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Don Lemon Tonight
Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush Dead at 94. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 01, 2018 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There will be a private service held at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, the church that George and Barbara attended for many years here together, the same church where Barbara's life was remembered just a couple of blocks behind us here.
Then President Bush will be flown to D.C. And there as men before him as his stature have been remembered, he will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, where the public will be able to view him.
Then there will be a funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., before he is again returned home here to Texas. Then we will see the larger service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church.
We could expect, I would think, to be something similar to what we saw for Barbara Bush but on another scale. Then his body will be taken by motorcade to his presidential library in College Station. That's about a 1.5 hour drive from here. There he will be laid to rest alongside Barbara and their daughter, Robin, who passed away many years ago.
But he just already -- you get the sense, as neighbors here come out of their homes and look across the street again to those relatable and beloved neighbors they once knew as Barbara and George H.W. Bush, to recognize that era has come to an end which is passing.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Folks are up late into the night with the sad news and some will wake up to it tomorrow. Kaylee Hartung, outside the Bush family residence in Houston, Texas, thank you for that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
LEMON: I'm Don Lemon. Here's our breaking news. The 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush has died at the age of 94.
This is a statement that is coming in now from the Bush family.
"Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that, after 94 remarkable years, our dear dad has died. George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for.
"The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."
CNN's Anderson Cooper now with the life and times of the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12th, 1924. The son of a future U.S. senator, he married Barbara Pierce. They had six children; two would follow his footsteps into public life.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear.
COOPER (voice-over): In 2001, his eldest son, Texas governor, George Walker Bush, became the 43rd president, the first since John Quincy Adams to follow his father into the White House.
JEB BUSH (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: I'm now about to enter, so help me God --
COOPER (voice-over): His second son, Jeb Bush, served two terms as Florida governor and in 2016 unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination.
After earning a degree at Yale, the elder Bush moved his family to Texas, where he made a fortune in the oil business. There his budding interests in Republican politics blossomed. That one fact helped Bush become elected to two terms as a congressman. But he was defeated in two subsequent bids for the U.S. Senate. His disappointment didn't last long.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We view this item as a -- so seriously that we consider it a possible turning point in the history of the United Nations.
COOPER (voice-over): His political profile was high enough that President Nixon appointed him U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Later he became chairman of the Republican National Committee.
President Ford sent him to China to head up the U.S. liaison office as part of a new initiative in U.S.-Chinese relations. And in 1975, Bush came home to become director of the CIA, a job associates said he truly loved.
He left that job when Democrat Jimmy Carter became president and soon became a player in national Republican politics. Bush ran against Ronald Reagan in the 1980 GOP primaries, winning some but eventually withdrawing when it became clear he wouldn't be the nominee.
But Reagan believed the Texas oilman could help him win over the party's moderates and named him as his running mate. As vice president, Bush spent a lot of time on the road. He was Reagan's heir apparent in 1988.
BUSH 41: I want a kinder and gentler nation, like 1,000 points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.
COOPER (voice-over): He also made a campaign promise that would come back to haunt him.
BUSH 41: Read my lips: no new taxes.
COOPER (voice-over): His selection of a running mate surprised many.
BUSH 41: My choice for the vice presidency is Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana.
COOPER (voice-over): The voters supported the ticket.
BUSH 41: So help me God.
COOPER (voice-over): As the nation's 41st president, Bush's focus returned to international affairs. He presided over the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.
[01:05:00]
COOPER (voice-over): He ordered U.S. troops into Latin America to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
BUSH 41: The responsibility for sending someone's son and, today, daughter into harm's way rests on the shoulders of the president. So it is the most difficult decision.
COOPER (voice-over): He would order U.S. troops into combat again, allied with dozens of other countries, to free Kuwait from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's aggression. The first Gulf War didn't last long.
In less than six weeks, the Iraqis were booted from Kuwait but Saddam Hussein remained in power and held a grudge. Years later, a car bombing plot hatched in Iraq targeted Mr. Bush during a visit to Kuwait.
BUSH 41: You've got to have security. If I have to have it with the Secret Service, I've got the best there is and we will continue to be careful.
COOPER (voice-over): The United States retaliated with a missile attack against Iraq's intelligence headquarters. The man behind the plot would not be captured for another decade. The second President Bush ordered the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
COOPER (voice-over): At home, President Bush was hammered by critics for compromising with Congress on tax increases and breaking his "no new taxes" promises.
BUSH 41: Well, it was a mistake to go along with the Democratic tax increase. And I admit it. COOPER (voice-over): In a three-way battle with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, he lost. He lived long enough to see his son accomplish what he did not: win a second term in the White House.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So help me God --
BUSH 43: So help me God --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.
COOPER (voice-over): At his son's request, he also briefly reentered the public spotlight.
BUSH 41: The aftermath of the devastating tsunami --
COOPER (voice-over): He joined with former president Bill Clinton to help raise money for victims of the 2004 earthquake and tsunamis in Asia. The two reunited in late 2005 to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
As a young Navy pilot, Bush's plane was shot down and he had to bail out over the Pacific. As a far older man he would jump from planes again to celebrate his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays.
BUSH 41: It feels good. It's an exhilaration. It sends a message around with these guys all around the globe that, just because you're an old guy, you don't have to sit around drooling in the corner. Get out and do something. Get out and enjoy life.
COOPER (voice-over): It was a life that brought George Herbert Walker Bush back to the White House in 2011 to receive the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those of you who know him, this is a gentleman, inspiring citizens to become points of light in service to others. His life is a testament that public service is a noble calling.
COOPER (voice-over): At his beloved wife Barbara's funeral, President Bush posed for a photo with other surviving former presidents. The years had taken their toll on his body but his dignity and resolve shined through, part of a graceful final act in a life of public service.
BUSH 41: I do not fear what is ahead, for our problems are large but our heart is larger. Our challenges are great but our will is greater.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: George H.W. Bush, dead at the age of 94.
Let's bring in CNN's Dana Bash, Jamie Gangel and Wolf Blitzer.
What a night, everyone. Jamie, I want to go to you first because you knew the president well.
You were friends with his family. Before I get you to respond, I want to play something. This is during the final days in office, when he left a note for Bill Clinton. I want you to watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): January 1993, his final days in office, President Bush was thinking of someone else: his successor.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sitting here now alone, the desk clear, the pictures gone. I'm dreading the next few minutes walking over and saying goodbye to the staff. I leave the note on the desk for Bill Clinton. It looks a little lonely sitting there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): President Clinton still has the letter.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: "Dear Bill, when I walked in this office just now, I felt the same sense of wonder and respect that I felt four years ago.
"There will be very tough times, made even more difficult by criticism you may not think is fair. I'm not a very good one to give advice but just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course. I'm rooting hard for you. Good luck, George."
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How did you feel when you read that letter the first time?
CLINTON: I was moved by it. He revealed his true self. He made us feel --
[01:10:00]
CLINTON: -- at home as much as he could. Total class.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Jamie, it says so much about the man he was. He had respect for the office and respect for his successor.
GANGEL: As Bill Clinton just said when he talked about the letter, "total class." This was after a bitter loss that President Bush himself said, he felt that he had lost to the lesser man. Yet he rose to the occasion.
What is even more remarkable than his leaving that letter -- because that was something that he felt was part of the office and important to do -- was the relationship he built with Bill Clinton years later when his son had them come together to do tsunami relief.
It started off for a cause but it really did develop into a very close relationship. President George W. Bush used to joke that Bill Clinton had become his brother from another mother.
But it really spoke to the man, that he could look beyond what was undoubtedly, other than the loss of his daughter, Robin, to leukemia when she was a baby, this was the most painful loss, certainly of his political career. Yet he did the right thing, total class.
LEMON: We're looking at live pictures now from the White House, the flags are at half staff now, the flag at the White House and they will be around the country.
Jamie, another question for you. You've been in touch with the family.
How do you prepare for this?
GANGEL: You know, I don't. He's had health challenges for a while. But he's 94 years old. I think at a certain point they all felt, I certainly felt, you know what?
He's got more than nine lives. He fooled us over and over again.
I want to share one thing that was not public tonight and that was there was a codeword was used tonight to tell family and friends that he had passed and that codeword was CAVU, C-A-V-U.
For anyone who has been a pilot, it is familiar; for those that aren't, it stands for ceiling and visibility unlimited. He had a plaque in his office that said that. He always said that he felt that it represented his life. The sky was the limit. He had had everything.
And I think it was a great and fitting tribute to him that that was, in effect, the way his passing, his sendoff was to notify everybody.
LEMON: Wolf, after serving our country with honor for so long, he didn't want to talk about it. For decades, he didn't want to talk about his military service. It was too painful for him.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: He kept it to himself. That's part of that World War II generation. They really didn't want to talk, a lot of these men and women, they didn't really want to talk about their experiences. And very often those experiences were painful, in losing friends, close friends in the service of the war, the service of our country. It was difficult
Only later in subsequent years did he open up to a certain degree. But it was never all that easy for him to do it. He didn't want to brag about it or talk about being a military hero.
He wanted to get on, move on with his family, move on and do what was right for his country. And he took all these specific challenges and he did them well. It was really a remarkable experience that he had.
And he shared it then. People are going to be remembering in the coming hours and days and weeks, they're going to remember, just as Jamie did, telling us stories we weren't all that familiar with. They'll share certain moments that will be very powerful for all of us.
LEMON: Wolf, when you look at his resume, you look at how he served, the captain of Yale University baseball team, that he was -- he ran unsuccessfully for Senate and then became the ambassador of the United Nations, as chairman of the Republican National Committee and then on and on and ended up becoming the President of the United States and a --
[01:15:00]
LEMON: -- father to a President of the United States.
Who has a resume like that anymore or ever?
BLITZER: And he was the CIA director. If you drive around CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia, it is the George H.W. Bush CIA Headquarters, named after him. A lot of the things he was doing during his years as the CIA director, we probably won't know the full extent of all those details for many years to come because they still remain highly classified.
But he was deeply appreciated by the men and women in the U.S. international community who worked with him, worked for him. And he used that experience to develop an incredible opportunity when he ran for President of the United States and all of a sudden, Saddam Hussein, as we've been pointing out, stunned the world in August of 1990 by invading Kuwait.
And there was the question, would the U.S. respond or not?
And he put together that coalition that eventually included more than half a million U.S. troops deployed to the region to liberate Kuwait.
LEMON: Dana Bash, we've been talking about what a family man he was. But we would be remiss in our duties here if we didn't talk about the woman who gave him that family and that is the love of his life, Barbara Bush.
DANA BASH, CNN SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm just looking at my phone because you made me, thinking of a text I just got from somebody who has known the Bush family for a very long time, worked closely with them, saying, "And he lived a great life and loved every day.
"He is where he wanted to be, with Barbara."
On the plane ride down here I was rereading some of the book that he wrote with the letters that he had written throughout his life. It is almost too much to wrap your mind around, the way he would write, as such a young man, after he got into the Navy back -- when he was 18 years old, on his 18th birthday.
But he already met Barbara Pierce at a dance. And he was smitten. And he would write to his mother and he would write to his siblings and he would write to her all about that. And the fact that that lasted, that love, that deep, deep love lasted for almost eight decades, is remarkable.
And, yes. It was, what, six months ago that he lost that love of his life, his soulmate in the true, true sense of the word. The love story is something that is, you know, almost unparalleled in today's times.
LEMON: You can't help but get a little choked up. I'm looking at a picture from our Kate Bennett that she put out on Twitter. I don't know if you have seen it, but if you haven't, then you should check it out on Kate Bennett's Twitter account. She covers the first lady of the United States and she's covered first ladies.
It is a picture of Barbara Bush, sitting on the South Portico steps with her two dogs.
It says, "Barbara Bush would sit on the steps at the South Portico of the White House, waiting for George Bush to return from trips. I thought of this picture tonight and how happy she must be that he is coming home to her again."
There it is, up on the screen -- Dana.
BASH: Absolutely. It is not just that she was an incredible partner for him. She, you know, she believed, and both of them believed in the same things, which was and is service. That's what they imparted on their children and their grandchildren, their big, boisterous family, both here in Texas -- and they spread out around the -- around the country.
The way that George H.W. Bush loved his wife was an example to his children, to his sons, clearly, and to his daughters as well, his daughter, Doro. And to the country. And that is another example of something that was a snapshot in time, that people are longing for, those moments of reverence for family, as well as the deep love affairs.
LEMON: Jamie Gangel, I mentioned to you earlier, I asked you how does anybody prepare for this?
Can you tell us anything about the services?
GANGEL: Our understanding is it has not been publicly announced yet. But the family will gather together in Houston. The former president will be brought to Washington, D.C., to the Capitol, where he will lie in state. There will be a service at the National Cathedral.
I don't think it has been announced who the eulogists are yet. But I'm told his son, former president, George W. Bush, will be one --
[01:20:00]
GANGEL: -- of the eulogists there. He'll go back to Houston and there will be a service there. And he will finally be buried and lie where Barbara Bush is. He will go up to his presidential library, where Barbara Bush is buried and where Robin, their 2-year-old daughter, who died of leukemia is also buried. I just want to -- Don, if we have a moment -- go back to the CIA that
you mentioned, because George Bush loved to tell people that his favorite job was actually not President of the United States, although he loved it, but being director of the CIA.
And I will tell you, you did not want to play poker with George H.W. Bush. He really did come but what was also important about it was, when he got that appointment, the feeling was that it was a dead end. The CIA was in trouble. This was a way to not become President of the United States someday.
So the fact that he really turned around that organization -- there's a reason that the building is named after him -- was very, very important at the time and then to the rest of his career and the people at the agency adore him.
LEMON: Well said.
Wolf, I want to -- if we could get back to the former first lady and we -- all of our hearts broke back in April when she passed. And we watched that funeral; you covered it. Many of us here at CNN covered it and we watched this president sit in the wheelchair and shake every single hand and greeted every single person.
And there's the video right there. And so we will be watching again and our hearts will be breaking again but not as much as his family that you see behind him in that wheelchair.
BLITZER: Yes, such a wonderful family, such a beautiful family, a loving family. And we'll see that underscored in these coming days as well, as the family gets together and they pay their respects and they show their love for this extraordinary man -- 94 years old, 94.
And if you spoke with him then, back in April when Barbara Bush passed, if you spoke with him in recent years, he was sharp. He was there. He had stories to tell. And people emerged from those opportunities with George H.W. Bush so impressed that he was -- he was so devoted and so on top of things. He was watching everything.
It is a sad moment in American history right now that this great American president has left us. But we'll remember him, not just over the next few days; we'll remember him for a long time for all he accomplished, not only as president but as CIA director, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., U.S. ambassador to China.
And what he did after leaving office during the Bill Clinton administration, during the administration of his son, George W. Bush, during the Obama two terms, what he did then on behalf of the American people was so incredible, raising funds for such critically important causes. He really was outstanding person.
LEMON: Wolf, Jamie, Dana, I want you to stand by. George H.W. Bush was president when the Soviet Union collapsed. CNN's Jim Sciutto has the story of the end of the Cold War.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BUSH 41: The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives is this: by the grace of God, America won the Cold War.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Many Americans associate Ronald Reagan with the fall of communism.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): But when the Berlin wall came down, the nations of Eastern Europe renounced communism and the Soviet Union fell apart, George H.W. Bush was President of the United States.
JIM BAKER, BUSH 41 SECRETARY OF STATE: The cold war didn't have to end peacefully, it could have ended with a bang instead of a whimper. But he made sure that it ended peacefully and took a lot of heat in the process for not being willing to be -- to emote more about winning the Cold War.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Only months into President Bush's term, China's communist government brutally crushed a pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
The president, who had been the top U.S. diplomat in China under President Ford, condemned the bloody repression but refused to slam the door on the U.S.-Chinese relationship.
BUSH 41: The process of --
[01:25:00]
BUSH 41: -- democratization of communist societies will not be a smooth one and we must react to setbacks in a way which stimulates rather than stifles progress toward an open and representative system.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Hoping to stimulate progress, Bush funneled U.S. support to nations where communist leaders chose to negotiate with reformers. He visited Poland and Hungary in July of 1989, receiving large and enthusiastic welcomes.
As reform in Eastern Europe sped up, the president stayed cautious and deliberate. Reporters were astonished at his low-key response when the Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989.
BUSH 41: I am very pleased with the -- with this development.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't seem elated and I'm wondering if you're thinking of the problems.
BUSH: I'm just not an emotional kind of a guy.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): We now know that, in reality, he was elated as well as intensely worried that the peaceful transition would fall apart if he gloated. COLIN POWELL, BUSH 41'S JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Dance on the ruins of the Berlin Wall. He said, I'm not going to do it. He knew that gloating would not help us as we tried to reunify Germany and see how the Warsaw Pact nations would transition to democracy. I think it was brilliant, the way he handled the end of the Cold War and the transition to a Europe, whole, free and at peace.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): The Soviet Union broke up peacefully and Gorbachev resigned on Christmas Day 1991.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, BUSH 41'S SOVIET SPECIALIST: Gorbachev called President Bush to tell him what he was going to do. And he said to President Bush, "History will judge us well."
Yes, we did the right thing, didn't we?
BUSH 41: Good evening.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): That same Christmas night, President Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office.
BUSH 41: Eastern Europe is free. The Soviet Union itself is no more. This is a victory for democracy and freedom.
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Able to sort of manage the process. It would have been easy to come across as a sort of taking advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Don't go and pound your chest and turn it into a political event to his advantage perhaps domestically. But certainly not in terms of how the whole thing unfolded. It was managed very, very smoothly, I would say. And that was his (INAUDIBLE).
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Let's bring in now presidential adviser David Gergen. David joins us via phone.
David, he was really a Cold Warrior through and through to the CIA, as vice president and then as President of the United States.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: He certainly was. He came by his views honestly. We have so many people who take shortcuts today, don't really study the issues.
This is a man that took the international foreign policy of the United States very seriously. And he wanted to make sure he got the best people. He surrounded himself at the White House, when he was president, he had Jim Baker go over to the State Department, which was highly successful.
And Dick Cheney, which -- who was -- who was a person of less controversy at that time but was very strong, often agreed with Baker and they had -- they had Brent Scowcroft there at the National Security Council, you can go through the list. People like Condi Rice, for example, were helpful to him in settling
the European German question.
But Don, one thing I think that needs to be said again and again is how -- there was something in the DNA of the Bush family that spoke to service. It was his father, really, Prescott Bush, who was -- who was -- who was the lion that gave birth to all of this.
Prescott Bush was a financier on Wall Street. But he was -- filled a vacancy in the U.S. Senate from Connecticut, got elected in the 1950s. Dwight Eisenhower, President Eisenhower loved him. They played golf together a lot.
And I seriously thought about replacing Dick Nixon as vice president in '56 when he ran for reelection, to replace him with Prescott Bush. That did not happen.
But George H.W. Bush grew up in that kind of environment, where service was right at the top of the list. So he was finishing high school when Pearl Harbor broke out. He was at the Phillips Academy in Andover.
At the end of the senior year, at 18 years old, he signed up for the Navy to fly combat missions. The folklore is that he was not just the youngest pilot in combat missions, he was in the Pacific. But he was the youngest pilot shot down in the Pacific.
There's some film clips from that that are -- that show just how heroic it was. How he was rescued at sea. He had a lot of similarities to what happened to John F. Kennedy when his destroyer was cut in two.
[01:30:00]
GERGEN: He nearly died, too.
When George H.W. Bush was inaugurated, he had -- he had a replica of that Avenger aircraft that he had been in, that he was shot down in. He had it in the parade because he wanted to send a signal about -- he remembered and he remembered what war was like.
And I think one of the things that distinguished the World War II presidents is that they'd seen so much blood and gore, so much spilled treasure, lost so many friends that they really were very reluctant to put U.S. troops in harm's way.
If you've been in the military, you've seen a lot of bloodshed, then you know how horrible it is. You really are much more restrained.
And that's what George Bush was all about. I do think in this time of tumult and our politics, a time of identity politics, it is really worthwhile to have our -- the next generation know the story of George Bush, know what he represented, know the kind of leadership that was in vogue at that time.
Yes, did he come from an elite family? Yes. It had a dynastic quality, yes.
But it was all done in the name of serving the people of the United States. And he was very humble about that.
LEMON: Truly the epitome of what is called the greatest generation, David Gergen, I want you to stand by.
I want to bring Dana Bash and Jamie Gangel back in.
Let's talk more about him.
Jamie, David just mentioned the inauguration of George H.W. Bush. But let's talk about the inauguration of George W. Bush. Here you are with him, speaking about his father at the inauguration. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH 43: He's not the kind of guy that would sit down and say, let's discuss how I feel today. But you could tell that he was very proud and -- and as was I.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
I decided I was going to go see what it was like to be in the Oval Office as president. And I was in there, taking in the moment.
And Dad walks in, I said, "Welcome, Mr. President."
He said, "Thank you, Mr. President."
And it was a very moving moment. It was a fitting end to a great day.
GANGEL: Did he give you any advice?
BUSH 43: No, no. And he was very guarded about giving me advice unless I asked for it.
GANGEL: Was it hard to live up to him?
BUSH 43: No.
GANGEL: Because ... ?
BUSH 43: Of unconditional love. In other words, the message from George Bush was, I love you no matter what you do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Can you imagine that?
Can you imagine how proud a father would be, to say congratulations, Mr. President, and then respond, thank you, Mr. President, Jamie?
GANGEL: It was no question, an extraordinary moment in general and certainly an extraordinary moment for the two of them. Both President Bush 41 and 43 have said to me countless times, you know, don't ask me about our relationship. We're not into psychobabble.
But of course there's endless fascination about it. They were very close. They talked a lot. As President Bush 43 said, his father didn't give advice unless 43 asked for it.
And there's a moment, it's not in that section but people may remember, after 9/11, when President George W. Bush gave the speech at the National Cathedral and he came down and his parents were sitting there.
And his father leaned over and touched his hand and patted him.
And he said, of all of his moments as president, he told me, that was the most meaningful because there was his father, publicly saying, you did well. So it was always important.
LEMON: Just listening to the stories that this president could share, considering his experience in World War II and then beyond -- I talked about his resume. I asked Wolf, I said, who has a resume like that now, if ever?
I want you to listen to this, Dana. This is George H.W. Bush talking about heaven.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNA BUSH HAGER, GEORGE H.W. BUSH'S GRANDDAUGHTER: There's people in heaven that you want to see?
BUSH 41: Definitely. I can't quite sort out in my mind how we're going to find hem.
HAGER: Who would you want to see first?
BUSH 41: Well, it depends if Barbara predeceases me. Probably go with her but I think my mom and my father and maybe Robin, our little girl that died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Oh, my gosh, imagine that and his granddaughter doing the interview.
Go on, Dana.
BASH: Absolutely. That's kind of where we started --
[01:35:00]
BASH: -- this conversation tonight, the fact that it was impossible to think of George H.W. Bush living without Barbara Bush and vice versa. That's was what people -- Jamie knows this better than all of us -- people around them were worried that after she passed away in April, that it would be quick. He lasted a little bit more than six months, I guess almost seven months. But he certainly did so with, from all accounts, the same humor, the same joy, the same love of life, love of fun as much as he could that he had embodied his entire life.
LEMON: Dana, we talk about the greatest generation. I can only imagine what the men and women who served this country, especially the folks in the Navy, how they feel about this war hero who became President of the United States.
BASH: As we were talking, as we've been broadcasting tonight, I got a text from Mark Kelly, who is well known as an astronaut and the husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
But before going into NASA, he is and was a Naval aviator, like George H.W. Bush, like John McCain, that the world and his family laid to rest just a few moments ago.
So Mark Kelly texted me and he said, "With the passing of John McCain and now George H.W. Bush, the Navy has lost the last of our most iconic Naval aviators. Naval guys like me will really miss him."
It kind of speaks to what you're talking about with David Gergen about the fact that he was so eager to serve at 18 to go in and serve -- which was in keeping with the culture at the time, after waiting until he turned 18 after Pearl Harbor.
But he was dedicated to service. He loved the Navy, just like the McCain family did. The two families actually intersected because McCain's father was a four-star admiral in the Navy at a type when George H.W. Bush had enlisted.
So it kind of all comes together. But it speaks to the greatest generation, the love of country, loving country more than anything. And that is a way to describe this man who we just lost this evening as it is to describe so many in his generation and so many in the military and, in fact, the Navy, which is what Mark Kelly was trying to say.
LEMON: Dana, Jamie, I want you to stand by because I want to get to Buenos Aires now, where the current president is. Jeff Zeleny is traveling with the president and has been reporting on him there at the G20.
Earlier we read the statement of the former president, Barack Obama, the current president, who you're with; you read that statement. And there's a statement from former president Bill Clinton as well as former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. And basically I'll sum it up here.
They sent a statement that, "Hillary and I mourn the passing of President George H.W. Bush and give thanks for his great, long life of service, love and friendship."
And I will let you continue because as I understand, you have this very same statement as well. JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, we do. And it's an extraordinary statement in a sense. Let's just go through it here.
It says, "Hillary and I mourn the passing of President George H.W. Bush and give thanks for his great, long life of service, love and friendship. I'll be forever grateful for the friendship we formed.
"From the moment I met him as a young governor, invited to his home in Kennebunkport, I was struck by the kindness he showed to Chelsea, by his innate and genuine decency and by his devotion to Barbara, his children, and their growing brood."
He goes on to say, "Few Americans have been -- or will ever be -- able to match President Bush's record of service to the United States and the joy he took every day from it; from his military service in World War II, to his work in Congress, the United Nations, China and the Central Intelligence Agency, the vice presidency and the presidency, where he worked to move the post-Cold War world toward greater unity, peace, and freedom.
"He never stopped serving. I saw it up close, working with him on tsunami relief in Asia and here at home after Hurricane Katrina. His remarkable leadership and great heart were always on full display."
President Clinton goes on to say, "I am profoundly grateful for every minute I spent with President Bush and will always hold our friendship as one of my life's greatest gifts. Our hearts and prayers are with George, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro, their families and the entire Bush clan."
Now, Don, this is more than a statement from a former president --
[01:40:00]
ZELENY: -- to another former president. Think of this in our current political time; it is nearly impossible to fathom what happened a quarter-century ago, when a Democratic president, a young governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, defeated a sitting president, who had been a vice president for eight years.
He was a legend. And this young Democrat beat him. They went on to become friends. This was a bitter rivalry in 1992. Of course, Ross Perot also in that race, which complicated things for President Bush at the time.
But he roared out of his first term with approval ratings in some -- by eight in 10 Americans approved his service after the Gulf War. And Bill Clinton beat him. After that, Don, of course, they became friends.
The Bushes saw Bill Clinton as another one of their sons, largely over their public service work after they left office, through Hurricane Katrina, through other matters.
So that is what, I think, tonight, as we celebrate the life and service and legacy of President George H.W. Bush, that this is a telling legacy, that he embraced Bill Clinton, he embraced the man who defeated him.
Now take a listen to this interview from George H.W. Bush in 2009, what he had to say about Bill Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH 41: President Clinton beat me like a drum back in 1992. And then we became friends. And some of his friends look at him and say, have you lost it with this crazy guy?
And some of mine look at it and they say it's just the same thing.
What are you doing with Clinton?
And just because you run against someone does not mean you have to be enemies. Politics does not have to be mean and ugly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: That is a speech in New Orleans back in 2009. George H.W. Bush said "he beat me like a drum" and indeed Bill Clinton did but went on to become such close friends.
Don, I think this is something, the passing of the torch of presidents. As we, over the next coming days, mark every chapter and moment of the life and service of George H.W. Bush, it is indeed a passing of time for American presidents.
There will never be another American president who served in World War II and there may never be another American president who had as much decorated military service as he did.
But this was something that was within him that, of course, that allowed him to not only be friends but actually like and work alongside Bill Clinton. So this is something -- and, again, we talked earlier.
Barack Obama also became close to the Bush family. Just three days ago, he was in Houston at an event. He stopped in and visited George H.W. Bush. We're told they had a warm and brief conversation; of course, in declining health there, the former president was.
So Don, this is something that that Americans do, when an American president, he's the longest living president in our country, celebrating his life and legacy, also a time to take stock of how things maybe used to be in politics and certainly how they are today.
LEMON: Jeff Zeleny reporting from Buenos Aires. Jeff, stand by; I want to get back now to Jamie Gangel.
Jamie, essentially, what Jeff is talking about is the presidents' club. And George H.W. Bush really set the tone for this presidents' club, one in which maybe one doesn't fit in at this moment as much as the others, just being honest. GANGEL: No, no question. Let's remember that one of the things, as bitter as his loss was to Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush said, I will not criticize him. And he kept that promise. He felt he'd had his time on the stage and now it was Bill Clinton's time.
And he was setting an example for the appropriate way he felt to act after he was president. His son did the same and Barack Obama has pretty much done the same. So absolutely he set the tone of civility, a word we don't use a lot these days.
I also thought maybe we could go back to his relationship with Barbara Bush because, not only were they married for 73 years and not only did they meet at a dance when they were about 15-16 years old but -- I think we have some tape here --
[01:45:00]
GANGEL: -- they were the first people that each -- they kissed. This is -- so you want to show the tape and we'll talk about it.
LEMON: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH 41: This one was December of '43.
"My darling Bar, this should be a very easy letter to write, words should come easily and, in short, it should be simple to tell you how desperately happy I was to open the paper and see the announcement of our engagement.
"But somehow I can't possibly say all in a letter I should like to. I love you, precious, with all my heart and to know that you love me means my life. How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you."
And then later in the letter, "Good night, my beautiful. Every time I say beautiful, you about kill me. But you will have to accept it. I hope I get Thursday off. Still a chance. All my love."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Jamie, who writes letters?
You know, it's just such a great love affair and to have someone write a love letter, it is just fantastic.
GANGEL: So that letter came. Presidents write autobiographies.
Guess what?
George H.W. Bush did not write an autobiography the way most people do. He simply published his letters in a book. It's called, "All the Best." I highly recommend it because it really did show his soul and what was going on. That letter is just one example. But he didn't write the autobiography because of this term that we've
used a couple of times tonight, braggadocio. Yes, he was his father's son but he was very much his mother's son and she always said to him, "George, don't be braggadocio."
He didn't want to brag about himself. Writing an autobiography would have been in effect doing that. So he felt that this was the way he could show his heart. He knew that when he was in the White House, people -- some people thought he was out of touch. They didn't have a sense of him. They thought he was this patrician from Greenwich, Connecticut.
Letters like that show his heart -- Don.
LEMON: Wow. The love between these two is just amazing. People talk about the way the former first lady, Nancy Reagan, would look at President Reagan. I mean, Barbara Bush would look at her husband in quite the same way and would sit on the steps.
Look at that. Look at that in happier times.
Before I get this tweet from Kate Bennett, what a handsome couple. As we were showing, I remember when Barbara Bush passed. And we saw all the pictures on CNN of them as younger folks. People said, my gosh, he was so handsome and she was so gorgeous. They were a really handsome couple. We forget that they were young at one point.
GANGEL: I actually was the pool reporter.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Look at that, Jamie.
GANGEL: -- inaugural -- oh, my gosh, there he is. And on his 18th birthday, he went and signed up -- there he is. That looks like Andover. And that is George W. Bush, I believe, on his shoulders there. He was born at Yale. Good-looking man. I'll tell you a story about Barbara Bush, if you want to pull up that tweet from --
LEMON: This is a tweet and it says, "Barbara Bush used to sit on the steps at the South Portico of the White House, waiting for George Bush to return from trips. I thought of this picture tonight and how happy she must be that he is coming home to her again."
GANGEL: So I was once with her when -- before he arrived home and she heard his car, the motorcade, pulling up on the gravel of the driveway. And I'm telling you, she was in her 70s at the time. So they'd been married a long time.
And she ran over to the -- there was a mirror in the front hallway. And I'll show you what she did. She looked in the mirror and she pinched her cheeks to get them all rosy because, at 70 whatever, this was the love of her life and she wanted to make sure she looked good when he walked in the door. That is love, Don Lemon.
LEMON: Mmm, Jamie. GANGEL: Yes.
LEMON: Yes.
GANGEL: It is a hard day.
LEMON: It is a hard day but, you know what, I love when we talk about class and dignity with these two. I love that they would -- I miss seeing the dogs. If we have them boarding Marine One and they would leave and come back and the dogs would -- they would leave the dogs behind, sometimes, how they would greet the dogs --
[01:50:00]
LEMON: -- and greet them on the lawn and then her sitting on the portico steps with the dogs. It was the picture of a family, right, her with her dogs there but it was a picture of a family. The dogs were included, the kids, the grandkids and then they were there as well. It is just -- it's such an American story.
GANGEL: No question. I don't know if we have it but maybe people will remember. One of their photographs was taken by White House photographer Dave Valdez. But it was not in the White House. It was at their home in Kennebunkport. And it was in bed. And there they were, hair tousled, reading the newspapers with a dozen grandkids all over them, walking in.
It says so much about who they are as a family. But it also said -- they let him in there to capture that moment, to take that picture. I think it also is important to remember what these two people did after the White House.
They didn't sit around and feel sorry for themselves. They went out and kept doing public service. In this case, they raised money. These two people together helped raise more than $1 billion with a B for charity.
LEMON: After they left the White House.
GANGEL: After they left the White House. And they would never turn anything down. And if that meant reading to children or if that meant standing there and shaking hands and having their picture taken, they really felt it was their responsibility to give back.
LEMON: Stand by. Thank you for that, Jamie.
I want to get back to Dana Bash. Dana joins us from Houston.
Dana, as we know, Houston was such an important place for this family. Actually the family residence is there in Houston.
BASH: That's right. Yes, this is where the congressman, George H.W. Bush, served. You mentioned earlier he ran for Senate a couple of times and lost. But he was in the House before he started -- or as he started his storied career. You think about his time in the U.S. House was so small compared to
the other things he did, at the U.N., in China, at the CIA and then the vice presidency and the presidency and then beyond.
One thing that was noteworthy for someone like him, who only served one term, and you can imagine, was not happy about that. He didn't get the second term. One of the questions for him was, what are his regrets?
I think we have some tape of him answering that question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH 41: I did my job as president. I just didn't expose my inner feelings. And I think people liked me and I think people were disappointed. I think people wanted change. I think when I said the economy has recovered, hey, look at this guys. He is out of touch.
I got a whole rationale of reasons why I did not get reelected. But maybe if I had been a little more emotional or more revealing of the person, why, maybe it would have helped. But it never occurred to me then. I mean, I --
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: No regrets, then?
BUSH 41: No regrets about anything. No regrets about one single thing in my life that I can think of. I mean, I made mistakes but they don't measure up to regrets now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A very humble man, talking about his experiences as President of the United States. Let's talk about his legacy and the history of George H.W. Bush and the appropriate person to talk to is Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian.
Douglas, hello; thank you for joining us here. We talked about what he will be remembered as and mostly as president for his foreign policy chops but also as a family man as a great father and a great grandfather and a great great-grandfather.
DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: All of that and I think also he'll be remembered for the things he didn't do. Like for example, Don, he didn't brag when the Berlin Wall came down in Germany. He said we're not going to brag that the United States won the Cold War. We're going to work in Europe.
And then he worked very hard to make sure that loose --
[01:55:00]
BRINKLEY: -- nuclear weapons were contained. It was a detailed amount of work. And the amount of diplomacy, a word we don't hear enough anymore. When you hear of Bush 41, it is all about a life of diplomacy. He was so -- did not want to brag about himself. When he left office,
he wrote a memoir but he cowrote it with Brent Scowcroft. We're talking a lot about James Baker and I think Baker and Bush 41 is the closest relationship in American history between a secretary of state and a president.
Harry Truman and Dean Atcheson had a great relationship and there were others. But it's nothing like that Baker-Bush team. But Brent Scowcroft, who was an Air Force officer and became head of the National Security Council under Bush, they really devised a way for the Soviet Union to collapse in a way that would not shake the world's economic markets, that would keep people calm.
And so they co-wrote a book together, instead of doing my own autobiography, Scowcroft and Bush they wrote "A World Transformed." And they explained why they didn't brag about when the Berlin Wall came down. They explained why when they liberated Kuwait they did not go into Baghdad.
It is important to know that Scowcroft, Baker and Bush understand the limits of American intervention; they understood soft power and hard power. They knew the high cost of war and how many -- what dead soldiers really means.
And they were able to build this incredible coalition, a model of American history. When they went into Iraq, in 1991, on how to bring NATO along, the United Nations, bring everybody in it with them.
So he's going to be studied, Bush 41, on how a commander in chief should behave in limited wars, how to alliance build and how to perfect the art of diplomacy. We talked for a long time and -- this coming week, everybody will go to the Bush library in College Station.
He could have done a glitzy presidential library in downtown Houston where he lived. He went to College Station to be with the Aggies. He decided they could use the presidential library there and it's going to just have thousands of visitors coming to remember him and leave flowers there this coming week.
LEMON: Texas, an important place for the Bush family. Presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, thank you very much.
II want to get back to Dana Bash and Jamie Gangel. Dana is joining us from Houston, Texas, the Bush residence is there. I believe we have pictures. We had pictures of the residence. There was a memorial being put together there and I'm sure it will grow over the coming hours.
Also in Washington, D.C., tonight, flags are at half staff at the White House and at government facilities and they will be around the country as we mourn the loss of the 41st President of the United States.
Dana, you first from Houston, the home of the Bush residence.
Give me some thoughts on this president and what we have lost. BASH: Lost a patriot, a war hero, as somebody whose global leadership, as Doug talked about, helped the peaceful transition out of an incredibly remarkable period in time, the Cold War, which, it was not a sure thing. If there was another president, it may not have happened that way. And we should remember that with the end of the Cold War.
And lost somebody who was a father and grandfather, who not only was the father of a president and governor and so many grandchildren who just loved him as their grandfather and not as a former President of the United States.
LEMON: Jamie, we keep talking about at CNN, I said what we have lost, what the world has lost. We must remember that this Bush family gave so much to the country and the world, really.
And they sort of gave their family members, their father and their grandfather to the world. They had to share them with the world.
GANGEL: Right, as George H.W. Bush liked to say and you see on the library, a life without service was not a life that he wanted to live. And his family knew that and he spent a great part of his time in public service.
There's a couple of other words that we heard used about him tonight that I think are always important but never more so important than the time that we're living in.
We heard former president Bill Clinton use the words "total class."
