there for so many celebrations of the bushes, an ben crenshaw of houston. and i looked in the audience and i saw so many of his friends and even people in the choir, i a recognized that they that answered the phones and helped to answer the letters, and thinking of the dedicated staff that served the president so well after he left the white house, and gene beck er, and linda casey pepsle who was there from day one. and jim mcgraff as well. and as we are watching this bus go by. and what are you seeing? it is a very emotional moment as we saw george bush watching his father loaded on to the hearse, and that is the final time that he is going to be leaving st. martin, and this is
all good. so how it came to be that i was in houston last thursday, i was speaking at the commencement for baylor university for the health sciences, and i had been in contact with jean gene becker, his long-time chief of staff. and they were very concerned about his condition on thursday. but on friday he was in great spirits. he had rallied. he had, yeah, he had. he had a great breakfast. jean rang me up and said, ronan, he wants to see you. so i got an uber. i m not really good at all that stuff. when i came into him, he looked great. i thought he looked great. i m a physician as well, so i thought, you know, he s going to be with us even though i recognized there were signs you thought he had rallied. he turned to me and said,
he really did keep up with people over the years, and these are his friends and his colleagues who are coming to honor him. and so many of his staff i was talking to his former chief of staff, gene his present chief of staff i shouldn t say former. chief of staff, gene becker, who has been with him for 24 years now. since he left the white house. people stayed with him forever. and at this time, when we have conversations about the current president, sometimes having trouble getting top quality republicans to join the administration because he is such a different kind of a republican, and such a different kind of president, just go through this list. look at the caliber of people who worked for george h.w. bush. northbound o number one, you talk about the berlin wall coming down, the collapse of the soviet union. he was the president, but he had jim baker to help him manage. you look at whether it s the treasury department, colin
years. he s also a beloved confidante and friend of mrs. bush and the 41st president. karen tumulty and peter baker and former congressman david jolly is with me on set for the hour. let me start with you, jon meacham. you ve been on television nonstop since friday night when this news broke. we just saw the first image of what the celebration, what the official government celebration of the life of our 41st president looks like. and you and i both know it s something that the family and gene becker, his devoted chief of staff have planned for, for not months but years. what s it like for you to see these moments unfold? well, as you say, it s been inevitable. obviously, this was going to happen. but there s something there s an interesting combination here. an intersection of two things. there s the majesty of state which we re watching and there s the warmth and fundamental decency and generosity of spirit
know, for as much as barack obama would spend, especially in the early years of his presidency, blaming a lot of the problems that he was confronting on his predecessor, george w. bush taking his father s lesson to heart, really decides to give his successor both space and the support he needs. and so that s why i think what you see is this real not only a personal bond but just a respect among this very small club of human beings. the ex-presidents club. jon meacham, as we watch this event unfold, i mentioned gene becker. we haven t shared with our viewers who gene becker is. and i am afraid of gene becker being mad at me, but i am pretty sure she s in that motorcade so it s a safe time to talk about jean becker.