The Vice Presidency, which as you know surprised him, he always respected the role of the press. All right. Andrea mitchell joining us by phone. Andrea, appreciate that. And again, just continuing our coverage here. It is 1 00 in the east. We continue our coverage of the death of former president George Herbert walker bush, americas 41st commander in chief. He has died at the age of 94. That word came to us now just over an hour ago, the word being passed from a statement from his son, george w. Bush. We are joined by Hallie Jackson. Let me start with you because we have heard from the current im sorry. That is my mistake. We will be hearing from her in a minute. We are going to pause here just for a few seconds because were going to be joined by our Network Affiliates and pick up the network coverage. This is an nbc news special report. Steve kegeorge h. W. Bush has away at the age of 94. That word coming to us just over an hour ago. A Statement Released by his son, the 43rd president
play out. and then the war of words to shape the minds of americans is going on every night on networks like fox news. every time i tune in, as long as i can bear it, i hear things like, what s the big deal? why should we care about something happening this far away? we should care if we care about democracy. we should care if we care about the rights of a free people to determine their own destiny. we should care about an unchecked authoritarian who poinz his own people and tosses dissidents out of windows. that s why we should care. that s why we should pay attention. but that war for the american mind is going on right now. speaking of minds, rick, i have to ask you this. i hate it when we armchair do armchair psychology of world leaders but we have to do that right now with vladimir putin. why now? what is going on, either with vladimir putin s particular level of power within russia, or his perceived standing in the world right now? why is he deciding to do this right here, ri
we could put ten more things on. he is trying to distract. and it s fascinating. we ll take the distraction. y all are crazy. the answer to kellyanne conway s president, should the president of the united states ignore a private citizen who is offering armchair psychology about him? the answer is yes. you should. you should not respond to that tp it demeans the office. it demeans you. it lowers the entire conversation. yes you should reserve those thoughts. a psychiatrist reached out to me saying it s true but go ahead. this is what donald trump has never understood. never understood. jonathan le miles an ho jonathan lemire. i was too young to run for congress. the republicans wouldn t let me me. here we go. stop for a zbleekd the kids want to hear this. can joe talk. can i talk. can joe get a second. dang it!
retreat to others he cannot reach out and persuade like every other president does. his narcissism means he is a weak president. i would say he s the first and only guy so far i ve heard fuse the kind of armchair psychology of trump watching, which we re all engaging in, with a legal argument, right? essentially he is sort of saying that constitutionally trump is impaired as president because he s unable to work with the other branches of government in a way that the founders envisioned. it s a really interesting and very novel argument. there s no question that it gets more attention because the guy writing this is the guy that president trump termed mr. kellyanne done conway. i think it s a very interesting legal argument or observation that he s making really about president trump and why it is in some ways you can see president
might. that s hard for people to get their heads around. there are a lot of conspiracy theories. there s more armchair psychology about this than near damn near anything else in modern american history, but i believe it to be true. jeb bush explained it once as saying why wouldn t someone look at it as a dad? you re watching your son in the maelstrom, there s immense pride, there s immense concern about what the son faces. president bush was very clear that he thought his son was facing after 9/11 possibly the greatest crisis since the civil war because there had been an attack on our soil. and he believed always that a president of the united states of either party deserved the deference of the people around him, that the nature of citizenship required someone to