Ceremonies, solemn ceremonies throughout the week in houston and in washington to honor the man who oversaw the end of the cold war, among other things. After president bush arrives in washington, hell lie in state at the capitol. There will be a short ceremony at about 5 00. Speakers will include the maejd leaders of the house and senate. Mike pence will speak as well. Public views is tomorrow through wednesday. On wednesday a Funeral Service at the National Cathedral there in washington d. C. President trump will be in attendance. So will Melania Trump along with all the other living president s. After he will be flown back here to houston where president bush will lie in repose. On thursday a Funeral Service here. After that hell be laid to rest at his president ial library at college station. Thats just north of here in houston. Reports and analysis throughout the hour. We start with our nbc reporters. Kerry sanders is at the fun roll home where the president s body just left. Gabe ambiguity is at the airport. Bret stephens, msnbc contributor. Curt smith is with me as well. He was a speech writer for the former president. Kerry, tell us about the motorcade that were watching now, and the scene outside the funeral home there. Well, craig, what were seeing is a large number of people. Id say dozens of who came and stood here along the sidewalk as the hearse left. Some of the Police Officers positioned here are now getting ready to leave this area. As the motorcade, if we take a live picture of it, is on the 610 loop making its way over to ellington. Among those who gathered was gatt r Katherine Hughes with her fouryearold son. What went through your mind . I think in this day weve lost the ability to be to pay respects to people or be resp t respectful of people even if we disagree with them. President bush was a good man with flaws. He servied his country. There are things we can always do better, but its important to show respect for his office and for how he served. This is the least that we could do. What did it tell you when you saw i did do a dozens of people who made their way out on a chilly morning. Its 50some degrees. Just folks taking the time to respect 41 . It makes me hopeful that we can still return to respectfulness and decency in the country. And like i said, he served in so many ways. His family made so many sacrifices. This was the least we could do, sacrifice a little bit of chill and time to say thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. We heard from so many people here. Interesting words that people were sharing after the hearse passed, and told me that among the things that crossed their mind were honor, respect, sincerity, a different time. I think what is happening in this moment is that people are doing something that maybe we dont do that often, and that is were pausing for a moment and looking back and by looking back, it tells us where weve come from and maybe tells us a little about where we are right now. Perhaps a reminder of where we can get to again. Kerry sanders there. Kerry, thank you. As we watch the motorcade make its way on the 610 loop, let me bring in gabe standing by at the airport. Gabe, what do we expect to happen once the motorcade arrives where you are . Hi there, craig. We expect that motorcade in a few minutes. An honor guard is expected to play songs as that casket is loaded onto air force one. We expect family members and friends to be here on the tarmac including his son and laura bush. Theyre expected to join those attended here and travel on air force one to washington. Now, i can tell you, craig, it was a stunning morning here. A beautiful sun rise here in houston. And you could see the sunrise coming up behind air force one behind me. It was just an incredible sight, a cool, crisp morning for this sendoff for the 41st president of the United States. Of course, all these events that were expecting in washington later today and into tomorrow, but it is here in texas where the president was just a pillar of the Community Coming here decades ago with his beloved wife barbara. Theyve built a life. A public memorial is planned outside Houston City Hall later tonight, and then as you mentioned, he will lie in repose later this week where texans will be able to pay their respects before his body is transported to his final resting place at texas a m university at the president ial museum and library. An emotional time. An emotional ceremony expected in a few minutes at Ellington Field. Expected to last about 45 minutes as the casket is placed onto air force one headed to washington. Gabe for us there. Not far from where i am here. In houston, mentioning city hall there. You cant tell right now because the sun is up, but we awakened to that city hall behind me illuminated in red, white, and blue for president bush. Tammy lightener, let me turn to you now. What has the outpouring for this president been like in and around houston . Craig, thousands of people have come to the president ial library here in the last days to pay their respects. He will be buried here on thursday outside of the library and the museum. Now, there are about 90 acres here, and im told this is one of the most popular rooms. A replica of the oval office. Im here with mary finch. Mary is going to show us something that the public does not get to see when they come here. These are some special photo albums that were made by president bush . Yes. He made them back when he was an early teenager. They cover years at school and his no, maam. He put them in the scrapbooks. His handwriting is everywhere. Pictures of he and his brothers and family doing various things. We have about three or four of these that he put together, and then we also have his scrapbook. This covers more of the 1941, 1940 time frame that has newspaper articles in it and his letters and things like that. And this is fun. Its a dance card. If you know anybody familiar with a dance card from his prom in 1942. And among the things he has in here is a letter that and this is the actual letter . Yes. This is the letter that the former barbara pierce wrote in 1942 when she said i think it was perfectly swell of you to write me, invite me to the dance, and i would love to come or go or whatever you say. Down here she mentioned how her knees are shaking shes so excited. Its fun. Its just a fun bit of history. And the skrcrapbooks are a microcomicr microcosm of later centuries. Covering dance cards and talking about the promenade. We have all those type of things as his report card and back here we even have some of his military things. Thank you so much, mary. This is incredible that youve been able to share with this us, and this is something the public is not able to see when they come to the library. There are a lot of replicas of these photos. And the library and the museum takes you through the different stages of his life. Before he was president , as president , and after his presidency. And, of course, we mentioned this is where his final resting place will be. Its about 200 yards from the outside of the museum next to a pond surrounded by three oak trees, and its where barbara bush once said this is one of the most beautiful places on earth to me. Craig. Tammy there for us. Thank you for that. Michael, looking at those momentos, it reminded me about the president. He grew up in connecticut. The bluest of the blue bloods. Son of a u. S. Senator. He did not need to pursue public service. He could have been fat and happy all the days of his life, but he chose a different path. Why was that . Well, i think it was because this is someone who wanted to do it on his own, and he showed that kind of initiative from the moment that he was getting out of boarding school and decided to go go off and enlist for the navy and became this immensely young navy flier. A war hero in world war ii, and then he comes back and gets married and has a child, and hes at yale. This is not someone who lived life that was very similar to the other kids he grew up with in connecticut. Had he wanted to, youre 100 right. He could have easily been shoe horned into an easy job on wall street, lived rich, not had to live in a way that was very difficult, because family connections could have done it for him. And instead he decided to do it in a way that was a little more audacio audacious. He took barbara and their child and went down to texas, and they started in the oil field, and he made a fortune for himself, but by the time he ran for the senate for the first time in 1964 from houston, and thats why this leave taking of houston this morning returns in full circle. Curt, youve said that president bush, quote, embodied the way the world has historically seen america. How so . Well, i think that there was an inate modesty to the president when he was eight or nine years old. He hit a couple home runs. He came home and told his mother, dorothy, the disciplinarian in the family, she said to him now, george, none of that how great thou art business. She brought him back to earth, and he became a modest person of great deference and reticence. A person that drew you toward him. Hes done this all his life. And i think its correct in terms of bush deciding to pack their belongings in their car and go from connecticut to texas in the late 1940s. And they didnt know anybody down there. And you can imagine someone with a yale pedigree was looked upon with some suspicion by most texans, and yet, he was accepted by them. And he them, and to say that theres a love affair incidentally between bush and texas or bush and houston is to understate the case. There is an extraordinary bonding of the heart, a twinning of the heart between the two, and one of the kicks of writing for george h. W. Bush in the white house was a chance to spend so much of that time in texas, the home state of my wife. This is where i got to know not simply the culture of texas but, of course, texas as seen through bush. There was a columnist last year who asked of the former president if he would say that texas is his hometown. Would he say hes from texas despite being born in the northeast and growing up there . And president bush reportedly said to this texas columnist, i want to be kind and gentle, but sir, that was a dumb question. Texas through and through. Bret stephens, i want to play a number of things that president bushs fellow president s said about him. I think hes going to go down as the greatest oneterm president ever because of his Foreign Policy. Deftly handling the end of the cold war, reunification of germany. He had to land the plane when the berlin wall comes down. You have chaos, potentially, in the former soviet union and russia. And uncertainty in europe. All those things could have gone haywire at any point, and the restraint, the caution, the lack of spiking the football that they showed was, achievement. Its been one of the great joys of my life, my friendship with him. Our arguments were good natured and open. We continue to debate things all the way up until recently. Brett, how have opinions of bushs presidency, how have those changed since he left office . I remember in 1992, it was bitterly fought for a political campaign. He did not do well in that threeway election. I think relatively quickly people came to appreciate how deftly he handled what as president obama just said, could have been a very fraught and violent moment in history when an empire armed with thousands of Nuclear Missiles more or less abruptly collapsed before our eyes. The fact that it ended up doing so peacefully was not preorda preordained and very much a tribute to his leadership. I would end one more thing i think is important to note. This year weve lost two republicans. Both naval aviators. War heros, who embodied a different spirit in the Republican Party. They were conservatives and believed in the free market and the values of the free world. But they also believed in bipartisanship. They believed that politics was really about public service, not selfinterest, much less selfenrichment. They had a sense of honor and a genuine sense of duty that transcended questions about their private ambitions. And i think with the passing of john mccain and george h. W. Bush, we really are maybe turning a chapter in the history of what it means to be a conservative. Im not sure were turning that chapter in a better way. I think this is a moment for us to reflect on Republican Leadership at it best, what it was at its best and hope that it might one day rekindle that spirit. That feels like a perfect opportunity to take a quick break here as we watch the motorcade make its way to the airport. You just saw some preparations underway on the tarmac to receive the body of the 41st president as george h. W. Bush prepares to leave his beloved Houston Texas for the very last time. This is msnbc. Well keep a close eye on whats happening there. Well take a quick break. More right after this. George woke up in pain. But he has plans today. Hey dad. So he took aleve. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. 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Bush making his way there to elliot field. The motorcade Ellington Field, excuse me. The motorcade continuing to wind its way on the 610 freeway. We saw preparations being made on the tarmac to receive the president s body before it is flown to washington d. C. For the very last time. Meanwhile back in washington this could be a busy week for the mueller investigation. Prosecutors expected to file a sentencing memorandum on Michael Flynn who has pled quality of lying to the fbi. New charges could be brought against Paul Manafort for allegedly violate his plea agreement with the special counsel. Michael cohen pled guilty last week of lying to congress. Roger stone, meanwhile, telling abc he had absolutely no contact with the wikileaks founder and he has not been contacted by Robert Muellers team. And President Trump in the past few minutes with four tweets critical of Robert Mueller and Michael Cohen. But supportive of roger stone. Bret stephens still with me and mimi roka joining us as well. Mimi, do you get the sense were nearing a kra whcrescendo . Absolutely. I think theres a turning point where we the public are in terms of knowing whats going on in the mueller investigation. Its probably been going on behind the scenes for a long time. Now we know that people close to trump and perhaps trump himself, were not there yet, but people close to trump like Michael Cohen and i think were going to find out others, were in direct contact with the leadership of the russian government. Now, it was about a business deal. Not about hacking the election. But the fact that we know that they were working in concert on trying to get that business deal done is i think a big red flag that considering it was happening at exactly the same time that the russian government was working to influence our election in favor of donald trump, that perhaps those two things really did go together, and theres a connection that i think were going to find out about in the days and months to come. On friday we heard from the kremlin spokesman who revealed there were two emails and one phone call from Michael Cohen to russian officials about the trump tower project. Does that admission change things . Yeah. Absolutely. Again, i mean, first of all weve had just months and months of denials about trump having any ties, any business dealings with moscow. So the first question is why were they lying about it . I think were starting to see that answer. One of one of the answers is what i was saying, and your point proves it. That they were in direct contact with the kremlin. Now, we dont yet know that it was about the election, but we know that they were coordinating, talking with, you know, about a significant business deal. Something that trump wanted from the kremlin, and the kremlin was responding. So if you have that going on at the exact same time that the kremlin is working to help get donald trump elected, that sounds like a pretty big coincidence. And i think were going to see that line between those two things come out through the mueller investigation. And it is shocking enough that we have someone who was trying to be president who was also trying to curry favor with a foreign adversary. We now know that. We know that russia had leverage. He was lying about it, but is that criminal . I think thats the next step in this investigation. Thats what were going to find out. Brett, in your column you wrote in part, quote, the abiding mystery with trump is why he continually attempts to ignore outrages, finesse differences and curry personal favor with putin. Politically it makes no sense. Ideologically it makes no sense. Whats your sense, brett, of the president s motivation . I think mimi put her finger on it. The Republican Party has always been hostile, hawkish when it comes to russia. Theres no domestic political constituency. Among conservatives they want to improve ties with russia. The president has fought his owned a administration tooth and nail when they were trying to impose stiffer sanctions. The answer ends up being or the only other explanation is his private selfinterest. You have to ask yourself, if he was looking as he now admits past the 2016 election to Business Opportunities in russia in the event that he had lost the election, why isnt he perhaps looking to Business Opportunities past the 2020 election in the event that he loses the next general race . So, you know, you have i think any serious person has to ask themselves is American Foreign policy or the president s Foreign Policy being subordinated to trump keeping an eye out on his for his next big deal whether its a moscow tower or Something Else connected to Vladimir Putin . Mimi, thank you. Brett, stick around. I want to on the other side of this break talk about another article that you wrote april of this year where you looked at the similarities or shall i say differences between the Current Administration and george h. W. Bush. We continue to keep a close eye on the airfield here in houston where a plane carrying president bushs body will soon take off bound for capitol hill where we will lie instate. A former president long time spokesman jim mcgrath posted this photo. Its gotten a lot of attention. It shows the 41st president s service dog, sully, keeping a close eye over the president s casket. Sully will now help people at Walter Reed National military medical center. That will be his job now. We opened our doors with 70megawatts, 35 mules, and an ice plant. But we brought power to the people redefining what that meant from one era to the next. Over 90 years later we continue to build as one of the nations largest investors in infrastructure. We dont just help power the american dream. Were part of it. This is our era. This is Americas Energy era. Nextera energy tonand all thro the house. twas the night before christma, not a creature was stirring, but everywhere else. There are performers, dancers, designers the dads and the drivers. There are doers of good and bringers of glee. This time of the year is so much more than a bow and a tree. morgan vo those who give their best, deserve the best. Get up to a 1,000 credit on select models now during the season of audi sales event. A look above the motorcade there. We are told that motorcade is Just Moments Away from making its way to Ellington Field, and that is your view there at the bottom right hand portion of your screen. President bushs body will be flown on what is known as air force one when President Trump is aboard. A special mission 41 is what were told it is going to be referred to as that plane takes the 41st president of these United States to washington. One final time we prepare for a short soceremony on the tarmac. Let me bring in a white house aide under president bush. Also with me robert who served on the bush protective detail and tony who was. Press secretary for president george w. Bush. Michael is back with me and so is brett. Joe, let me start with you. The president in 2004 was asked about what he saw as his legacy. Heres what he said. For me its kind of a word that youre interested in how everybody is going to treat you and all that kind of thing, and im not. Im confidence. We had more positives than negatives and got a lot of things right and did a lot. It was right to keep registrations with china in 1989 when everybody wanted me to shut them down. We got some things right. Joe, what will be the legty legacy of your former boss . I think all the things he said are right on target, and the way he said it is so typical of this great man who never brought attention to himself. Never bragged about himself. He was so humble and so committed to doing a great job for the country. And thats what he did. He did a great job for the United States of america, and he also led by example, by character. He was somebody who put america first, and he did that by even going against his Campaign Pledge to not raise taxes by doing so and realized it would probably cost him a second term in the white house. He realized it was the best thing to do for the United States of america and for the future economy. Thats the kind of person that he was. Never too big to talk to anybody and everybody on staff. The people cleaning his office were as important to him as his staff aides who were dealing with the legislative agenda. Kind and gentle and honest and an able president. I think hell go down as one of the best that weve seen in recent times. Robert, as i understand it, you were once with president bush when he visited what will now be his burial plot. Tell us about that moment. Well, it was surreal back then. It was right after the opening of the library, and if you go behind the library theres a pond. And beyond the pond is a pathway. And so one day he decided he wanted to take a walk with sadie, their new dog at the time. We walked together out through the back through the pathway, and coming up to what is now the burial plot. And back then they were just building it. Ill never forget it. Hes looking around the trees. It was a beautiful, beautiful day. And he says isnt this just marvelous in the tone that only george bush could do. And i was a young man back then. Im thinking to myself, is he crazy . You know, looking at this grave site, and then i turned around and said mr. President , not on my watch. Its not time yet. You got a long time with us. And we had a lot of laughs. That was him. He was just as your other guests said, just a humble, graceful man, and i call him the jimmy stuart, the great actor of the presidency. He was just it was a perfect life. Michael, he will be laid to rest there with his wife of 73 years, barbara bush, and their daughter robin who they lost to leukemia at the age of three. Michael, how much do we know about how that loss of a young child would shape president bush . They never forgot about it. Every single day he once said they always thought of robin. And it was something that was an important moment, not only in their marriage but its inter t interesting it tells so much about both of them. Dwight eisenhower lost a son at about two years old. They responded to that by never speaking about it in public. It tells so much about the bushes that they continued to talk about robin almost as if she were still alive. We continue to wait for the motorcade to arrive here at the airfield. You can see members of the military are in place and ready to receive that body. We dont know precisely what is going to happen once mr. Bush arrives here. Were told that hail to the chief will be played and were also told that members of the bush family are traveling with the late president as he prepares to depart for joint base andrews. Again, he will be lying in state. Visitation set to start at the u. S. Capital around 5 00. Leaders of both parties and both chambers will be speaking along with the vice president. Tony, you served under 41, president bushs son, george w. How much interaction did you have with the senior president bush and what was that like . It was he would come to the white house to visit on not infrequently, and he always looked for those opportunities to come see him. I also had a chance my assistant married into the bush family, extended family. But i think we all felt like we were part of that family. Would see him and look for him when he would come to the west wing and would ask how he was doing. The first time i had that chance to have that discussion with him to say hello to him. I went to introduce myself, and he said i know who you are. He cut me off and wouldnt let me introduce myself. He knew who i was and had nice things to say about the work i was doing. He had that way about him, of touching people with his personal interest, and decency and asking after them. If you look at my facebook page, you see hundreds of people who came from any of the bush administrations, including jeb bush. Every one has a story involving 41. He was special that way. For our viewers at home own our listeners on satellite radio, well attempt to describe the scene here. Top of your screen, the motorcade would appear to be approaching the tarmac at Ellington Field where, again, former president george h. W. Bushs body will be loaded onto what is typically air force one. Today its being called special mission 41, a nod to the former president as it prepares to take him back to washington d. C. For the last time. Air force one ordered to texas by President Trump. One of the articles i read over the past few days was that article that you wrote in april of last year where you looked at some of the glaring differences between the current president and the president that we will be remembering over the next four days. Were you surprised that donald trump was invited to the service at the National Cathedral on wednesday . Well, i think its probably appropriate just in light of the question of the office irrespective of the Office Holder or the many things that donald trump has said over the years, disrespecting the entire bush family including bush 41 and initiatives like his points of light initiative. But look, its an appropriate thing, again, on account of the office, not the person. Otherwise i think one of the reasons the country feels the loss of bush 41 of george h. W. Bush so keenly is that the personal contrast with the current president is just so glaring. As we continue to watch the motorcade wind its way toward the tarmac here, michael, youve covered a number of these. What is it about the death of our president s that seems to unite us in this country in a way that unfortunately very few things unite us these days . Youre so right, craig. You know, were not a monarchy. We dont have many ceremonies that almost forcibly bring everyone together of all political points of view. There are inaugurations, and there are state funerals and theres not a huge number of ovore ones. Thats why these ceremonies wind up being more important. Can i mention something about the plane . Please do. Im thinking of that air force one and what im remembering is that Ronald Reagan in the 1980s still flew on a much smaller boeing plane. And it became clear that prosecutor presidency you really needed something the size of a 747, so the government ordered more than one 747, and the reagans decided what it would look like but it came too late for nancy and Ronald Reagan to use. It was ready in 1990. The second year of george h. W. Bushs presidency. I can remember this because i was in helsinki at the time that george bush met with gorbachev in september of 1990. For a lot of people that was the first time that a lot of people saw the new president ial plane on the tarmac in helhelsinki. Every time i look at that plane, it always reminds me of not only bush and gorbachev and the cold war, but its almost a monument to me of george h. W. Bush, what i think is his preimminent contribution to history. He got it right ending the cold war without firing a shot. It ended faster and on better terms than any cold war president all the way back to harry truman ever could have dreamt of. Joe watkins, as i understand it, you spent some time aboard air force one with president bush. I did. I did. Actually, both planes as michael was saying. I flew on the old plane, the smaller plane with the president in 1989 and then in 1990 i got to fly on the new one which was absolutely magnificent. So much larger than the earlier plane, and so much better equipped. So i know exactly what he was talking about when he says how magnificent that new plane is, that 747. I remember the first time the president invited me to fly with him on air force one. It took me by surprise. I was doing my job and bringing somebody into the oval office to meet with him, and then before the meeting started, he turned to me and said hey, im going to new york tonight. I want you to come with me on air force one and can you make it . And i, of course, wasnt going to say no, mr. President , im busy. I was delighted to make it. But it was just amazing. I mean, i got on the plane, and there were telephones. One in front of me and one on the wall and one of my spreupers said call art fletcher. The president wants him to meet us in new york. I picked up the phone and a voice said yes, sir. I said the president wants art fletcher. And he says thank you, sir. Well get him for you and ring him for you as soon as we have him on the line. That was the First Experience with air force one. Unbelievable. I hung up the phone. The phone rang back moments later and he said mr. Watkins, i have mr. Fletcher on the line for you. That was my First Experience on air force one flying with the president. It was magnificent. Absolutely magnificent. I want to pause for a moment. We are watching george h. W. Bushs body, a flag draped casket being removed from the back of the hearse here at Ellington Field. You can see there on the tarmac several members of the bush Family Gathering as an honor guard that is comprised of every branch of the u. S. Military represented there. Now the 43rd president , george w. Bush there, former first lady laura bush, waving on the people who attended on the tarmac, followed by the members of the bush family. They are boarding an airplane that mr. Bush there knows all too well, air force one as its usually called, but today its special mission 41, a nod to president george h. W. Bush. Boarding the plane for a roughly 3 1 2hour flight to washington, d. D. C. , where again president bush will lie in state for two days before the service at the National Cathedral on wednesday. Before that, we heard hay to the chief. We also saul and heard the 21gun salute as well. Before the president s body was hoisted onto the air crawford. Aircraft. I imagine, sir, you recognize a number of folks boarding the plane to washington, d. C. I do indeed. I recognize a number of the family members, of course. This is a hard day for them. He was such a kind and caring man. And i know for all of them, they loved their father and grandfather because of the kind of person that he was. He cared about everybody. He was the person that paid attention to everybody. He cared about everybody, and everybody had stories about some of the kind thing that he did for them. Thats just who george h. W. Bush was. He was that kind of a kind, thoughtful person, and a real family man, a real family person. I know theyre missing him right now. I know their hearts are heavy, but this is the day to honor his memory, and to remember his Great Service to his country. I know they are looking forward to arriving in d. C. And completing the celebration. Curt, what was it like, as we wrap up the hour here, what was it like working for the 41st president . Well, he was an exceedingly kind man, as we have seen today. He was a patriotic man. He after all had been a war hero. He was a scholarly man. He had a great sense of the presidency as an institution, and what president s before him had done. He had a great sense of the world. There wasnt much you could tell him as a lowly speechwriter that he didnt already know. He was a person who addressed the American People in sparse, unadorned proceese. He tried to use direct language. There wasnt anything phoneybaloney about the president. He was a person of great rectitude. He had the greatest qualities of the United States, which is why we sense an enormous sads in across the land. Its not simply what we have lost in him, but i think if we could be introspective, we could acknowledge that both Political Parties could do better, and acknowledge in his name we would try to do better, because he showed us how to do better during all of his 94 years. With that, i will hand it off to my colleague Hallie Jackson. Im Hallie Jackson in for andrea mitchell, as we continue the life of George Herbert walker bush, a nation in mourning. You saw his cask now on the plane normally known as air force one, along with dozens of