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Don Lemon Tonight
Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush Dead at 94. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired December 01, 2018 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
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JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We heard former president Bill Clinton use the words "total class." And we heard former president Barack Obama, a Democrat, saying, "a gentleman." And I think civility, his graciousness, the way he handled himself is a role model we all will miss.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Jamie, Dana, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
LEMON: I'm Don Lemon. It is the top of the hours and the breaking news. The 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, has died at the age of 94. The flag at the White House flying at half staff right now as flowers pile up outside the Bush home in Houston, Texas.
Tributes are pouring in from President Trump and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as former vice president Al Gore, 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. CNN's John King now with the story of George H.W. Bush, the politician.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN HOST (voice-over): It was the defining promise of his presidential campaign.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Read my lips: no new taxes.
J. KING (voice-over): 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 conservatives and perhaps cost him his job.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As we speak, our nation is standing together against Saddam Hussein's aggression. But here at home, there's another threat, a cancer, gnawing away at our nation's health. That cancer is the budget deficit.
J. KING (voice-over): All his political people said don't raise taxes. But President Bush was convinced he had to. He put the country ahead of his own political standing, agreeing in the end to a compromise that included about $3 in cuts for every dollar in new taxes.
BUSH 41: There comes a time when you have to simply make tough decisions, give a little to get what is best for the country.
J. KING (voice-over): If you do the math, you don't get the Clinton- era balanced budgets without the Bush-era tax compromise. Conservatives revolted and the Bush team believes that broken promise was a big reason he lost.
George Bush had many stops on his path to the presidency. He was the last World War II veteran to win the White House. He served a couple 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 wasn't his biggest problem.
RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green.
J. KING (voice-over): Despite winning the Iowa caucuses, Bush couldn't sustain what he called, "the big mo," as in momentum.
REAGAN: I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear...
J. KING (voice-over): And he lost the nomination to Ronald Reagan.
When Reagan couldn't convince former President Gerald Ford to join the ticket, he turned to Bush, who accepted. Despite eight loyal years as vice president, a third-place finish behind Bob Dole and Pat Robertson in Iowa nearly derailed Bush's 1988 campaign.
BUSH 41: I have many friends to thank tonight ...
J. KING (voice-over): By the time he locked up the nomination, Bush was 17 points behind the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis.
BUSH 41: Three months ago, I remember some of the great publications in this country had written me off.
J. KING (voice-over): Bush and his allies made up the ground by attacking Dukakis as too liberal. Soft on defense, they said, and soft on crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His revolving-door prison policy gave weekend furloughs to first-degree murderers not eligible for parole.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One was Willie Horton, who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times.
J. KING (voice-over): The strategy worked. In the end, Dukakis lost 40 states and Bush was president.
BUSH 41: Good to see you, fellows.
J. KING (voice-over): 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 a president who, at times, seemed out of touch with their concerns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How has the national debt personally affected each of your lives?
BUSH 41: If the question -- if you're -- maybe I won't get it wrong.
Are you're suggesting that if somebody has means, that the national debt doesn't affect them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I'm saying --
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH 41: I'm not sure I get it. Help me with the question and I'll try and answer it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --
ROSS PEROT (I), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE 1992: How are you?
J. KING (voice-over): Business man Ross Perot was rich enough to mount a third-party challenge and a young Democrat with the best political skills of his generation ...
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Wherever the seeds of freedom are sprouting --
J. KING (voice-over): -- could look members of a debate audience in the eye and feel their pain.
But as time moves on, George Herbert Walker Bush will be remembered more kindly than the voters treated him in 1992 -- John King, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Let's bring in now Mary Kate Cary.
[02:05:00]
LEMON: She was the speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush; also Peter Wehner, a contributing op-ed writer at "The New York Times," who served in the George H.W. Bush administration.
Good evening to both of you. It is so good to have you on.
Mary, if I may start with you. And may I say my condolences since you worked with the president and you were a speechwriter from 1989 to 1992.
What are you feeling tonight?
MARY KATE CARY, BUSH 41 SPEECHWRITER: I'm 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're 16 years old.
What do you think you could learn from a man who is 94 years old?
And there's 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 the country. George Bush had a front row seat to most of the major events in the last half of the 20th century.
And whether you start with service in World War II or what he did at the CIA, in Congress, Watergate as head of the Republican National Convention committee, vice president and president and then afterwards, as a great humanitarian, a sportsman, father and grandfather. Just a tremendous life that affected so many people in this country.
That's a great lesson for young people, that one person really can make a tremendous difference. And it is a great loss for our country but I prefer to think about all the things we gained because of him.
LEMON: Peter, you served in the administration as well. You were the deputy speechwriter, am I correct, in the administration?
PETER WEHNER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I was deputy speechwriter for his son and then I worked in the office of National Drug Control Policy for 41.
LEMON: Talk to me about -- 41 is the one we're here to celebrate the life of and to remember him and his legacy.
What do you remember most about him?
WEHNER: I think what I remember most about him is he was a man of so many parts. He was just a deeply impressive man and we lost one of the great ones. He was a person who was actually a remarkable combination of characteristics in my mind.
There was strength and dignity and humility and gentleness. As a president, he was a person of a lot of wisdom and prudence, a conservative virtue, and real steadiness at a time when the world and the United States needed steadiness at the helm.
I don't think he was a great natural politician but I do think he was a great public servant. And he had the right order of the loves (ph), he -- St. Augustine has aligned the oral memorial, the right order of the loves. And he had the right ones, family and friends and faith and country.
He's a person who seemed to belong to a different generation, an older generation and, in many ways, I think, a better generation. I look to him as a person. And the feelings I have tonight are gratitude for what he did and admiration for who he was.
LEMON: Some presidents more than others, Mary Kate, when they speak, you feel the gravitas. You feel the comfort in their voices and in times of sadness and sorrow in the country. George H.W. Bush was one of those men, one of those voices.
You remember the Thousand Points of Light speech, which was one of the greatest in modern history. As a matter of fact, the former president, Barack Obama, referenced it in his -- in his statement over 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 life ignited countless others with their example, the example of the man who, even after commanding the world's mightiest military, went -- "
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LEMON: -- and then he goes on to talk about how 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 of writing for him, tell me what that was like.
CARY: Well, he had a great, very unique voice and a lot of it was based on his self-deprecating humor and his humility, which is surprising for a man who David McCullough (ph) once said to me was the most qualified man to be President of the United States outside 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 I's."
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," don't 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 that actually had to go do the work of implementing the policies.
So he would always say we. We're going to do this together. Here's what we're going to do as a nation. And he thought that was important for our democracy.
He also felt that, in terms of his humility, self-deprecating humor was very important. And 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 self-deprecating humor. It is 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 I'll ever have and I'm going to miss it terribly because he was tremendously fun to write for. I wrote a lot of the less important speeches. I did the -- what I consider the fun stuff. And it was the Girl Scout of the Year awards and the spelling bee winners and the turkey pardons.
And I think he thought that was fun, too. So we had a good time together with things like that and it was a great joy because I think that was, for him, the fun stuff of the job, is seeing the real people and not necessarily being with all the big muckety-mucks all the time.
So it was great fun to write for him.
LEMON: Some of us loved broccoli, others didn't, especially this president because, in 1990, he banned broccoli on Air Force One, saying that he hated it since he was a kid.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: Peter, you also served in the Reagan administration.
WEHNER: I did.
LEMON: Talk to me about their relationship.
WEHNER: It was a very close relationship and one of deep mutual respect. They were different people, obviously. Reagan had a real sparkling personality. It's interesting what David McCullough said because I was thinking about that on the way over.
George H.W. Bush could have fit in the founding generation because he was a person who was -- had so much experience and so talented. He was deeply loyal to Ronald Reagan. Reagan appreciated that.
He was conservative as well. He was a different kind of conservative than Ronald Reagan. But I think he added a lot. He came in with a lot of foreign policy experience that Ronald Reagan did not have. And I think he was a steadying voice in the Reagan administration and
a person that President Reagan really trusted, particularly on national security matters. And that showed when he became president as well.
LEMON: I want to play this now. This is George H.W. Bush, reading a letter the Reagans wrote to him. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: A letter to president-elect and Ms. Reagan, written November 10th, 1980. You are vice president-elect.
BUSH 41: This one will be all right for me, I think.
L. KING: I don't think you'll have to...
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH 41: "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, that's it for me and you'll see no leaks in Evans and Novak bitching about life. At least you'll see none out of me."
And he did.
[02:15:00]
LEMON: Well, there you go. In the days to come, Mary Kate, as the nation mourns and its leaders will gather together, we're going to put a new focus on the values of president George H.W. Bush, the service, the family, the service to country, his honor. That's what we need to focus on right now.
CARY: Boy, isn't that the truth. The values that he lived are in short supply these days. Like I said, I talk to young people about it all the time about it. One of the great stories from the Reagan years was when President Reagan asked him to be his vice president, it was really because president -- 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. That's a little unusual these days, to have the second place finisher be the vice presidential choice. But it was a great way to unify the Republican Party. And it lasted for 12 years. It was unusual, it was not since Martin Van Buren was the Vice President of the United States, then elected President of the United States immediately after a two-year term.
And so that was a great testament as Pete was just saying to Vice President Bush's loyalty. And there were 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 it 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. That's just one example. There's so many values like that that he lived.
It is really remarkable, the way he chose to live his life and the great example he gave us. But all of the time with great humor. One of the things Ms. Bush once said, every time she walked past the Oval Office when he was president, she only heard uproarious laughter. That's because he engendered so much fun amongst the staff.
That also built the loyalty of the staff. If you have a good time at work you tend to want to come back the next day. And he was very good at that. The number of pranks he pulled, the notes he was passing meetings, there's just legendary stories of President Bush's great sense of humor.
And I don't think the American people knew that so much about him but certainly the people that worked for him did. That's what makes so many people that have worked for him for generations, I shouldn't say generations but decades, how long the 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 gardener, he treated everyone the same.
There's a great lesson for that. And loyalty goes up and down. He certainly lived that in his life.
LEMON: But his family has talked about his personality that many of us don't see or didn't see at all.
You can speak to that as well, Peter.
WEHNER: That's right. It is interesting; sometimes people who have tremendous personal qualities, they are not conveyed as well. He was actually one of the most impressive people you would ever meet when you saw him, a person who was in command and really radiated a kind of strength as well as the dignity.
I wanted to say something else too, because a lot of people have said it and rightly so, how deeply he loved his family. And the other thing was 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. They not only loved him, they revered him. I think that all of them, of his kids, would say that 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's a lovely poem that Steven Spender, who is a British poet in the 20th century, wrote of the traits of heroes that had passed away.
He begins by saying that "I think continually of those who are truly great."
And he ends by saying, "They left a vivid air, signed with their honor."
And George H.W. Bush left the vivid air signed with his honor. And we'll miss him.
LEMON: Peter Wehner, Mary Kate Cary, thank you for your time.
CARY: Thank you.
WEHNER: Thank you.
LEMON: CNN's Jake Tapper has a story of the very modern presidency of George H.W. Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Historians say that President George H.W. Bush's international dealings set the gold standard for the modern presidency.
BUSH 41: It is a big idea, a new world order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause --
[02:20:00]
TAPPER (voice-over): President Bush chartered U.S. policies that promoted Eastern Europe's peaceful emergence from communism, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of U.S.-Soviet proxy wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
BUSH 41: Some have felt that we were so infatuated with the change in Eastern Europe that we are in a process of neglecting this hemisphere. And that is not the case.
TAPPER (voice-over): President Bush used U.S. military power to remove a drug-dealing strongman, Manuel Noriega, who was turning Panama into a narco state.
And in what at the time was the biggest U.S. military operation since the Vietnam War, President Bush put together an international coalition that liberated Kuwait after it had been invaded by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.
TAPPER (voice-over): After just over five weeks of aerial bombardment, coalition ground forces pushed the Iraqi army out of Kuwait in just three days.
BUSH 41: We stood our ground because the world would not look the other way. Ambassador Al-Sabah, tonight Kuwait is free.
TAPPER (voice-over): The Gulf War started just after "Time" magazine declared George Bush its "Men of the Year." The cover of the two George Bushes still sums up his presidency: the uplifting world leader on the international stage and the one in Washington, D.C., weighed down by a sputtering economy and D.C.'s endless political wars.
President Bush tried to be bipartisan from day one.
BUSH 41: I'm putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. I'm putting out my hand to you, Mr. Majority Leader.
TAPPER (voice-over): Democrats, who controlled both Houses of Congress and sometimes even his fellow Republicans, slapped that hand away. Alarmed by then record deficits, the president broke his most memorable campaign promise.
BUSH 41: Read my lips: no new taxes.
TAPPER (voice-over): Convinced it was in the national interest to compromise, he agreed to a bipartisan deal, cutting spending and raising taxes. He broke a major campaign pledge and then saw the deal shot down by House conservatives.
A second attempt passed, but did not stop the recession in time.
Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court provoked another acrimonious fight. Democrats dug up claims of sexual harassment.
CLARENCE THOMAS, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.
TAPPER (voice-over): And Bush's approval rating, an unheard of 91 percent by the end of the Gulf War, slowly eroded. The recession he could not stop ended up costing him a second term.
But President Bush left indelible marks on the nation as well as on the world. He signed the Clean Air Act of 1990, calling it one of his administration's greatest domestic achievements.
He also signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibiting job discrimination and, to this day, opening buildings and public transportation to millions of Americans. It is no wonder that modern presidents from both parties looked up to him.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, I'm one of millions of people who have been inspired by your passion and your commitment. We are surely a kinder and gentler nation because of you. And we can't thank you enough.
TAPPER (voice-over): Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Let's bring in now CNN's Jeff Zeleny. He's traveling with the current president in Buenos Aires right now. It is it 4:23 in the morning where you are. Obviously folks aren't
reacting. But they will be once they wake up because this is where the world leaders are gathering.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Don, there's no question. There's every -- as we look at every chapter of the life of President George H.W. Bush at 94, had such a big stamp on the world and such kept a close eye on the world events.
Certainly a summit like this here at the G20 summit, leading a group of world leaders, so many things have changed. Of course the tenor and tone of politics have changed so much.
But Don, as we sit back and really reflect and sort of relearn some points of President Bush's time in office, I'm struck by something, I think, that I will stand out in history. It is that relationship starting with President Reagan.
He ran against President Reagan, Governor Reagan at the time, in the 1980 primary. He was defeated and then he was picked as the vice president. He was a loyal vice president as we heard earlier there and then he of course went on to serve one term of his own but was defeated by Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
That was a painful defeat for a sitting president, who had been a vice president. But I think there's a lesson in what came next, the strong bond that the Bush family, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush --
[02:25:00]
ZELENY: -- formed with Bill Clinton was one that we have not seen the likes of in our current politics. They became so close. They became deep family members of one another.
And it became something that, again, we have not seen before. And I was looking through some of the words and writings that both of them said. This was a mutually agreeable love affair, if you will. This is something Bill Clinton said about George H.W. Bush.
He said, "This man, whom I always liked and respected and then ran against him in a painful campaign, in some ways, I literally came to love. And I realized all over again how much energy we waste fighting with each other on things that don't matter.
"He can virtually do no wrong in my eyes, even though every five years he makes me look like a wimp by continuing to jump out of planes. I love you."
So, Don, saying right there, he could virtually do no wrong in his eyes. That's something that's totally different from our politics of today and different from our politics of this moment.
So as we go in the coming days to celebrate and remember George H.W. Bush, we would be remiss to not put it in the current context of today's politics and see how different indeed it is. We have read, of course, the statements from President Trump that came
out here early in the morning hours here in Buenos Aires, struck all the right tones of course.
But we should also remember the Bushes did not attend the Trump convention. Some members of the Bush family did not indeed vote for Donald Trump. Of course, they wanted Jeb Bush to win the Republican nomination. It is a different era in this party's politics. But Don, the tenor and tone so different than it was in the era of George H.W. Bush.
LEMON: And we should say, though, that both former Bush presidents did call to congratulate Trump soon after the New York business man's win over Clinton. But also he wrote Trump a letter, apologizing for not being able to attend his inauguration because of his poor health.
But still, a man of such class and such dignity.
If we could -- do we have the picture of the presidents in the Oval Office?
Jeff, considering what you said, it is hard to imagine but I would hope that we could get back to a point where this photograph could happen, to have the living presidents all gathered and getting along in the Oval Office at once.
ZELENY: No question about that. This is something, Don, in terms of historians and the lives of presidents, this presidents' club there, this is something that does not happen often at all.
I remember this moment very well, covering the Barack Obama administration, seeing this happen in the early days of 2009, when he was going to be taking office. You saw these presidents come together. Jimmy Carter there, off to the side; that got some attention at the time.
But, boy, a quaint notion to the divisiveness of our current time. The time we see presidents come together, essentially, are at the openings of presidential libraries or at their funerals.
And President George H.W. Bush, the longest living president, will be laid to rest and will be celebrated over the coming days, will be eulogized by presidents of both parties and this is also something that will be interesting to see how presidents -- how Donald Trump reacts to this.
He was not invited to the funeral of Barbara Bush. We'll see if he will be to this funeral. But Don, setting that aside, it certainly is a time to take stock of this moment here.
Just talking and texting tonight with members of the Bush family who I know and have covered for so many years, they're remembering him with a smile. And they're urging others to do so as well. Boy, what a life well lived at 94.
LEMON: Well put, Jeff Zeleny in Buenos Aires, with the Trump -- traveling with the Trumps.
Jeff, thank you. Let me ask you one more question. Of course, his own son, the Bush family and the Adams family, the only two American families that have produced two presidents, right?
ZELENY: No question about that. This is something absolutely that is something that we've not seen very often in our history at all. Who knows if we will again. It certainly is possible.
But given today's outsider nature of our politics, we certainly like politicians who certainly do not come from the inside. It certainly is -- would be --
[02:30:00]
ZELENY: -- hard to imagine that a son would be elected again. But, Don, we do have that statement from the president. And let's look at that again. I do think it is instructive here, the statement that President Trump issued just a short time ago.
Let me look for that right here as we --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: "Melania and I join with a grieving nation to mourn the loss of --
(CROSSTALK)
ZELENY: -- when you find it, just let me know and I'll let you jump in.
"... President Bush, who passed away last night.
"Through his essential authenticity, disarming wit and unwavering commitment to faith, family and country, President Bush inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service; to be, in his words, a thousand points of light, illuminating the greatness, hope and opportunity of America to the world" -- Jeff.
ZELENY: And Don, we'll continue, with President Trump saying, he says this.
"President Trump (sic) always found a way to set the bar higher. As a young man he captained the Yale baseball team and then went on to serve as the youngest aviator in the United States Navy during the Second World War.
"Later in life, he rose to the pinnacle of American politics as a congressman from Texas, envoy to China, director of Central Intelligence and vice president of eight years to President Ronald Reagan, and finally to President of the United States.
"With sound judgment, common sense and unflappable leadership, President Trump (sic) guided our nation and the world to a peaceful and victorious conclusion of the Cold War. "As president he set the stage for decades of prosperity that have
followed. And through all that he accomplished, he remained humble, followed the quiet call to service that gave him a clear sense of direction.
"Along with a full life of service to country, we will remember President Bush for his devotion to family, especially the love of his life, Barbara. His example lives on and will continue to stir future Americans to pursue a greater cause."
He closes like this, "Our hearts ache with his loss. And we, with the American people, send our prayers to the entire Bush family as we honor the life and the legacy of 41."
So certainly poignant words, a history lesson, as we will continue for several days to come from President Trump there. Certainly a different brand of politics. But Don, as the G20 summit continues here in the morning with world leaders gathering, it will be a moment also to look at the impact that President George H.W. Bush had on the world and that was certainly a large one.
LEMON: Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much. Appreciate that.
I want to bring in CNN's Kaylee Hartung, who is outside the Bush family residence in Houston.
Hello to you, Kaylee. As last we saw you, there was a memorial growing outside the residence and you said people have come out and looked across the street at the residence. I'm not sure if folks are gathering; it is late. It's 2:30 in the morning there.
KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. There are more members of the media in the streets surrounding the Bush residence than onlookers. But there will be people in the neighborhood familiar with both George H.W. Bush and his late wife, Barbara, who will wake up to the news and recognize their neighbors they came to know across the street aren't there. That chapter has ended for the Bush family here in the Tanglewood neighborhood.
We're reminded tonight of a statement by the mayor of Houston. The Bushes could have gone anywhere when they left the White House but in 1993, they chose to make this their beloved city, their home, the place where political career began when he was the chairman of the Harris County Republican Party.
And over the last couple of decades, George and Barbara, the two of them, as the mayor said, they became the most esteemed and relatable neighbors to so many Houstonians. We came to understand, after Barbara's passing, when you came across folks in Houston, it was not unusual to find someone with a story of seeing them at a baseball game, supporting the Houston Astros, or seeing them at a football game, supporting the Houston Texans. They were boosters of everything Houston.
And you have to imagine that there will be people who will look back on their experience, November 1st, one month ago, and remember the last time George H.W. Bush was seen in public because they were Houstonians who were voting alongside George H.W. Bush when he did that. He early voted and his spokesman, Jim McGrath, tweeted this photo, saying, "The 41st president, accomplished by his two best friends, Jim Baker and Sully, discharging his civic duty and voting today."
That was the last time that George H.W. Bush was seen in public here in Houston. Sully there, his guide dog, who had come into his life more --
[02:35:00]
HARTUNG: -- recently.
But this will be an emotional period for the city of Houston, as so much attention will descend upon the city. It is our understanding that, in the coming days, the Bush family will be congregating here. There will be a private service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church.
It's the church that George and Barbara attended together. It's the church that Barbara was remembered. That private service will be held in that church a couple of blocks away from here in a few days.
Then President Bush's body will be taken to Washington, D.C., there he'll lie in repose in the U.S. Capitol as we have seen so many formidable men who've come before him do.
And then a service will be held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Then his body will be returned back home here to Houston; a larger service at St. Martin's Episcopal Church and then he will be laid to rest at College Station at his presidential library.
Don, it is several days ahead here in Houston to remember the president and in Washington also. This will be a very personal experience for so many people here in Houston, who came to know him and love him.
LEMON: And we will follow him in the days to come. Kaylee Hartung, thank you for your reporting in Houston tonight at the Bush residence. We appreciate that.
We should, as Jeff Zeleny said before, his family members are remembering him with a smile. They want us to as well. George H.W. Bush was the 41st president and the father of the 43rd. CNN's Wolf Blitzer has a revealing portrait of father and son in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's always an honor to be introduced by the President of the United States, especially when he's your dad.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST (voice-over): It's only happened once before: the country's second president, John Adams, saw his son, John Quincy Adams, become 6th president. Almost 200 years would pass before Adams 2 and 6 were succeeded by Bushes 41 and 43. BUSH 43: Dad taught me how to be a president. Before that, he showed me how to be a man.
And, 41, it is awesome that you are here today.
BLITZER (voice-over): Much of America has changed between the era of the Adams years and the era of the Bush years -- but not everything. It's still easier for a president to take criticism than see it dished out to members of his family.
KING: Pains you, though, as you told me many times, whenever either one of your sons is criticized.
BUSH 41: Much more hurtful than when I would be that crossfire, much. It's not even a close call.
BLITZER (voice-over): Sometimes the roles were reversed.
BUSH 43: Mother used to call me, say, "You need to call your dad."
And I'd say -- I'm president at this point.
"Why?"
"Because he just read some editorial and he's upset."
And so I'd call him and he'd say, "Can you believe what they said about you?"
And I'd say, "Dad, don't worry about it. I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine."
BLITZER (voice-over): In their published letters, as well as in their books and interviews, we have a revealing, behind-the-scenes portrait of life in the White House.
BUSH 43: It mattered to be able to get, you know, these notes from Dad or phone calls from Dad because, in that, he was president. He knew what the pressures of the job were like and he knew moments can be, you know, very trying. And to have him interject some humor and/or a love note really made a huge difference during my presidency.
BLITZER (voice-over): The Bushes' books, letters and interviews give us personal glimpses of the most dramatic days of their presidencies, including a family visit that ended on September 11th, 2001, the day terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners.
BUSH 41: Just left the White House, flying to Minneapolis; they grounded the plane I was on. It was a private plane, landed there. And the next thing I know I was out in a little town outside of Milwaukee.
And eight hours later the president called me and he said, "Where are you, Dad?"
I said, "It's where your people made me land." BLITZER (voice-over): The relationship between Bush 41 and Bush 43 includes lessons for all of us.
BUSH 43: So here's a guy who runs for senator of Texas twice and loses and runs for President of the United States in a primary against Ronald Reagan in the state of Texas and loses and ends up being president. And all the time was still a great father.
In other words, defeat didn't define George Bush. There's something greater in life than, you know, chalking up political victories or political losses. It taught me -- and I'm confident it taught Jeb -- you know, you don't need to fear failure.
BLITZER (voice-over): George H.W. Bush not only lived to see one son in the White House, he also watched another son seek the same office.
J. BUSH: My brothers and sister are different than me but I'm not going to go out of my way to say that my brother did this wrong or my dad did this wrong. It's just not going to happen. I have a hard time with that. I love my family a lot.
BLITZER (voice-over): Life, love, loyalty and one family's unique contribution to the history of the United States.
BUSH 43: I want to thank my dad, the most decent man I have ever known. All my life I have been amazed that a gentle --
[02:40:00]
BUSH 43: -- soul could be so strong.
Dad, I am proud to be your son.
BLITZER (voice-over): Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: I want to bring in now CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali.
"A gentle soul can be so strong."
Truer words have never been spoken.
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: When you think about George H.W. Bush -- and we'll talk about him in the next few days -- he believed the White House, the office of the president, was bigger than he was. He was someone who was in awe of the office and believed it had dignity and he had to lend a dignity to it.
When you think about his personal humility, at times it seems odd that someone who was so ambitious -- and, after all, as we heard in that piece, George H.W. Bush ran for office quite a few times and lost quite a few times.
But that ambition was an ambition to be a public servant. He had a sense that government, though he was a conservative, that government could do good. That's one important thing about his form of Republicanism. He believed that perhaps the government should be smaller and more efficient than a Democrat might create.
But in the end, the government, the people needed good government. And he had ambition to be the one to give them that good government. It's remarkable; he's the end of the World War II generation in power. But sadly, I think, at least for the moment, he is the last of the good government Republicans.
And for him, public service was helping people through the federal government. You could do it in private ways; he talked about 1,000 points of light. He believed in voluntarism but he also understood that government could play a role in our world and that it could do good for all of it.
That's something you don't hear much from Republican anymore.
LEMON: You wrote the book on George H.W. Bush.
What do you think -- the defining of his presidency, what do you think?
NAFTALI: Well, I think Jon Meacham wrote a great book, too. But I had the -- you know what, Don, what struck me was how much I had misjudged him. I was in graduate school at the time he ran against Bill Clinton. The country seemed to need a change. He seemed so tired.
The George H.W. Bush of 1992, he looked tired. He didn't seem to have a message and he really didn't know why he wanted to be president for another four years.
But when I looked over the decisions he'd made, I realized that, though he was very bad at explaining what he was doing, he was one of the poorest communicators. He followed one of the greatest communicators in American history, Ronald Reagan, and he preceded another great communicator, Bill Clinton.
But he was very bad at explaining what he was doing. But in his quiet, humble way, he made some of the toughest decisions that any American president in the modern age has ever made.
First of all, how do you handle the collapse of the Soviet empire?
There were so many ways to do it wrong and so many ways that the American president could have made Mikhail Gorbachev's job harder. After all, Gorbachev was the one that makes the big decisions. But we were his partner. George Bush got it right.
The Gulf War; you know, George Bush -- there were very few people around him who wanted the United States to intervene, to throw Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. There was an uncertainty in his administration to what to do.
He decided we were going to do it. Then he said -- he decided, not only are we going to do it, we're going to do it alone. We're going to do it in a way that sets a new standard for the world. We're going to do it in a way to show petty dictators around the world, just because the Cold War is over, doesn't mean they have the chance now to use force to change borders.
So not only did he get the West together but he decided, working with his buddy, Jim Baker, to bring the Russians, the Soviets alongside us.
Now it seems -- people have forgotten how hard that was. Well, that was amazing in 1991 because the Soviets had been Saddam Hussein's backer. But he managed, through patient diplomacy, to bring onside the Soviets so you had the Soviets, our former adversaries, the Arab world and the West together, pushing Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
And then he made another tough decision. When the Iraqi government -- when the Iraqi --
[02:45:00]
NAFTALI: -- army was fleeing the battlefield, he decided we're not going to Baghdad.
And why didn't he go to Baghdad?
He didn't like Saddam. In fact, he very much wanted Saddam Hussein to be toppled by his own people. But he was trying to set a new standard and he didn't want people to see the Gulf War as the first American imperial war of the post-Cold War world.
He wanted the Gulf War to set a standard about the sovereignty of Kuwait. And he got everybody on board to fight to liberate Kuwait. But they weren't on board to topple Saddam Hussein. And if he'd gone ahead and toppled Saddam, he would have lost all the good capital and all the good understanding that this coalition created.
And what's his third big decision?
It was to deal with Ronald Reagan's deficit. Reaganomics had collapsed. It was a failure. George H.W. Bush is responsible, more than any other Republican, for the success that we associate with Reagan's economic success. George Bush understood he had to raise taxes.
He promised he wouldn't. He was considered a counterfeit conservative by most Republicans, many Republicans, that is, on the Right. But he decided it was the right thing to do for the country.
Now it cost him his party. In many ways, he lost his bid for reelection the day he worked with Democrats to pass a tax bill in 1990. But he did it because he knew it was the right thing to do.
So those were three tough decisions. It's rare that a president has one of those tough decisions. But he had three and got them all right.
LEMON: Let me jump in here, because you wrote something. You called him -- and I don't know if you wrote this headline but this is essentially what it says.
It says, "The Overlooked President."
"We should thank George H.W. Bush for many of the successes attributed to Reagan and Clinton."
And in it, you write some of the things that you just expressed, some of the sentiments you said.
"Unique among modern presidents, George H.W. Bush did not make it easy for us to appreciate him fully. When he was in office, he disdained political theater. And when his advisers forced him to do it, he was bad at it.
"Once he left office, though, he was aware of his accomplishments, he decided not to write a memoir and would even not do an official oral history for his presidential library."
NAFTALI: Yes, imagine that. Imagine a president who decided that there was more to the job than PR. I hope -- right now, people are going to say George H.W. Bush was a throwback, I hope that's not true forever.
I hope we have among us men and women that understand that being president is more than the pronoun I. It's more than just about yourself. It is about our country and doing the right things for our country.
Look, I'm not saying George H.W. Bush didn't make mistakes. But on this day, let's celebrate the tough calls he made and the right calls and the dignity he brought to the most powerful office in the world.
LEMON: Tim Naftali, CNN's presidential historian, thank you for your time. Thank you, sir.
NAFTALI: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: One of the lessons of the life of the 41st president, George H.W. Bush, one we really need right now, was the ability to bring people together. The best example may be his extraordinary friendship with the 42nd president, Bill Clinton. Here's Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH 41: Thank you, all.
BLITZER (voice-over): They were one-time rivals.
BUSH 41: My biggest problem with Governor Clinton is that he's on one side of the issue one day and on the other the other day. And we cannot let the White House turn into the Waffle House.
BLITZER (voice-over): Best of friends, a political odd couple, doing good around the world, their relationship the subject of letters published by George H.W. Bush in 2013.
CLINTON: May all the Democrats forgive me this close to the election. I love George Bush. I do.
BLITZER (voice-over): "I so appreciated your words about our relationship, about our friendship," Bush wrote to Clinton after a 2006 awards ceremony.
"It was from your heart. I hope you know I feel the same way."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They become really great friends; in fact, almost like family. And that's part of a jealousy problem for the rest of the Bush kids, they think they have got this other brother named Bill Clinton.
BUSH 41: Until you've been on the ground and see it, it's hard to realize the scope of the challenge that lies ahead.
BLITZER (voice-over): They first came together publicly after the 2005 tsunami in Southeast Asia and traveled extensively together over the years.
Here's what Bush wrote to close friend and former "Time" magazine columnist, Hugh Sidey.
"Clinton is a fascinating character. He has opinions on everything, no matter what."
During that tsunami relief trip, Bush, like many others before him, would be confronted by Clinton's --
[02:50:00]
BLITZER (voice-over): -- legendary problem of staying on schedule.
"I had always heard that Bill Clinton had his own time, Clinton Standard time. He does. I, on the other hand, am compulsively on time."
And two other attributes Bush immediately noticed: both Clinton's energy ...
BUSH 41: You should have seen him going, town to town, country to country, Energizer Bunny here would kill me. But...
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER (voice-over): -- and love of talking.
"I soon realized, as the trip got underway, if we got in a bind for things to say or answers to be given to questions, it was reassuring to know that he was the man."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Clinton is a phenomenal talker. So they were a perfect couple because President Clinton could talk and talk and talk and President Bush would listen and listen and listen and be the straight person for the jokes.
BLITZER (voice-over): But Bush, too, could try for a laugh from Clinton, writing to him after Clinton nodded off at a Martin Luther King Day sermon.
"I could indeed feel your pain," Bush wrote, invoking Clinton's famous catchphrase.
"I have been there myself more than once, I might add, and it physically hurt as I tried to keep my eyes open."
Two political opposites who shared the common bond of the presidency and a unique friendship -- Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: The Bush clan recently gathered in Maine for the wedding of his granddaughter, Barbara Bush. It was a small, intimate family affair. Both former Bush presidents escorted Barbara down the aisle that day. And Wolf Blitzer has the story of George H.W. Bush, the family man.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER (voice-over): "He trusted others and inspired their loyalty and, above all, he found joy in his family and his faith."
Those are the words of an admiring son, George W. Bush, writing about his father. George H.W. Bush grew up in Connecticut. His father was a banker and eventually a U.S. senator. In 1945, he married Barbara Pierce, daughter of the publisher of "McCall's" magazine.
More than anyone, she was his companion and sustaining light in peace and in war.
BUSH 43: He would complete 58 combat missions. These were tough days. But he had something that kept him going. And if you look closely at the photographs of the planes he flew, you will find what kept him going in the name he had painted under his cockpit, Barbara.
BLITZER (voice-over): A daughter, Robin, died of leukemia at age 3. Four sons, George W., Jeb, Neil and Marvin, and one daughter, Doro, were adults by the time he became president. Over time, gatherings at the family compound in Maine became larger and more raucous.
L. KING: What is it like, Doro, since you can't agree on everything, when, inside the family, you disagree with the president or a governor?
DOROTHY BUSH KOCH, DAUGHTER OF GEORGE AND BARBARA BUSH: We -- there isn't a lot of that. Actually, when I spend the weekend with my brother or my father, we sort of talk about fishing or laughing. And it is not like that. But I think people voice their opinions.
BLITZER (voice-over): Although they lived public lives, the Bushes guarded their family's privacy and resented outsiders' attempts to pry in or to play up stories of rivalry between the father and son presidents.
BUSH 41: We know who we are. We know how we get along. And there's no rivalry. There's no kind of trying to live up to something or bring the boy up or -- I mean, it is crazy. We're a close, loving family, Larry. And these speculative stories just drove me crazy.
KING: How about you?
BARBARA BUSH, WIFE OF GEORGE H.W. BUSH: Well, they are nutty. There was people saying we wanted Jeb to be president, not George.
That's -- who writes things?
Two books were written about me by someone who never said boo to me, ever. So, I mean, I think you just overlook those. They're just not true.
KING: But you got angry with your husband, didn't you?
B. BUSH: Always.
BLITZER (voice-over): Shortly before the start of the 1991 Gulf War, President Bush summed up his feelings about his family in a letter to his children.
BUSH 41: Like I said, I had a little plaque made. It says CAVU, C-A- V-U. CAVU was the kind of weather we Navy pilots wanted when we would fly off our carrier in the Pacific. We had little navigational instrumentation, so we wanted CAVU, ceiling and visibility unlimited.
"Because of the five of you, whose hugs I can still feel, whose own lives have made me so proud, I can confidently tell my guardian angel that my life is CAVU and it will be that way until I die, all because of you."
BLITZER (voice-over): Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Jamie Gangel, who is friends with the family, tonight shared something with us that most of us didn't know except for those who were with the family, that CAVU, that word that he talked about, that meant ceiling and visibility unlimited, that he got --
[02:55:00]
LEMON: -- from being a Navy pilot. That was a code word to let his family know that he had passed.
Tributes pouring in to president George H.W. Bush tonight. But nothing compares to hearing him talk about his life and presidency in his own words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
L. KING: Are you happy out of office, do you still miss it?
BUSH 41: I don't. I miss some aspects. But it's been so long since we were there. But I don't miss it. I don't miss going to work every day in the White House. I miss the presidency, of course.
And I loved being president, loved working at trying to help people and do -- help solve problems. But it was great. But that's gone, that's history.
I did my job as president. I just didn't expose my inner feelings. And I think people liked me. I think people were disappointed. I think people wanted change. And I've got a whole rationale of reasons why I did not get re-elected.
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.
My view on legacy is let the historians figure out what I screwed up and figure out what I got right. And I'm confident that we had a good administration and good people and I think the same thing is true with our son.
And he, you know, he had tough times and all. But he is doing it right. I hope that we both have set examples for how you ought to conduct yourself when you've been president and then go out of office. Let the other guy do it and support him when you can and be silent. Don't be out there criticizing all the time.
President Clinton beat me like a drum back in 1992. And then we became friends.
And some of his friends look at him and they 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.
I've never liked really talking too much about my own service. It was just like everybody else in the country that was doing what he thought was right.
But on a personal basis, the fact that I was flying in combat off a carrier makes the excitement of the naming of this new ship for me even greater than it would have been. I always thought that they did that kind of thing for dead guys. Here I am and I want to -- I want to be around, hell, I'd even eat broccoli if I could make it for another five years.
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."
KING: Do you think about dying?
BUSH 41: No. A little bit but not a lot. It doesn't scare me. It used to. When I was a little kid, I'd think about dying, I would scare the -- terrible. But you get older, Larry, you know, you don't think about it a lot. I've got too much to do and too much to live for, too much happiness.
Just because you're old, that doesn't mean you can't do fun stuff. And don't want to sit around drooling in the corner.
It's scary, when you look out, even though you're hooked onto this person, he said, get ready, get ready, get ready to jump. You get out to the door and you look down and there's no feeling of support. And that is -- you know, I figure, what the heck am I doing?
Then off you go and it's just heaven.
KING: 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've made mistakes but they don't measure up to regrets now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: The 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, has died at the age of 94. He devoted his life to service to his country and to his family. From World War II combat pilot, to congressman, diplomat, vice president and president and, finally, a widely respected political elder.
The death of the 41st president comes after his wife of 73 years. Barbara Bush passed away on April 17th at the age of 92.
Our coverage is going to continue with CNN Films' "41 on 41," the two- hour documentary that tells the story of George H.W. Bush in the words of 41, of his colleagues, friends and family.
