this pandemic. the second way to make sure recovery is fully felt is to pass our bipartisan infrastructure agreement and my build back better plan which are being debated now. and i'm going to be heading over there quickly, shortly after i do this press conference, back to my office to make some calls. i want to say very clearly. if your number one issue is the cost of living, the number one priority should be seeing congress pass these bills. 17 nobel prize winners in economics have said spontaneously wrote to me together and said this will lower inflationary pressure on the economy when we pass my bills. a new analysis in the wall street firm of moody's analytics found it will ease the financial burden on middle class families. put another way, these bills will provide families with as my dad used to say, just a little more breathing room. that's because the build back better framework lowers your bills for health care, child care, prescription drugs, and preschool. and families get a tax cut. that's how you end some of the anxiety people are feeling about the economy. that's how we give people some breathing room. that's in addition to the infrastructure bill. it will create millions of jobs rebuilding the arteries of our economy. and by the way, these two bills add up to the largest effort to combat climate change in the history of the united states of america. right now we stand on the cusp of historic economic progress. two bills that together will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people, lower costs for families and turn climate crisis into an opportunity and put us on a path not only to compete but to win the economic competition for the 21st century against all commerce. in passing these bills, we'll say clearly to the american people, we hear your voices. we're going to invest in your hopes. help you secure a brighter future for yourself and for your families and make sure that america wins the future in the process. i'm asking every house member, member of the house of representatives to vote yes on both these bills right now. send the infrastructure bill to my desk. send the build back better bill to the senate. let's build an incredible economic progress. build on what we have already done, because this will be a boost when it occurs. let's show the world that america's democracy can deliver and propel our economy forward. let's get this done. i'll be back to answer some of your questions when they pass. may god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you. we have been listening to president biden speaking about this month's jobs report and his agenda before he attends general colin powell's funeral at the top of the hour. at the washington national cathedral. he's saying unemployment decreased this year more than any year since 1950 and said paychecks are going up as well. in october we added more than a 530,000 jobs, beating expectations. and the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.6%. the economy was the top issue in virginia's governor's race the democrats lost. it's all looming over capitol hill where the economic agenda hangs in the balance as we speak. right now a moment. months in the making. we could finally, finally see a vote today on his agenda. ahead i'm going to talk with democratic congressman, chief deputy whip. are the votes there and what's the timing of them? we want to start with the push to pass the president's agenda in the house, and that strong october jobs report as the president just touted. monica alba is at the white house for us. leiann caldwell, and. monica, let me start with you. take a listen to the president touting the 531,000 jobs added. tun employment rate of 4.6%. the president subsequently connecting that progress to vaccinations. wanting to encourage folks to get vaccinated as many folks as possible along with urging congress to vote yes when it comes to his build back better agenda expected to be voted on later today. we'll speak about that in a moment. walk us through what we heard from the president today, monica, as it seems as if this economy is certainly in a recovery mode with the jobs numbers. >> the president called this a significant development. he said he was very encouraged by these numbers. he argued it's evidence that his plan is working. and exactly used the moment to say, but the american economy needs more. continuing to make this push for his economic agenda and these multitrillion dollar pending bills. i thought perhaps most notably, the president talking about all the gains and what they see as bright spots then said to the press, i'm actually going to head back to the oval office to continue to make calls after those remarks to house democrats to pressure them, essentially, to vote for both of these pieces of legislation. we know he was working the phones late into the night overnight which is how it seems they got to the place they are this morning in terms of the potential votes later this afternoon. though, we'll see what ends up happening. but the president really used that moment to make this critical appeal, and he continues to apply a lot of this political pressure, saying the moment for this has come. and he's using these october jobs numbers to try to frame that. now, the president did also link all of this to progress on the covid front, saying that very, very promising news this week from kids ages 5 to 11 being able to start to get the shots to the fact that there are some of these potential anti-viral covid pills that could be coming on the market, that all of that is going to help the country rebound from the health crisis, from the pandemic, and continue on this road to recovery. so the president tieing together these giant themes so far of his presidency. urging action on capitol hill, and we should mention he didn't take any questions there, because after he makes these calls to lawmakers, he is then going to be heading to colin powell's funeral service, so that's where he will be for a couple of hours as all of this continues to unfold in the halls of congress. >> we're going to be having special coverage of the funeral and the services there starting at noon eastern hosted by hallie jackson. before we dig into the vote that's going to be happening today, so we think, as is being reported by, of course, that's happened before, so we want to be cautious about all of that. josh, let's dig a little bit more into some of the numbers. leisure and hospitality, hit hardest by the pandemic, adding 164,000 jobs just in the month of october. year over year you got wages up nearly 5%. but the labor force participation is remaining unchanged. what stuck out to you in this latest jobs report? and what does it say about what american workers are feeling right about now? >> yeah. this is a very good report. it's not just that we beat expectations this month. they also went back and revised the numbers from august and september adding 100,000 additional jobs. it's a good picture for the jobs situation. as we've seen for almost two years, the overwhelming driver is the covid situation. you had the delta wave coming into september making the jobs numbers. you're seeing the growth as you note, hospitality and restaurants and such. because that's been the most impacted area. i mean, in terms of the lower labor force participation still not picking up the prepandemic levels, there's a few factors there. some of that is still lingering concerns about covid in the workplace. some of it has to do with parents whose schedules are disrupted even if kids are back in school. there's still less reliability about is there going to be a quarantine or that sort of thing? one of the biggest factors, actually j premature retirement. you had a lot of people already close to retirement age because they're older were more concerned about covid and you had asset prices that did well through the period. the stock market is up. home prices are up. some people accelerated their retirements by a year or two or three. i wouldn't expect those people to ever reenter the labor force. it's going to take a couple years for that to make itself up. those people would have retired the next year or the following year anyway. that's one factor i think that means some of the workers are never coming back. but still, there's significant room left to improve in air travel, hospitality, restaurants. that's what i would expect to be continued areas of growth, especially if we don't have a really significant winter wave of covid. that's one of the big economic unknowns we're waiting for. are we going to have bad numbers in the north like in the south in the summer if higher vaccination rates, maybe some of the therapeutic treatments, if that holds that off, that could lead to better economic numbers if we go into the first quarter. >> let's talk about the possibility of adding even more jobs to the economy and some security for americans, and. reporting the vote may very well be happening today. talk to us about what you know when it comes to timing. the hurdles that still may be in place, and some of the tactics republicans are using to delay this thing. >> reporter: yeah. democrats are hoping to hold these votes today on both of these pieces of legislation. but as monica said, president biden is going back to his desk to make phone calls, to call some of these house democrats and the phone calls are necessary, because there are several holdouts as we speak who are not willing to vote for this legislation yet. i'm told by multiple sources that there are seven moderate house members who have some concerns. and chief among them is they want a full analysis from the congressional budget office on how this legislation, how much it actually costs, and if it's actually going to be paid for. but the problem is that they were changing pieces of this legislation until late into the night. and a cbo score as we call it around here, is not going to be available for at least a week, perhaps longer. that's something that leadership is saying. that's something that democratic leader hoyer admitted this morning. those moderate members were in speaker pelosi's office this morning. she is trying to convince them to vote for this legislation. she can only lose three democrats. and we don't -- so until they release their votes, they aren't able to move forward just yet. and the problems that existed late into the night last night including immigration and the state and local tax deduction, those things seem to be cleared up. but the problem now is they want a full accounting of how this legislation is spent. and they don't have it. so president biden is going to have to get on the phone to convince some of these members to vote for it. >> just quickly here, we know obviously senator joe manchin has been asking for the cbo score, and this is something we don't have right now. it's going to take up to a week to possibly get a score like that. is there a possibility this thing could pass in the house and the cbo doesn't come out until manchin makes his decision to get it across the senate? >> absolutely. actually, the cbo score is necessary for the process in the senate. they have senate rules they have to abide by. and part of those senate rules, they need to know how much this legislation costs. each line item. the senate can't move forward until they have that. and that is part of what leadership is telling these house moderates. look, there will be a cbo score, and ultimately, this bill is going to change in the senate. you're going to have an opportunity to vote on it again with all the information and a complete piece of legislation. but we'll see if that's enough to convince them. >> josh, as we talk about kind of the implications around the cost, i believe we actually just lost josh there. no, we have him back now. we have him back. it's always live television. wavering with the internet. as we talk about the implications of the cost of this thing, i want to play for you how the president kind of tried to urge congress to vote yes when it comes to his build back better agenda. >> passing these bills will say clearly to the american people, we hear your voices. we're going to invest in your hopes. help you secure a brighter future for yourselves and your families and make sure america wins the future in the process. i'm asking every house member, member of the house of representatives to vote yes on both these bills right now. send the infrastructure bill to my desk. send the build back better bill to the senate. let's build an incredible economic progress. build on what we already have done. >> so you talk about kind of what we're hearing from the reporting as to the conversations that are happening inside the house when it comes to how this thing is being paid for. what joe manchin wants to see when it comes to the cbo score, and then joe manchin mentioning inflation that we're all dealing with in this country, as to whether it's transitory or real inflation that's here to stay. talk to me, josh, about the larger implications around costs here, and how moderates like joe manchin wrestle with it. >> yeah. i mean, frankly, i don't think these two bills will have a lot of impact on the economic and job situation over the next couple years. i mean, there are large numbers attached to the bills. we're maybe talking 1.5, 1.7, whatever the number is on the build back better plan plus several hundred billion dollars on the infrastructure plan. build back better is over ten years. we're talking about a few hundred billion dollars a year as compared to some of the bills we saw for the rescues during covid which were well north of a trillion dollars a year. just relative to the size of the economy, these are not that large. one of the -- the two big drivers of inflation, some of it is supply side stuff. supply chains are working the way they're supposed to. and then stuff on the demand side where you had households, we had a weird recession where incomes went up. certain categories -- the prices have gone up to certain kinds of goods. these are effects that won't be moved very much by the bills. i don't think the bills are going to create an economic problem. i'm not worried about them driving inflags, but i don't think they're going to relieve the issues. some of the programs take years to phase in. at some point the child care subsidies should be relieving costs on families, but that's going to be taking some time to ramp up, and most people do not -- most households don't have young children in them at all. i just don't think it's that linked to the economic problems of today. >> thank you all. appreciate it. we're going to have much more on the last-minute house negotiations over the two bills that could define the agenda. the democrat's chief deputy whip joins us next. plus a potential game changer in the fight against covid. a treatment that has been so successful, the drug company is strapping trials early to try to get it to the public earlier. here's a look where mourners are starting to gather for colin powell's funeral. how the people who knew him best remember him, ahead. new him best remember him, ahead. ♪ say it's all right ♪ ♪ say it's all right, it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's all right ♪ ♪ now listen to the beat ♪ ♪ kinda pat your feet ♪ ♪ it's all right ♪ ♪ have a good time 'cause it's all right ♪ ♪ oh, it's all right ♪ wealth is breaking ground on your biggest project yet. worth is giving the people who build it a solid foundation. wealth is shutting down the office for mike's retirement party. worth is giving the employee who spent half his life with you, the party of a lifetime. wealth is watching your business grow. worth is watching your employees grow with it. principal. for all it's worth. voiceover: riders. wanderers on the road of life. the journey is why they 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aging kit, i think that's really, really cool. drop point blade with 256 layers of forged steel. that's nuts! i just love that every time we open a box from bespoke, we're most likely getting something from a small brand. bespoke post sends you awesome boxes every month and i love it. head to bespokepost.com and get a free gift with your first box when you enter code free. welcome back. today's the day. it's finally happening, the house is set to vote on the build back better plan and the infrastructure bill. that means today could be one of the single most consequence shl days on capitol hill for congressional democrats and president biden's agenda, possibly, as the saying goes. we've been stood up at this dance before. i want to bring in the chief deputy whip of the caucus. he's counting heads to make sure his caucus has the votes. great to see you. sorry to interrupt the vote counting. but do you have them? >> i think we're getting there. i mean, we were working all day yesterday late into the evening. and then again this morning. you know, we have members who have specific concerns that we're trying to address as we provide sort of the fine tuning to this legislation. i'm confident we'll get there. we're not there until we are. we have a diverse set of points of view in the democratic caucus. we celebrate that. that's a good thing. but it also sometimes makes threading a needle like this one a little more difficult. i'm confident we'll get there. >> what are the concerns you're hearing the most? >> some of your members have expressed the concerns about the cbo score. i think we could be confident that before there's final action on this, the cbo score will be provided. others have had specific issues. issues regarding the salt tax deduction. in my case, i'm concerned that we keep a robust investment in climate action in the legislation. and i'm happy to see that's the case. but we all have different areas where we might have some disagreement. we have broad agreement on the direction. the fact that we want to have both this bipartisan infrastructure bill and a significant investment in our competitiveness on the president's desk. and that's really what the build back better act is about. making us more competitive by ensuring we have an economy that gives people the tools they have to be the best they can be to take care of the families, to get back to work, to cut the cost of health care. i mean, something as simple as being able to negotiate drug pricing for something like insulin. it will change lives for people. >> congressman, how involved is the president in the vote counting? and why the confidence this vote is going to happen tonight considering the fact that you're telling me there's still certainly some disagreements there in trying to get folks on board to make sure you have the votes you need to get it across the finish line in the house? >> we're all involved. the president's involved. our leadership is involved. the issues that we're trying to resolve can be resolved. we're kind of at that point where there are some issues that are outstanding, but they can be resolved. i've talked to a few members who feel like they're being heard. that their issues are being addressed. so we're at that point where i think we can get there. and the hope is in the next couple hours we'll be able to pull it all together. >> let's talk congressman about immigration. that was obviously one of the points of contention. you got house speaker nancy pelosi leading thursday. they want to discuss immigration in the bill. when dpoerkss started, some democrats were pushing for a full pathway for 11 million immigrants living in the country. that's not the case anymore. what's the status currently on immigration in this bill? how much of it is in? >> i think we can do some. i think there's two difficulties. one is can we come to broad agreement on the policy direction? that's easier. but i think the issue for a lot of members when it comes to immigration is to make sure we understand that there's a limit on what we can do on the policy front in terms of specifically changing our policies. we can put more resources behind existing policies to make the immigration pathway stronger. but to be able to write policy in a reconciliation bill that's limited to budget elements could create problems for some of our senators. but more specifically, may not get past the parliamentarian. that's really the most difficult hurdle for us to overcome is to try to tamper our aspirations based on the technical restrictions that come with a reconciliation bill. >> i imagine you're talking about sinema and manchin. we know their opposition to some of the policy ads. one would mean paid family leave. senator joe manchin has been vocal about wanting to be a bipartisan passage and more robust i should say, not necessarily wanting it to be a part of this bill. how do you think the last-minute add ones, and what i mean by last-minute is between one when the president left for europe last week to now. how is that affecting how you're talking to folks in the house and getting senators on board as well. >> well, when it comes to paid family leave, for example, we think this is something that's fundamentally important for our economy. it makes a difference in terms of us being more competitive. and actually, brings us in line with the rest of the developed world. we've seen in the past with senator manchin has been supportive of efforts for paid family leave. he may have specific issues with this, but at some point the house needs to express what we think our policy prescription is, send that over to the senate, and if they decide to make changes, we'll deal with that. the hope is that they'll accept what we send. but at some point in time, the house can't have senate members playing such a role in what we develop that we can't get our product over the finish line. we have to have respect for one another, and we all have to compromise. we've made a lot of compromises. i think the senate is going to have to make some of their own in order for us to do this. >> congressman, good luck to you, sir. we will be watching and reporting as this thing progresses over the next 24 hours. make sure you have some monster energy or something. thank you, sir. we are watching the national cathedral in washington d.c. where president biden will be joining former presidents obama and bush for colin powell's funeral. you are seeing the harse there along with the motorcade where he will be laid to rest. his family, his wife, his three children as well. his son michael to be part of one of the speakers today. eulogizing the general. what to expect from that service and a look at the general's legacy and life, ahead. tonight, i'll be eating a club sandwich with fries and a side of mayonnaise. 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infection, heart problems, persistent diarrhea or any other side effects. i am living with cll and living proof that imbruvica is right for me. ask your doctor if it's right for you. ♪ welcome back. you are looking at the car containing general powell who will be laid to rest and honored by so many people. president george w. bush, secretary clinton. president biden, president obama as well alongside his family, his wife, and his three children. his son michael will be eulogizing the general today as well. in just 20 minutes or so, they will honor him, and that will get underway. we're seeing powells arrive for the service. jill biden expected to arrive soon. a number of dignitaries will be there to honor the life of a man who was a trail blazer for so many. he was a four-star general and the first black chair of the joint chiefs of staff. he was also a loving husband, a father, and a grandfather. i want to turn to our military analyst jack jacobs. colonel jacobs, thank you for joining us. we -- -- we appreciate it. you both served together in vietnam. what will you be thinking about today during this service honoring him? >> well, you're going to hear a lot about what a great general he was, what a terrific soldier he was. he definitely was that. if you asked him even toward the end of his life, what are you? he'd say i'm a soldier, and he always was a soldier. he always thought of himself as a soldier. you're going to hear a great deal about his state craft. his ability to organize accomplishments among departments between countries. you're going to hear a lot about him professionally. but except perhaps from his family and friends. you won't hear very much about colin powell, the man, and what a dear friend he was to so many people and particularly to those of us who were slightly younger than he. a terrific mentor. i met him in 1977 when i was a battalion executive officer in the 7th infantry division. i was a major and he was colonel. he was a very great friend of my battalion commander. post of them went to city college in new york and were in rotc together and were only about a year apart. he introduced me to colin powell and we became friends after that for 40-something years. but the most important thing he -- the biggest contribution he made was to young soldiers like me and thousands and thousands of others to whom he taught how to act and what to do. how to take charge. how to feel and act responsible for the huge responsibilities we have been given as soldiers and as leaders. we all learned that from colin powell, and everybody looked up to him. he's going to be greatly missed by several generations of people in uniform. >> you talk about colin powell the man. 800 to 1,000 people will attend the funeral services today. not just former presidents that he served. but people that knew him personally as you mentioned. what was he like as a friend? what were his best attributes as a friend? as someone that you would call? >> well, he had an incisive whit, and you didn't want to get on -- he didn't suffer fools gladly, but he didn't lash out at them. he would make some wry comment that would put you in your place when you did something wrong and you knew you did something wrong. one of the things he taught everybody, when you do something wrong, and we all do. he said i did too, but usually when you do something wrong, you know it's the wrong thing when you're doing it, so don't forget it so that you don't do it again, and don't try to convince yourself that you did the right thing when you didn't, because you know you didn't. that got everybody's attention. certainly got mine. but he had a -- an enormous sense of humor, and very well-read and well-spoken, of course, and sometimes you had to parse what he said because you weren't quite sure whether he was sticking you in the ribs or not. and i'll tell you something else. he was a heck of a good poker player, too, and there are lots of people who coughed up money to colin powell playing poker. he was really good at what he did. maybe it was one of the things that made him a great diplomat. but he was a dear friend to everybody. it didn't matter how -- what the age difference was. what the rank different was. he -- he was your friend, and if you needed some guidance, he was the guy to go to. >> he was the guy to go to. colonel jack jacobs, thank you for spending time with us. we appreciate it on this somber day honoring the life and legacy of general colin powell. that does it for me. stay for our special coverage of the funeral anchored by hallie jackson up next after a very quick break. k. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ ♪ ♪ to unveil them to the world. when the chapstick goes on. it's on. get yours on at chapstick.com people with moderate to severe psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, are rethinking the choices they make 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you. wow... that's so nice! the gift of ancestry®... is a walk through your history. do you remember who this is? where the more you discover... wow! ...the more you come together. i can see... the nose... this holiday, give the gift of family. give the gift of ancestry®. people, with quickbooks live this holiday, give the gift of family. someone else will do your books for you. they'll even pair you with an expert bookkeeper like me, who knows your business. knows... your... business! expert bookkeepers who understand your business. intuit quickbooks live bookkeeping. i'm hallie jackson at the national cathedral in washington. joining me for the special coverage of colin powell's funeral. this service set to begin in just about 20 minutes from now honoring a statesman, a soldier, and a trail blazer. two former presidents and some of the most powerful people in the country have already arrived here today to remember the life of the former secretary of state. four-star general, national security adviser and chairman of the joint chiefs. president biden should be arriving shortly. former president bush and former obama are also here along with high ranking and military officials here. at this moment behind at the national cathedral as we expect this to begin in moments informal we'll bring you the service in the entirety. and here's what you can expect. one of four oh fish i can'ts will begin a prayer and we'll hear tributes from a number of people, including his former deputy and long-time friend, his predecessor at the state department, and friend as well, and his son michael. secretary powell died at the age of 84 from complications from covid-19 after a long battle with blood cancer. we're here with you for the next at least hour and a half if not longer. to talk more about colin powell's life and legacy, i want to bring in helene cooper and jack jacobs. colonel, reflect on your friendship with colin powell. >> i met him years ago. he was a colonel, and i think he was either just going into or just coming out of commanding a brigade. my boss, commander was at city college in new york with general powell, and they both had gone through rotc together. it was through my commander i met colin powell, and we became friends for decades after. you're going to hear a great deal about his accomplishments as a professional soldier. i mean, if you would ask him even toward the end of his life after he'd done a great number of things, what do you think most about what you've done, and he'd say i always was a soldier. i was a soldier then and i'm a soldier today. he always thought of himself as a soldier. but you're going to hear a great deal about his being a great soldier, and he was. a great general, which he was, about being a fantastic diplomat and all that. he had many, many professional accomplishments. but maybe only from his son and a few other people, perhaps, as a footnote, you'll hear about colin powell the man, and he was a great friend and mentor to everybody with whom he came in contact. he always taught -- he thought himself as a teacher and would always teach you exactly what he knew so that you wouldn't make the same mistakes he made and so on. there are several generations of young people, many of whom are now my age, who counted colin powell as one of the people who had the biggest impact on their professional careers in terms of how they thought about what their jobs were, what the responsibilities were. how they had to tell the truth and do the right thing. we all learn that from colin powell. and i think a lot of people will remember him primarily as a mentor, as somebody who taught them the right thing to do. he will be sorely missed, and his skill and ability to operate in difficult circumstances, that's something that's going to be sorely missed as well, and we can always use that at times of -- times of difficulty. look, when you're at the top of the food chain, as he became, you thought your responsibility was to carve the strategy of the nation, but it's really kind of interesting. if you talk to anybody who worked with him at the state department, they'll tell you the same thing that people who worked with him in the army talked about. his ability to spend time down at the bottom of the food chain to teach everybody what he knew. >> it's so important i think to have you hear you talk about the personal reflections. there are so many professional accomplishments for secretary powell as well. a career that blazed the trail for so many. first black secretary of state, for example. talk a little bit about i know you covered him for many years. the arc of his professional accomplishments. >> hi, hallie. thanks for having me. i think colonel jack just really hit on sort of the essence of colin powell in many ways when he talked about young people who are now not so young who look at him as a mentor. i think young people who are still very young particularly in the military look at him as a mentor because of the trails he blazed. i think it's sort of sad that the first line in colin powell's obituary was about his testimony to the u.n. on weapons of mass destruction, because that sort of is the one blight in his otherwise immense career. and i think when you put that aside and you just look at the barriers he broke and look at what he did both in several administrations, but particularly at the pentagon where the pentagon is -- the pentagon -- the american military is one of the most integrated places in the institutions in the american country, in the country. but that's at the enlisted level. when you're looking at the ground. when you get up to officers, it's very much still a bastion of white. and colin powell broke that. and african americans who are in the military today look at him as sort of instill in -- still in awe. i remember just recently an army warrant officer telling me about how she views colin powell. there's this hallway in the e-ring of the pentagon where all of the portraits, there are portraits of all the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and you walk down this hallway. it's very impressive. it's paintings of white guy after white guy after white guy, and then you see powell. and she was describing to me stopping every time she got to the powell painting, because she felt -- and sort of exhaling and feeling like oh, yeah, i'm there. i could be this one day, too. sort of like -- it's sort of in the -- in so many other black troops and enlisted and officers, a lot of young ones today have talked to me about that, about looking at colin powell as somebody who showed them that there was a place for them in this american military. the fact that he was able to do this, to rise to that rank at the time that he did, shows a lot about how extraordinary he was. i was interviewing another -- this is on a totally different story. this is two years ago. i was interviewing a black colonel who talked about how he decided to join the army after he read colin powell's biography, and looked at what he -- all he accomplished there. he was -- he fought. he was deployed twice to vietnam. he was the one who came up with this powell doctrine during the pulse war of make sure that the public is behind you and make sure if you're going to fight a war you go in with overwhelming force. there's so much there that these troops look at. he's a seminal figure. it's amazing on the day that he died how the impact at the pentagon -- the impact the american troops, my phone blew up and people started -- it's a big deal. and he was -- he made an impact as secretary of state and as national security adviser to national security adviser to ronald reagan as secretary of state to george p. bush, but i think his impact as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff through president george h.w. bush is larger than any of them. >> what we're look at son screen here i think is an example of what you and colonel jack have talked about here. we are seeing these former presidents, former president obama, former first lady michelle obama, former president bush, former first lady laura bush. former president bill clinton did not travel today, we understand because of his prior hospitalization. medical advice is he should stay home and rest. as you talk about, it's the reaction to secretary powell's death, the bipartisan outpouring from people on both sides of the aisle, talking about the respect they had for him. talking about the important role he played and the legacy in the lives of so many i think about, for example, at risk youth. that's something that was critically important to him as a kid who grew up in the bronx and worked in a factory at the pepsi plant when he was a kid and came from an immigrant family. we should note, too, if you heard some of the helicopter noise in the background, we are expecting president biden to arrive shortly. we knew he is enroute from the white house. he will and will arrive and we believe that the service will begin not too long after that. "the new york times" chief white house correspondent peter baker is joining us now. i wonder if you could speak to that idea that secretary powell held a unique role in u.s. government and that he worked with republicans, worked with democrats. he was somebody who did get so much bipartisan support in a career working for members of both parties. >> yeah. i think that's really, really important thing to focus on. colonel jack talked about what it meant to have colin powell the soldier and what it might to have him as a barrier breaker and role model for so many others to follow. the other angle is what you might call the eisenhower factor to say the modern times few people other than colin powell whose appeal transcended party in a lot of ways, whose credibility with the public was such that either political party would have been perfectly happy to have him as a leader if not the presidential nominee. you know? he was heavily pressured to run for president in 1996. >> right. >> republicans wanted him to go up against bill clinton. bill clinton believe me would have -- that have the one person he was most afraid of as an opponent is colin powell because colin powell is not a party figure or seen in that light but as an american leader, an american hero, figure, soldier, statesman in a way that really did cross lines in a time when the society is so driven by polarized feelings and ideology. i think his passing in some ways therefore is remarkable not just because of the story of a man whose journey so extraordinary but also i think that in passing an era in which it's possible for somebody like colin powell to be a figure of unity, across lines in a country where right now we are just divided straight down the middle. >> colonel jack, talk about why general powell decided not to run for president. >> the theory is his wife said you're not doing it. you will be a target and so i get --s of two votes i get both and you are not doing it. and there may be some truth to that. but i think more than anything it's the fact that he's not -- he was never a political guy. i don't think he had a political bone in his body. he said he have a soldier when you asked him what he was. what political party, he said i'm a soldier. he was a pragmatist. whenever you went to talk to him and asked him for some guidance the very first question he'd ask you is what is it you're trying to do? he was so focused on accomplishing the mission. it permeated his thought process. when you think about it that's the right way to do things. think about it in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. if you do that you won't waste resources, valuable resources like time and people and money. he was all to getting down to brass tacks. what is it you're trying to do? start at the end and work backwards and find that making decisions become much easier. he was not the kind of guy to go out and campaign. that wasn't the kind of person he was. but that's what it requires you. you have to be all things to all people i suppose when you're in politics, especially for very high office and he wasn't about to do that at all. >> we should note that president biden has arrived at the washington national cathedral waiting for the service to begin. you can see, of course, the president there walking out with one of the 0fficiants to be seated at the front of the church and cathedral with the former presidents to celebrate and honor the legacy of colin powell. somewhat unavoidable talking about colin powell and the legacy and the positive contributions that he's made and also something that he later talked about as a regrelt that 2003 speech in front of the u.n. eleanor clift framed a piece that he was somebody humbled by one gulf war and helped win another earlier. here looking at president biden and first lady jill biden going in for a big hand shake. a remarkable scene here, too. we rarely see, i think back to, for example, the last time we were here for the service for former senator john mccain that we saw this kind of presidential power if you will all in one place why it is an incredible image to see. >> it is. it is an amazing image to see. it seems so normal and in a way comforting. at the same time to see president obama, president biden, president bush. hillary clinton. mrs. biden. it is something about sort of an institution of this country, america, that you kind of see on display here. and that does come through at funerals. it is in a way if you look one and the president always, commander in chief, a thing, the moment, deep feeling, the men and women seated there and it reminds you of the country they decided and colin powell, of course, to serve. it's -- when i think about colin powell, though, as a reporter, interviewed him and covering him, we talked to so many of these people and senators and defense secretaries and presidents. i have followed presidents around the world and cabinet officials around the world and a thing about colin powell that really stood out for me was how comfortable he office was in his own skin. he always came across as somebody who was not afraid of the press, to talk to the press and stay where he thought he knew how to go on and off the record and put things on the record and say fine. i remember a time i called him and totally expected him to not talk to me about a rather sensitive issue. he said we'll talk on the record. this is what happened. he went on and spoke. and it was -- it's weird to speak. this is kind of a weird thing to say but as a reporter when you follow a dignitary on an overseas trip or follow them on -- around the world because that's the person to cover as a state department reporter, a pentagon reporter, as a white house reporter, it helps a lot if who you are covering comes to the job with some sense of stature. it's really boring to follow somebody and chronicle the events of somebody who is not comfortable. colin powell was interesting because he came to the job with the stature and comfortable in his skin. >> peter baker, i wonder if you could speak to that, too. >> yeah. i think that's exactly right. i remember the first time i met general powell was in 2001. president bush was hosting vladimir putin and powell was secretary of state. i was at a reception where powell showed up and it was such -- he has a magnetic personality and presence. when he was in the room you knew he was in the room. he wasn't an average cabinet secretary. everybody knew who he was and wanted to talk to him and share a hand shake with him or a smile. he had a way about him that attracted people. now, one thing to take slight amendment to what colonel jack said, he was not a politician of baby hugging, pollster driven kind of politician. absolutely correct. but he was in some ways the best politician in washington because he didn't work the city in a way that few others did. he understood how to make things happen and advance the cause and himself in bipartisan circles and there are very few people to think of in the past 20 years who had a past the way he did. he was a giant in washington in a way we have not seen very often. >> that's, of course, i think reflected by the people in the audience here at the national cathedral today. we saw susan rice, jake sullivan as we see i believe members of the secretary's family preparing to take their seats. colonel jack, i wonder if you could talk about the incredible relationship secretary powell had with his wife, wife alma. married in 1962. tease are the grandchildren. his son michael will deliver a tribute. his daughter doing a read. give us insight into the roin that the kids and grand kids had with the secretary. >> in particular with alma, it was -- i know it's a cliche to say people are married a partnership, ups and downs, but it was truly a partnership. they consulted each other on things of great significance. didn't like being away from

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