The Vice Presidency, which as you know surprised him, he always respected the role of the press. All right. Andrea mitchell joining us by phone. Andrea, appreciate that. And again, just continuing our coverage here. It is 1 00 in the east. We continue our coverage of the death of former president George Herbert walker bush, americas 41st commander in chief. He has died at the age of 94. That word came to us now just over an hour ago, the word being passed from a statement from his son, george w. Bush. We are joined by Hallie Jackson. Let me start with you because we have heard from the current im sorry. That is my mistake. We will be hearing from her in a minute. We are going to pause here just for a few seconds because were going to be joined by our Network Affiliates and pick up the network coverage. This is an nbc news special report. Steve kegeorge h. W. Bush has away at the age of 94. That word coming to us just over an hour ago. A Statement Released by his son, the 43rd president george w. Bush. He had governed this country from 1989 to 1993, a time of moment
momentous change. The fall of the berlin wall, the reunification of germany, major global events that played out under the watch of george h. W. Bush, a oneterm president whose legacy in the last 25 years in the generation since his presidency has in many ways been enhanced in a way that few oneterm president s before him we have seen. Hallie jackson, whos covering the current President Donald Trump on his trip to buenos aires, joins us from there. We have heard from President Trump in the last few minutes . Reporter we have. In a statement from President Trump amnd First Lady Melania Trump responding to the death now of former president george h. W. Bush. Im going to read you pieces of this. President trump saying that melania and i join with the grieving nation to mourn the loss of former president george h. W. Bush who passed away last night. Through his essential disarming
wit and faith in country he inspired generations of fellow americans to Public Service, being, in his words, a thousand Points Of Light. President trump goes on to talk about some of the defining moments of george h. W. Bushs life and legacy, talking about how he always found a way to set the bar higher. President trump continues with sound judgment, common sense and unflappable leadership, president bush guided our nation and the world to a peaceful and victorious conclusion of the cold war and as such set the stage for the decades of prosperity that have followed. Through all he accomplished, he remained humble. President trump and the first lady saying along with his full life of service to this country, we will remember president bush for his devotion to his family, especially the love of his life barbara. His example lives on and will continue to stir future
americans to pursue a greater cause. Our hearts ache with his loss and we send our prayers to the entire bush family as we honor the life and legacy of 41. That the response from President Trump as he is here at the g 20 summit in argentina. It is 11 00 local time. In the coming days we expect there h of course be services in d. C. For the former president , starting with george h. W. Bush lying in state at the capitol and then a service at the national cathedral. We dont have exact timing on that at this point, but i expect that will come shortly. We are hearing too from members of congress paying their respects to the former president , who is such a key political figure to a lot of folks inside the republican establishment. World leaders perhaps reacting as they start to wake up here at the g20 this morning. A couple of notes on the
relationship between President Trump and the former president. It was fraught at times. Its interesting the thousand Points Of Light phrase is being included here, so important to president bush, but something that President Trump jabbed at when he was on the Campaign Trail. That put him under scrutiny from former bush aides and allies who werent quite sure why President Trump was going after george h. W. Bush there. Former first lady barbara bush, melania attended for the family. Hallie, thank you for that. Bring in now john meechum. The moment of his presidency that will define it more than any other was the decision to go to war with Saddam Hussein and iraq in 1991 when Saddam Husseinhad invatded kuwait. It was a controversial decision and he chose to go. He chose to go because he believed this will not stand, this aggression against kuwait. He decided from the 2nd Of August 1990 through about the 5th of august that it was important in a post cold war era to attempt to establish a rule of law among nations. He saw kuwait as a victim. He saw Saddam Hussein as an aggressor. He and james baker successfully marshalled the world to project force around the world in order to try to attempt and, as president bush put it in a speech to congress on september 11th, 1990, that the law of nations should trump the law of the jungle. Thank you for joining us. Again, the word coming in now. Its about 90 minutes ago that
we learned that the former president of the United States george h. W. Bush passed away earlier this evening at the age of 94. Again, the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. For those of You Watchi Ing our stations, our coverage of the death of george h. W. Bush continues on msnbc. Im steve kornacki, nbc news. Continuing our coverage here on msnbc of the death of former president George Herbert walker bush, the former president we learned passing away earlier in the evening at the age of 94. He was the commander in chief from 1989 to 1993, a time of seismic change across the world. General Barry Mccaffrey joins me now on the phone. You knew him personally, general. Your reaction, your memories . Well, hes an utterly magnificent public servant. His entire life was really a model to be emulated. 18yearold Navy Carrier Pilot world war ii. I knew him both as a Division Commander during the gulf war. He and barbara and the Senior Leaders of congress came to my division before the attack started and had Thanksgiving Dinner with us. What an incredible impact he had on my soldiers. Then he also went to ft. Stewart, georgia, to visit our families while we were deployed. And then later on as Colin Powells assistant, i had traveled with him on several occasions overseas, international conferences, essentially his Liaison Officer between the chairman and the president. Again, just a model of Public Service, integrity, good judgment, personal courage. Barry mccaffrey, please stay
with us. Were joined now by tom brokaw, who covered george h. W. Bush. Tom, you wrote the book about george h. W. Bushs generation, the greatest generation. He was the final president of the United States from that generation. He was. And i had a hard time persuading him to participate in that book. He was always so modest about his Public Service. And i finally said, you know, mr. President , this is your generation and you were so representative of it. And he reluctantly agreed. And then i remember one of the most vivid moments and proudest moments of my life on the dedication of the world war ii memorial in washington, d. C. , he was seated just down from me on the podium and when the remarks from the various speakers were going on, he took off a piece of cardboard and wrote on it and said, dear tom, i think i was wrong, maybe we were the greatest generation. And then i developed a personal
relationship with him through our mutual friend jim baker. He was the same in private as he was in public. He was always a modest man, worried about how others were doing. I was with him toward the conclusion of his sons decision to invade iraq and he was supportive of his son, but at the same time i know that he was very anxious about the outcome of it. He worried about what would happen. He was close to colin powell, for example, who was the Secretary Of State in his sons administration. Youll remember that colin powell was not included in a lot of the Decision Making by Vice President cheney and Defense Secretary rumsfeld and that troubled him. But he was always a man who has had great grace. He was a good athlete. He worry about others. His wife barbara had this impish sense of humor. From time to time shed say
something that was impolitic. George would say, oh bar, dont go there. I think both as a political figure and certainly as a friend to his generation and as a friend to people who came up to him, he was a man without peer. Theres an assessment of him out there as a political figure, that he was more comfortable governing than campaigning and that that showed. Do you think thats accurate . I think thats true. I remember he was elected to that first term and then toward the end of it the economy took a sharp downturn. And he didnt respond to it in the way that would have been useful to himty think in the campaign. There were a number of reasons for that, some of them i think having to do with some of the people in his generation. He liked campaigning. The advice he always got from
his mother from a privileged household in new england, oh george, told talk about yourself, she would say naps why he as a politician in contrast to others who occupied that position, he was reluctant to do it. His good manners were always there with him. He was ambassador to china, the director of the cia, the Vice President to the united nations. When he became president , he really did close a deal with the russian government that was discarding the soviet union. He was a seminal figure in so many positions in american political life. Tom, i wonder if you could take us back to the spring of 1991 just after the successful completion of operation desert storm, the liberation of kuwait from iraqi occupation. He hit 91 approval rating. There were patriotic celebrations in this country,
parades, ticker tapes, celebrations that we really hadnt seen since world war ii that spring. It was kind of the last time we had that moment, any Military Operation. When you stop and think about it, the last unconditionally successful Military Operation that we had. There was a lot of pressure on him to go all the way to baghdad. He didnt want to do that. He thought we accomplished what he set out to do, which was drive Saddam Hussein out of kuwait. There was one mistake made. General schwartzkopf said unfortunately i allowed to have Saddam Husseins men to have access to helicopters and they used those helicopters to open up another war in the southern part of iraq. At that point, they had a lot of enemies. That was probably a mistake, but it was more of a tactical than it was a strategic mistake. And he was very concerned about the spread of war in that part of the world. Part of the reason his son and certainly cheney and rumsfeld wanted to go to war is they felt that they had to finish the job, so to speak. And they completely misrepresented, in fact, what was going on in iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction. And we went into a war that is still simmering in its own way. It seems theres an irony there, obviously, to put it mildly, that so many of the now positive assessments of george h. W. Bushs presidency are rooted in the perceived failures of his sons when it came to iraq. Thats true. It was so often in any presidency it is very hard to project about what the enduring advantage of a decision will be or the disadvantage of it will
be. And he got caught in the downdraft of his own presidency, especially when it came to the economy. Also there was a generational thing. Bill clinton was unparalleled as a campaigner and he was of his generation a kind of seminal figure when it came to understanding the new tools of campaigning. Hed grown up wanting to be president of the United States, two terms as governor of arkansas. He represented his generation in so many ways. And george bush was a man of the greatest generation of a different time and a different set of values. Tom brokaw from nbc news. The anchor of nbc news when george h. W. Bush was president. Thank you. My pleasure. He was a great man. I really got to know him as a friend. One final story about him. I was visiting with him up at kennebunkport and he was at that
point concerned about what was going on in the republican party. Ill leave some of the names out. But his wife barbara said sit over there next to george, tom, so i can take your picture together. She said im going to release this as the cochairs of get i dont say who it is were walking about. George said, oh barbara, dont do that now. They had this wonderful relationship. By then he was in a scooter because he had Parkinsons Disease from the waist down. It frustrated him so much because he was such a good athlete. He couldnt move around in the same way, but the fact that he lived to be 94 and hes going to get this kind of farewell, no man deserved it more. All right. Tom brokaw, thank you very much. It was my great pleasure. John meechum is still with us. Let me bring you back in. Tom mentions for much of his life the physical strength of
george h. W. Bush. I remember him in 1988 running for president probably at 64, 65 years old, back then going out jogging at one point during that campaign. And of course the passing in just the last year of his wife. That relationship, barbara bush and george h. W. Bush, talk a little bit about that if you would. They met three weeks after pearl harbor at a dance at the greenwich country club. She wore a red and green dress and he endeavored to get introduced. Their first date was a day or two later. George h. W. Bush, known as papi in those days and still to the family in private moments, he was worried that perhaps there might not be enough to talk about. So he borrowed the family car that had a radio in it. He found quickly that barbara pierce did not suffer silence very easily. And as she used to say, they never had to have a car with a
radio again, because she would fill whatever space there was. They were married in january of 1945, fully thinking that lieutenant junior grade george h. W. Bush, as he was at that point, would go back to be part of the invasion and attack on the home islands of japan. Vj day was an incredibly joyous moment for them as millions of other americans. They were married for 73 years. It was one of the great marriages. Had its ups and downs, as every marriage does. We talked about the loss of r robin in 1953. As you know, families that lose a child, sometimes it brings you closer and sometimes it creates rifts that are difficult to heal. With the bushes, they were strong for each other. President bush was, by his owned a mission, was very affected by watching robin be treated at memorial Sloan Kettering as it was then and would run out of the room. Barbara used to say that robin must have thought he had the weakest bladder in america because he would hustle out. Mrs. Bush was strong during the treatment. After robin died on columbus day weekend of 1953, it was george bushs turn to be strong. And she always remembered how he would hold her sobbing in the watches of the night down in midland, texas, where they were living. They hadnt heard the word leukemia ever until they heard their daughters diagnosis in 1953. It brought them together. They were a Formidable Political partnership. As a friend of president bushs once remarked to me, that
president bush didnt like saying anything bad about folks, but he didnt really mind hearing, which was a good thing because mrs. Bush was pretty candid. In fact, the president would sometimes when mrs. Bush was on a particular roll, he would say, bar, where do you get so damn many opinions. It was that kind of taeasing relationship. George w. Bush has remarked he has his daddys eyes and his mamas mouth. Just in a general way, i want to say again this is americas last great soldier statesman. This is someone who understood combat, who understood the costs of military action. He was restrained in the use of power. He understood americas role in the world. He believed that we were stronger the more widely we opened our arms. One of my favorite stories is the first time he came back to the white house after he lost in 1992 was in june of 1993 to help gerald ford and bill clinton and jimmy carter talk about nafta, which was then facing ratification largely negotiated under reagan and bush. Bill clinton gets up and gives this remarkably synthetic and wonderful description of globalization and why free trade matters. And president bush got up and said we have just seen once again why hes living here and im not. Not many politicians and almost no president s are that selfdeprecating. And one of the things weve lost tonight is a sense of humility at the highest littles. George bush, for all of his faults and hed be the first to say i think were going on a little too much here. But for all of his faults, he embodied the idea that you could be a humble man in the biggest
arena of American Politics and still keep your humanity, keep your grace, keep your integ