are together again now, two Points Of Light that never
dimmed, two Points Of Light that ignited countless others with their example, the example of a man who even after commanding the worlds mightiest military and he goes on to talk about that he got more out of being one of the founders of the ymca than he did out of being the president of the United States. But writing for him, tell me what that was like. Well, he had a great very unique voice. And a lot of it was based on his selfdeprecating humor and his humility, which is surprising for a man who David Mccullough once said to me was the most qualified man to be the president of the United States outside of the founding fathers, and yet he was deeply humble. As your viewers heard earlier, his mother really ingrained in him a feeling of humility and not bragging. Many times in his speeches, if we had too many times the word i he would circle it and write
across the top of the speech, too many is. He felt as president of the United States, it was more important to use the word we in a democracy. It was part of his character not to talk about himself. His mother called it the great i am. Dont talk about the great i am. But he also thought that it was deeply unfair to say i want this, i want that as president. He thought that that was unfair to the people who actually had to go do the work of implementing the policies. So he would always say we, were going to do this together. Here whats were going to do as a nation. And he thought that was important for our democracy. He also felt that in terms of his humility, selfdeprecating humor was very important. So at these big dinners, the white house correspondents dinner, the alfalfa dinner, the gridiron, he never pointed out people in the crowd and belittled them or made fun of his political opponents, which is very much in vogue the last few years. He stuck more to making fun of
himself, making fun of the fact that he hated broccoli or making jokes about the family dog, this sort of thing because he thought that was good politics and Everybody Loves selfdeprecating humor. Its a very becoming thing in the most powerful people in the world. And so it was great fun to write for him. It was the best job ill ever have, and im going miss it terribly, because he was tremendously fun to write for. A wrote a lot of the less important speeches. I did what i consider the fun stuff. It with does Girl Scout Of The Year Awards and the Spelling Bee Winners and the turkey pardonings. And i think he thought it was fun too. So we had a good time together with things like that. It with australia great joy, because i think that was for him the fun stuff of the job. Seeing the real people and not necessarily being with all the big mucketymucks all the time. It was great fun to write for him. Some of us love broccoli,
others didnt, especially this president. In 1990 he banned broccoli on air force one, saying he had hated it since he was a kid. Peter, listen, you also served in the reagan administration, correct . I did. Talk to me about their relationship. It was a very close relationship, and one of deep mutual respect. They were different people, obviously, and reagan had a real sparkling personality. It was interesting what david said. George h. W. Bush could have fit in the founding generation because he was a person who had so much experience and talented. He was deeply loyal to Ronald Reagan, and Reagan Praappreciat that. He was different kind of conservative than reagan, but he added a lot. He came in with a loft foreign
policy experience that reagan did not have, and i think he was a steadying voice in the reagan administration, and a person that president reagan really trusted, playly on National Security matters. And that shows when he became president as well. I want to play this now. This is george h. W. Bush the letter to President Elect and mrs. Reagan written november 10th, 1980. You are Vice President elect. This will be all right for me, i think. This is just a quick thank you. Thanks for making us feel so welcome. Thanks for the joy of working with you. Thanks for those little touches of grace and humor and affection that make life sing. Please let us know that we both want to help in every way possible. I will never do anything to embarrass you politically. I have strong views on issues and people, but once you decide a matter, thats it for me, and
youll see no leaks in evans and novak bitching about life. At least youll see none out of me. And he didnt. Well, there you go. In the days to come, marykate, as the nation mourns and the leaders gather together, its going to put a new focus on the values of president george h. W. Bush, the service, the family, his service to country, his honor. Thats what we need to focus on right now. Boy, isnt that the truth . The values that he lived are in short supply these days. And like you said, i talk to young people about it all the time. One of the Great Stories from the reagan years was when president reagan asked him to be his Vice President , it was really because Vice President bush was then ambassador bush, was the number two finisher in the primaries. And was The Last Man Standing as they came out of the california primary. And thats a little unusual these days to have the secondplace finisher be the Vice President ial choice, but it was a great way to unify the Republican Party. And it lasted for 12 years, you know. It was unusual. It was not since Martin Van Buren was the Vice President of the United States and then elected president of the United States immediately after a twoyear term. So that was a great testament, as pete was just saying to Vice President s loyalty. And there was some hard feelings i think between the reagan and bush people when they came into office that first year as Vice President , and Vice President bush said to his staff basically, if i can be loyal to the president , you can. And that was the end of that. And there was tremendous loyalty between the two staffs for the rest of the reagan administration. And thats just one example. There is so many values like that that he lived. And its really remarkable the
way he chose to live his life and the great example he gave us, but all the time with great humor. One of the things mrs. Bush once said is every time she walked past the oval office when he was Vice President , she only heard uproars you laughter, and that also built the loyalty of the staff. If you have a god time at work, you tend to want to come back the next day. He was very good at that. The number of pranks he pulled, the notes he was passing during meetings, there is legendary stories of president bushs great Sense Of Humor. And i dont think the American People knew that so much about him, but certainly the people who worked for him did. And thats what makes so many people who have worked for him for generations i wouldnt say generations, but decades, How Long Bush World has been with him because a lot of it has to do with his Sense Of Humor and the loyalty that he showed up and down, whether you were the queen of england or the gardner, he treated everyone the
same. And a great lesson for that and loyalty goes up and down. And he certainly lived that israel in life. But his family has talked about his personality that many of us dont see or didnt see at all. You can speak to that as well, peter. Well, thats right. It is interesting. Sometimes people who have tremendous personal qualities, arent conveyed as well. He was actually one of the most impressive people you would ever meet when you saw him, a person who is in command, and really radiated a kind of strength, as well as a dignity. I wanted to Say Something else too, because a lot of people have said, and rightly so, how deeply he loved his family. The other thing is how deeply his family loved him. It was a remarkable thing. I know both of his sons, two of his sons, jeb and president bush 43, and they not only loved him, they revered him. And i think that all of them, of his kids would say he was the greatest man that they ever met. And the people who knew him best loved him most. And that is really quite a tribute there is a lovely poem that steven spender, who is a british poet of the 20th century wrote about the trades of heroes who passed away. He begins by saying i think continually of those who were great. They left a vivid air signed with their honor. And george h. W. Bush left a vivid air signed with his honor. And well miss him. Peter a winner, marykate kerry, thank you for your time. Thank you. Cnns jake tapper has the story of a very modern presidency of george h. W. Bush. Reporter historians say that president george h. W. Bushs international dealings set the Gold Standard for the modern presidency.