Geist alongside capitol hill correspondent and host of kc d. C. Kasie hunt. Joe and mika have the morning off. Better late than never. We have associate editor of commentary magazine, the chair the department of African American studies at prince ton university, former chief of staff to george w. Bush, and in washington, washington anchor for bbc world news, and in memphis Pulitzer Prize winning historian. And well get to the russia sanction story. Weve got full coverage of a remarkable break inside the administration. Nikki haley punching back at kudlow after he questioned her clarity to quote the u. N. Ambassador, i dont get confused. Another big headline cia director met with kim jongun over the easttowest flower weekend. Plus defense secretary james mattis pressed the secretary to get the president to sign off before striking the war machine in syria but was overruled. And the very latest in the stormny daniels case. Blummenal from the Judiciary Committee and add dim schiff from house intel will be our guests. And the rising role inside the white house as one advisers tells the Washington Post, he basically has a desk in the place. But first we have andy card and john meacham with us. We want to start with the life and legacies of barbara bush. Half of the longest women in president ial history died yesterday at the age of 92. New word on funeral plans. The general public will be able to pay respects on friendship as the wife and mother of president s will lay in repose from noon to midnight at Saint Martins church in houston to be followed by a service for family and friends on saturday morning. John, let me start with you. You wrote a book about george h. W. Bush, the american odyssey of the george h. W. Bush. Obviously the central part of that has been barbara bush who he met as a 16yearold at a dance and were married for 73 years. I cant help but think about him this morning waking up for the first time in 73 years without his wife at his side. Its a poignant image and a day that he never thought would come. And one that for the first time in threequarters of a century she wont be right there. Its one of the Great American marriages, one of the Great American stories because it started, as you point the out, not quite three weeks after pearl harbor. And it was a red and Green Holiday dress that barbara pierce was wearing, it cot poppy bushs eye. He asked a fellow, a mutual friend from rye to introduce them. The guy was a little slow and he said do you think you want to meet her in the future president said thats the general idea. And they never really looked back. They were married, engaged probably 18 months later, married in january of 1945, moved theres some debate, 27, 29 times from new haven to odessa to midland, to california, back to midland, to houston, to washington, to beijing, to washington, to new york and finally to those 12 years at both as reagans Vice President and as president. And she was really the last great figure from that generation to be first lady in the same way president bush was the last president to be the world war ii again rag. But she just kept moving and never complained. You have been associated with the bush family for the last few decades. We met in the 1970s. In this passing of barbara bush, one cant help feel but a lingering sense that its accompanied by the passing of did he sensesy. She was a decent person above all else. She was the most loving person i met. Sometimes she had the krang couo give you tough love when you needed it. Sometimes she gave caring love, sometimes tough love, but you always welcomed it. And she was coso inclusive. Probably the best speech she gave was her speech at the college in 1990 and she talked about her role as a citizen and what it means to be a wife, a mother, just part of society. And i would encourage people to look at that speech because it capsu capsulizes her life. It wasnt that she preached about it and talked about it, she lived it. Do you worry at all about the passing within the Republican Party of so much of what barbara bush and obviously her husband represented . Well, barbara bush was a great conscience for president bush, president bush and their whole family and anybody that was in her orbit. She was a wonderful conscience. She could cause you to step back and say, ooh, i better Pay Attention to peripheral vision rather than just tunnel vision and recognize how this impacts people. And so that conscience will live on. Barbara bush is gone in body, she is not gone as a conscience, i guarantee that anyone who had contact with her will never forget the burden that she placed on them to do the right thing. So, yes, i wish more in the Republican Party carried that burden today and had her conscience. One of the great lines from that 1999 wellsly speech, im paraphrasing she was up there and had a roomful of students and said 1990 . Yeah, she got up and said somewhere out in this crowd sits one of you who may one day grow up to the spouse of an american president. I wish him well. Is what she said. We talk about the role of first ladies often, whether its Hillary ClintonRunning Healthcare, nancy reagan before barbara bush working on policy. And she wasnt exactly that way. You know better than i. Of course deputy chief of staff. What kind of first lady was she . She did not put her thumb on the scale of policy. What she did do was raise a conscience. For example, the aids epidemic had people fearful to be around aids. What did she do . She wrent around people with aids. So her actions generated policy rather than putting her thumb on the scale of policy. She was compassionate. I remember the Salvation Army with red kettle drums raising money during the Holiday Season and there were malls in washington, d. C. That banned the Salvation Army. When she heard that, she went right to a mall, right to a red kettle, put some money in, heard the fellow ringing the bell, encouraged other people to put money in. The red kettle the red kettle whatever they were, were not taken away from the malls, they were there. So she was a presence and she acted more than she talked sometimes. And her actions caused other people to change their actions. John meacham, andys talking about sometimes the Brutal Honesty of barbara bush as im thinking back to jeb bush as he prepared to launch a president ial campaign, a campaign a lot of people thought he might be the favorite for in the Republican Party. She sat down with an interview for the today show and said weve had enough bushes, there are other families in this country. Yeah, with mothers like that. But, you know, as Henry Kissinger said it had the virtue of being true to some extent. She spoke truth and it could be as andy knows far better than i do, it could be wildly uncomfortable. Heck, ive got scars from her on a couple of things. But it was what, to me, whats remarkable about her, you look at her and i was thinking last night, were now as far away from the bushes leaving the white house as the Bush Administration was from the kennedy assassination. So thats we should think about that for one second. So there are a bunch of people who will look at pictures of her to be dimly aware of the Abigail Adams and i analogy and think of her as the seep tpiatoned woma. She was always worktion aing an leaning in, if you will. The thing about thes wily speech there had been a protest among graduates that she shouldnt honor someone who is only famous because of who her husband was. And she courageously went, took mrs. Gorbachev, they were in town for an important summit and confront head on, shed is he there are different paths here. Its not you know, sometimes times change quickly, sometimes they change slowly. The thing is focus on your kids, love your friends, reach out, lend a hand and it all may sound somewhat right t somewhat trite, but i think weve learned a new, in the last 18 months or so, that basic truths like that can never be repeated too often. I think barbara bush embodied a kind of decency in public life. She wasnt perfect. Shed be rolling her eyes right now, she probably is somewhere saying get on with it deary. When you got a deary you were done, that was it. That sounds like it. That was just like the martini pitcher would come at you, it was awful. But she was somebody who believed in Public Service, and believed in George Herbert walker bush. I dont think we should leave this conversation without realizing and noting, ive never met anyone, particularly my wife, who was in love with their spouse as barbara bush was with poppy bush. And their life was a great love story. Unto the last moment. Its remarkable and may all of us have some percentage of that in our own lives. I should point out in the jeb bush story the moment he decided to run she supported him 100 and got behind his campaign and campaigned for him. And she was out on the trail. She is somebody who just seems to me was able to be fierce and fearless but also incredibly classy and gracious all at the same time. And andy card, it strikes me we dont seem to have role models like this in public life right now. The contrast that i feel, you know, being able to sit here and talk about her life and legacy compared to what were focussing on every day. There was a depth to barbara bush. She was the silver fox. She was defined by her pearls. But there was a depth to her so she did not rush you. She convicted you. And so there was a presence around her. And her aura was one of was a conscience that weighed heavily on you as you did your job. Dont hurt her husband, dont let him do things he shouldnt do, but dont hurt him. And she was very loyal to her husband, to her family, to her country, but most importantly she was loyal to herself. She lived a good life. Well, were going to be talking an awful lot more about the life of barbara bush and were thinking about president george h. W. Bush who were told was holding his wifes hand all day yesterday and was with her when she passed away. Of course president george w. Bush and all the children, our dear friend jenna bush here at nbc, her sister barbara and the extended bush family that goes out as far as the eye can see. Well talk more about that in just a moment. Well talk politics now. The internal foulout from the Trump Administration continue to spill out into public. Yesterday we told you about President Trump not following through with new sanctions against russia relating to its support of the assad regime when u. N. Ambassador nikki haley had announced 24 hours earlier. Larry kudlow told reporters yesterday that Ambassador Haley may have had some momentary confusion and that she, quote, got ahead of the curve. Ambassador responded to that saying simply with all due respect, i dont get refused. Kudlow reportedly later apologized to haley telling the New York Times he was, quote, totally wrong and adding the policy was change and she wasnt told about it so she was in a box. They told the times the white house did not inform the ambassador of the change of plans. Its pretty extraordinary so far. We dont see a lot of cabinet officials and white house officials publicly crossing the president , crossing the white house in the way that nikki haley did but she feels like she was hung out to dry. She was given a message, she wasnt told it was changed. There also appears to be according to a lot of reporting a personal element to this that President Trump is starting to get annoyed with the high profile of nikki haley. There was a remarkable little graph of the New York Times story that said republicans close to the white house are beginning to wonder whether or not nikki haley and Vice President mike pence might form a 2020 ticket. Which i cant think of anything that would frustrate the president more and make him more likely to lash out. Nikki haley was put out to dry here. There were talking points sent to the rnc as well as letter. This decision was made on sunday nightal after she made these statements in public. To blame her from going out in front of a policy that was a policy as far as she knew is remarkably inappropriate and she is right go out and defend her month there. But if that frustrates the president the fact that she was put out to dry in front of this poll scl policy, which was policy and stated policy in this administration. His approach to russia is something we should all be concerned at the fact that everyone is showing they are concerned with it too is good for public discourse. It makes us cown front the reality of this administration and its bizarre relationship with moscow. I was on the capitol hill yesterday ant chairman of the Foreign Relations committee was clearly piqued by this and he called it at the same time said this is just your standard variety confusion. But nikki haley had been one of the few people that it seemed as though we could trust to know that she had the president s ear, was speaking on behalf of the administration, and wasnt going to be contradicted in public. And it seems like another person off that list. Yeah, i mean good nor nikki haley. Theres wanna element of condensation for the way that larry kudlow was speaking about her saying she might be confused a bit. And she was bold enough to push back and i suspect that he wont use that end couv language about her again, it only takes one time of pushing back and people stop talking but like that. But it does suggest interestingly the second part of what larry kudlow said, she was put in a box or she was in a box, i. E. , she was not privy to all of the facts in the white house was kind of a dig suggesting that shes up in new york and shes not in that very, very tight inner circle on these decisions that are being made. But i have some sympathy for that because these decisions are made and then remade and then revisited and policy does change remarkably fast in this white house. And pronouncements can get made by the president that totally get changed. Weve seen that over the question of tpp just over the last three or four days. We were out, then we were in, now it seems were out again. I cant keep track of the speetd speed of policy. So its not surprising she was out of the loop on the latest russia policy. Andy, youve been there. Could you take a bit about the danger of the lack of communication and lack of discipline thats so evident on a daily basis in this white house . Probably the greatest responsibility that a chief of staff has is to bring discipline to the whole process. The right hand and the left hand are connect to the same body and they should get their directions from the mind. And, yes, its a challenge. Nikki hailey did not go rogue. Shes not she doesnt go rogue. She is thats a great point. Shes a very steady person and i think that the fact that the white house wasnt communicating with all of the people about the message was a problem with the white house, it wasnt a problem with nikki haley pirt feel bad for her. Almost every president has had to suffer through someone saying something that maybe wasnt the real plan or at the right time. But theres a difference between going rogue and doing it making an honest mistake. She didnt even make a mistake. She was being honest. And this white house said you can never discount the personal element of all of this. Remember how annoyed President Trump was when steve bannon was on the cover of Time Magazine early in the administration. He doesnt like when your profile creeps up on his. Even if youre in the 24 graph of the New York Times. I think he sees that shes been getting positive coverage for the job hes done at the u. N. And perhaps hes knocking her down a peg. I mean, whats interesting, andy, youre right, remember if her comments about the sanctions she actually said that Steve Mnuchin was going to roll out what those sanctions would be on monday or perhaps even earlier, which suggested that it was accord nated. The interesting question for me is what does she do next . I think her response was actually spot on. And i dont agree with nikki haley at alls a governor or in terms of her position with regards to whatever trumps Foreign Policy is and how hes representing it to the world. But im interested in what she will do now. Steve schmidt said last night on twitter that perhaps tp its time for her to step over and over again. That she has to resign. Because i dont know whether or not trump has taken her legs out from under her in relation to the world. How can she represent the president and u. S. Foreign policy in the United Nations given what trump just did to her. Any chance she steps aside . I hope not. I mean, first of all, the president needs to have strong people around him and maybe he doesnt want strong people, but he needs to have strong people around him. And she is a good role model for the world to see. Shes also a great homework doer. She does her homework. Shes not flying by the seat of h her pants or making things up as she goes along. Shes very, very disciplined. She was a good governor of South Carolina and i was glad to support her. I know me too will love, i dont get confused. Thats right. She clearly was miffed by the perception that she didnt know what she was doing and that shed gone rogue in some way. Shes not afraid to speak up. Right. I think the question is going to be what does the president feel. Does he actually feel threatened by nikki haley or was he theep see her poke back . I think both were true. So great to have you especially on this morning. Still ahead on morning joe, President Trump si