Walker bush, will soon be brought out of the rotunda and taken to Washingtons National cathedral. The period of visitation thats been open for two days and two nights, members of the public, is now officially over. His funeral will be an opportunity for our country to pause, if only for a moment, and remember a man whose extraordinary accomplishments stretched far beyond his four years in the oval office. Today may feel like the end of an era for some. For others it will be notable for its spoken and unspoken contrast, especially when five u. S. President s take their seats inside that building. The National Cathedral. All here in honor of our 41st president and his service to these United States. Over his 92 years george h. W. Bush played key roles in some of the most important moments in modern american history. Naval aviator in world war ii at the age of 18, a member of congress from texas, rnc chairman during watergate, ambassador to china, director of the cia, Vice President during the reagan years and president , of course, at the end of the cold war. Yet the former president himself was happy with the title family man. There will be a lot of evidence of that as we get under way today. With us here on the set for todays coverage, the host of deadline white house and the former Communications Director for president george w. Bush, our friend nicolle wallace. And Chris Matthews as well, host of hardball, covered the Bush White House as d. C. Bureau chief as the San Francisco examiner. It is a cold and generally dark morning here in the nations capital. And nicole, where are your thoughts right now . Its been a weepy week and i apologize in advance for any tears. Whats so amazing is how widespread that sentiment is. Weve seen our colleagues out in houston with all the people who claimed houston as president bush 41s hometown emotional. We saw tourists and residents of d. C. Waiting in lines for three or four hours to pay their respects at the capitol. There was a moment yesterday, i was on the train making my way down here and i opened up nbcs Live Streaming app. And no offense to anyone, i was surprised by how well it worked. And i watched that coverage of the 43rd president greeting people who came to honor his father at the capitol. And it reminded me of a day that we all covered when the 41st president went to the church where his wifes body was lying in state and greeted people there to honor her. And it felt like, in that moment, the torch had been passed. The new patriarch of the bush family, the 43rd president. Well see on his face, you know, the weight of carrying that mantle. But it does feel like a moment where a torch has been passed. I was completely struck by that moment. I was watching it here in washington on live television. And perhaps we can share some of those pictures with our viewers. Yeah. This was remember, this followed hours of ordinary people lining up day and night to come in and pass slowly by the coffin. And then, out of nowhere, quietly through the entrance, came members of the bush family. Your former boss found a baby in the crowd. He always finds a baby. And all the bush children, they saw some familiar faces from some friends from back home. But mostly it was ordinary people. And given how graceful the family is, no one will be surprised to know that they were just thanking people for coming by. You can hear the audio. You know, were all trying to pick up things that are caught on a mic when no one else is listening. Where are you from . How long did you have to wait . Bush is impatient. I think he wanted to know how long they had to wait. He was really moved by how long people stood in line to wait to pay their respects to his father. 43 was talking to some congressional pages. He found a crowd of them. This is, of course, jeb and his wife. Chris matthews, same question. Well, you know, George Herbert walker bush would define these surroundings, its so familiar to him. Twoof his sons went to school right here at st. Albins, the school which supports this cathedral. It was founded to create a choir to perform here. Here we are, on wisconsin avenue, really the heart of the city. And he spent his life here. Ive always thought about him as a figure like in british history, like anthony eden, someone who waited a long time to come to promise. We talk about young people running for president today. He waited all those careers that you mentioned. That would have been dead ends for other people, cia director, thats not a future. U. N. Rnc chair during watergate. These were not opportunities, these were duties. And yet, after all that training, he finally got to be president for a fairly brief time. But all that experience really helped him. Indeed. John mclaughlin, the former acting director of the cia read on the air with me a portion of a letter a colleague had sent him, a letter that he received from george bush who said at age 51 my political career is probably over. But he viewed the cia job as necessary to step in, the place was in disarray. It was a necessary Public Service. And he brought integrity to that agency. Hes an honest man. And people knew that that agency needed some honesty, all those black bag jobs, the assassinations. The country needed him and he came through. That is a chapter of his life that is often overlooked. But they named the cia after him because of the impact he had in the moment that he took over that agency. Just turned out he was a lousy predictor of his own political future. Our political director and of course the moderator of meet the press, chuck todd is among our family members standing by to talk to us. Chuck, your thoughts right now . You know, im struck by a couple things. Number one is this reminder, the First Campaign i covered professionally was the 92 campaign. I remember when george h. W. Bush lost and many people on his campaign would say, well, history is going to judge this presidency differently. Wait for history to judge this presidency. Well, here we are. Some 25, 26 years later. And it is a reminder that the focus, the lens does change. And you do look at it. And this is an impactful presidency in ways that i think we didnt appreciate in 1992 and 1993. Thats number one. And second, i do think we now see that there really is a mark in time here. President ial funerals are something that do mark our time in this country. We mark time in different ways. You know, some of my first memories are watching president ial funerals on television. And it is sort of a time that we all take stock. And i guess thats what ive been struck by is is that you look at his presidency and you realize it was sort of the last presidency when we didnt fully celebrify our president s. Here we are today in a different culture of presidencies weve had in the last two decades. Thats what i keep coming back to is just how much how much things have changed in 26 years from when i started covering politics to looking at it in the Rearview Mirror today. And chuck, it has been called, will be called all day today, kind of the end of an era. Do you concur . I do. Because, look, number one, hes the last of the greatest generation to be president. And its frankly, if you think about it, you know, when he was president , i believe and correct me if im wrong on set there, when he was president , it was Something Like four of the previous five president s had all served. Now when you look back four of the last president s have not served. Its just in different ways its an end of a lot of different eras. And thats just one of them. All right, chuck todd outside the National Cathedral where he will be part of our coverage. Were looking, of course, at two former cia directors, panatta and tenet al. Taking their seats. Theyre arriving very early for what we anticipate as crushing security for five u. S. President s. It kind of doesnt matter that you used to run the Worlds Largest intelligence agency. When we say please be seated at 9 00 a. M. For an 11 00 a. M. Service, they are taking it very, very seriously. Theyre so excited about it. I mean the cia directors came down monday because there was an event at the cia to honor president bush. And they are soaking up this opportunity to reconnect. This is its not a commentary or maybe it is. But people who spent their careers in government are not held out and celebrated in too many news cycles these days. This is an opportunity you just had up george tenet and panetta, the cia is so proud this week to have the opportunity to celebrate george bush. Theyve had events out there all week. We are joined by our friend nancy gibbs. She has a lot of titles to her name, as we look at sam donaldson, the former nbc news great, to attend this memorial. Nancy is among a lot of things, but we love this as journalists, the Current Record holder and all time record holder in cover stories written for time magazine. And notably between hard covers she wrote about the finite club of u. S. President s. Nancy, were going to have five of them here today. What a dynamic. It is amazing. And its a first because the living president s got together for a Hurricane Relief concert down in texas a year ago after that series of hurricanes. But President Trump was there on video. Both president bushes and carter and obama were there in person. So this is the first time we will see them in a pew together along with Hillary Clinton and jeb bush and the cast of characters of our political dramas of our lifetimes. That is an extraordinary thing. We just came off a period of having five living former president s, which was a very rich period for lovers of history in the presidency. And now we have five u. S. President s. Thats right. And, you know, one of the reasons theyve become this club of theirs has become important is because our president s are living longer. You know, you have Ronald Reagan and gerald ford as well as president bush and jimmy carter now still alive, living well into their 90s. And so their postpresidencies can sometimes be, in some ways, as consequential as their presidencies were. Certainly jimmy carter says i was a better expresident than i was a president. They have an Unusual Alliance that totally transcends ideological differences. Because theyve sat in the chair and theres a bond of sympathy between them about what it means to do that job. And i think well see that today. I think, you know, weve seen the affection between Michelle Obama and george w. Bush, certainly with the obamas at Barbara Bushs funeral. At some level, this is about family. And theres the actual family of the bush family that were seeing. But then theres a family of the oval office that is also a very intense bond of understanding that only they share. I think part of what 41 changed, and part of what people have been talking about all week is that the friendship between someone who ended his political career, bill clinton, and the bush family is real. Its more than just the office that binds them. They became genuine buddies, 43, you know, used to talk about bill clinton as, you know, the other son of his parents. And bill clinton became a presence in the 43 white house, which may sound weird. Those were very challenging and polarizing times in some respects. But bill clinton was present, and his ideas about a. I. D. S. In africa were present in meetings about policy regarding antiretroviral drugs. The friendship between the 41st president and bill clinton was such a salve on partisan times. Such a strange relationship, if you will. Fred astaire and Ginger Rogers they all are, really. Yeah. But they used to say Ginger Rogers gave fred class and she gave him sex appeal. Interesting relationship. Cant figure out which is which. One of the extraordinary things to consider, president bush 41 was the actual father of one president who followed but he was the virtual father of others. He had become the father bill clinton never knew. Barack obama did not know his father either and viewed in 41 someone who he admired and who was a huge source of consolation to him. And its interesting that president obama was one of the last people to visit president bush before he died. The last public visit was from james baker his best friend and president obama. And that friendship i believe that the 43 and michelle have, they have 41st president to extend that generosity to bill clinton. Weve been watching Rudolph Giuliani walk in. The saying about the flynn document. In effect, theres nothing to see here, which has been an increasing part of his job of late. Jimmy carter will be an interesting figure to watch today, nancy. It strikes me, he is the record setter for having lived the longest in the years after leaving office. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are keenly aware, having been married 72 years, that they have chasing the record of longevity that was just set, the benchmark set by the late george and the late barbara bush of 73 years. And nancy, among his accomplishments in office, jimmy carter may be best remembered for hiring a young speech writer named Chris Matthews. Did that. There you go. President carters relationship with the other president s was complicated, but president bush used him strategically in panama and nicaragua around election monitoring. He recognized that a former president can be a real strategic asset. And i think having been sort of shut out of the reagan white house, jimmy carter was grateful to president bush for the respect that he showed him and for, you know, the uses to which he put him. It will be interesting to watch the positioning. President carter always makes an effort to position himself at a distance. Hes a in all those photos with the group of president s, hes the man apart. And you wonder whether hes going to make that statement again today. I think he wont. Ive heard he wont. Well see. Its one of those i think he doesnt really respect some of the others in the way although Winston Churchill when he was a prisoner of war, he always stood apart from the other prisoners. He stood apart from other prime ministers and historical figures of the time. Can i Say Something about bill clinton . Youre Chris Matthews. This relationship, nancy knows more than i will ever know about this. I think that we all need fathers, daughters need mothers especially. And if you have a father you learn at an early age what its like to work, work hard, see your father working hard, especially in the world war ii generation that we had, working for the family, not for themselves. No ego, just working for the family and being sort of true to the family. Bill never had anything like that. And i think he suffered from it, knowing what a man should do when he grows up. What do you think . No, i think youre right. And i think, you know, the whole experience, niccole, you know this, the atmosphere there of warmth and family is something that bill clinton im not surprised he would practically drop in unannounced, ride on fidelity. It was an interesting relationship. To the point that when clinton started having heart trouble, it was bush 41 looking after his medical care and assuring doctors it would be okay for them to fly to a funeral of a pope, make sure his health is not jeopardized by this. It was that intense and that personal a relationship. And i agree. I mean, i think this president bush was a father figure to a great many people and a sort of icon to a great many people. The bushes are this net in which people that dont have other people looking out for them are caught. They will connect you to their network of doctors in texas and d. C. And maine. They will welcome you into your home. When you walk into their living room, its not theyre ten former leaders, there will be maybe two former leaders, two great grand kids, a boyfriend or a girlfriend their dog. Lots of dogs. Its such a melting pot of warmth and of inclusiveness. And, you know, i wasnt incredibly important, but i was always welcomed in. Bill clinton was a former president , always welcomed in, there were neighbors and performers at the local theater, everyone was welcomed in. Whatever it was they needed. And thats not surprising to hear that bill clintons medical concerns were concerns of the 41st president. Although, i will say, and, you know, the private relationship was real. But they were also conscious of the power of their public relationship. And it was president bush 43 who first enlisted them on tsunami and hurricane katrina. As they started to appear together in public, including going to a baseball game together, the crowd who you would cheer. And you can imagine half the crowd cant stand president clinton, half the crowd cant stand president bush, but they loved seeing them together and they recognized and they came to realize the power their friendship had on the country. In an increasingly toxic bitter campaign, and yet come together both as friends and in serving their country, in doing the relief and charitable efforts that that ended up being the priority of their postpresidencies. These men, and so far its parent trap. We want unity here. These men men are a public chain of continuity and they occupy a very, very Important Role in our society. Our viewers during our conversation have watched our various camera locations switching around. You may have seen the president ial hearse. Thats out on the plaza behind the capitol. And you can see in the distance the Supreme Court on the left, the library of congress on the right. That will bring the body of the former president here to the National Cathedral in this shot, that is the hearse there on the lower right. With our thanks to nancy gibbs, former editor of time magazine, the record holder for the most cover stories in that magazine ever written. Well on you. Thats great. And nancy gibbs also a biographer o