right now on "andrea mitchell reports," state of the race. the democratic race gets tighter. >> if you are talking about the wall street bailout, where some of your friends destroyed this economy -- >> you know -- >> excuse me. i'm talking. >> if you're going to talk, tell the whole story, senator sanders. >> let me tell my story. you tell yours. >> i will. and remembering nancy reagan. the former first lady's son, ron, speaks exclusively to nbc news about her legacy. >> i think that you can make the case that the ronald reagan that we all came to know as president would not have existed without nancy reagan.

>> coming up, we'll talk to two former reagan white house chiefs of staff, james baker and ken duberstein. and a look backstage at the reagan white house with former top aide gayle burt. plus the reagan love story, captured in a letter from the president to mrs. reagan that she read for an nbc special. >> dear first lady, as president of the united states, it's my honor and privilege to cite you for service above and beyond the call of duty and that you have made one man, me, the most happy man in the world for 29 years. >> good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. today the nation is remembering nancy reagan. she died in her los angeles home yesterday of congestive heart failure. she was 94 years old. mrs. reagan will be buried later this week beside her husband at the ronald reagan presidential library in simi valley, california. she's being remembered today as a loyal adviser, a confidant, a

soulmate to president reagan, in a love story that could be a hollywood movie. but nancy's also being remembered as a shrewd deal maker and a groundbreaker in her own right. i'm joined by james baker, who served the reagan white house as chief of staff, later as treasury secretary, and knew nancy reagan well. mr. secretary, thank you for being with us. our condolences to you. you were very close to her and you and tom brokaw spoke to her as recently as february 6th on tom's and ron's shared birthday. >> that's right. we had a very good conversation with her actually, andrea. i was supposed to see her this week in l.a. i make it a practice of seeing her when i go out there, and i go out there two or three times a year. i knew that she was failing physically, by the way, not mentally. she still very much had her marbles. but it's a real loss, and of

course your lead-in to the program said it better than i could. theirs was an extremely exceptional love story, and as ron said in that little clip you just did, i don't think -- she was absolutely indispensable to ronald reagan's success, and i don't think there would have been a ronald reagan as we knew him without nancy reagan. >> which is not to understate his effectiveness and his importance, but it was that in a way he was guileless. he did not really have the political antennae that she had, and she was always looking out for him, for his best interests, and for those who did not have his best interests at heart. >> that's right. she was his closest adviser, as a matter of fact, but more than that, she was his constant protector, and she protected him particularly with respect to staff and those on the staff who

might want to paddle their own canoe instead of furthering the president's interests. she was -- she was 50%, andrea, you know, because you covered that white house, she was 50% of a team that restored america's pride and confidence in itself after the carter years and then reinvigorated america's place in the world. >> i think of her also in terms of foreign policy, and you, as a future secretary of state, then as chief of staff and treasury secretary, you saw all of this up close. >> right. >> in those days, we were in the middle of a cold war, and as the president said famously three soviet leaders as he said that he couldn't meet with them because they kept dying on him, you know, gorbachev, and now you have mi kyle gorbachev in his 50s and she saw the possibility and this was going up against a

lot of hard-liners including the secretary of defense at the time, wanted him to explore the possibility of negotiations, and that led to the historic november 1985 geneva summit, the first summit, and then the gorbachev state dinner. and i speak of this because the orchestration of that, bringing in ben clyburn, and we see the pictures there of ben clyburn playing "moscow nights." he was celebrated in moscow because he was the only american who won the famed tchaikovsky prize as a protege. and he played this folksong and then you have gorbachev and raisa gorbachev singing with them and that was a breakthrough moment. she understood how diplomacy could also be done around the state dinner table. >> that's right. she did. and of course they had many, many state dinners, and they were very effective in furthering america's interests around the world. but she was one of those who encouraged him to sit down and negotiate arms control, talk

with the soviets and not just say, okay, we're going to continue to fight this cold war for another 40 years. and of course the cold war actually ended on his success successor's watch, but everybody would agree that ronald reagan and as a matter of fact frankly most all american presidents before ronald reagan were steadfast in their opposition to soviet expansion so, they all get a little bit of credit for the end of the cold war and the victor yaus end of the cold war, but ronald reagan gets a huge amount of that credit as well. >> how important husband her relationship -- his and her relationship i should say with maggie thatcher? >> well, it was very important. president reagan and prime minister thatcher spoke for each other in international meetings. he oftentimes let margaret thatcher speak for the two of them and then on occasions of

course he would speak for the two of them as a leader of the alliance. but he and margaret thatcher were soulmates and they were very, very close to eesm other and close personal friends. >> she was criticized by some for being overprotective. in looking back now and learning how close he came to dying after the assassination attempt in 1981, that really was an outgrowth of the fear that she felt every day that something would happen to him after that, wasn't it? >> well, that's correct. she was fearful of that and i was with her at the hospital during those -- right after the shooting, and she was very, very understandably shaken up. she spent some time in the chapel there praying, and of course president reagan came a lot closer to death than we knew at the time. but it was not as a result of the actual shooting. it was a result of an infection that occurred during the course

of his recovery. most of that was not well-known at the time, but nancy knew about it and she was very, very concerned. but she had been protective of him before but became more so after that. >> and his ability to compromise, i remember him once saying after agreeing to a tax bill that the sound that we heard was the sound of concrete cracking around his feet. you were the head of the legislative strategy when you were in the white house. you met twice a day i think when you were chief of staff. all those compromises and the meetings with tip o'neill, what was he saying and what was his mantra about that in sharp contrast, i should say, to some of the republican candidates right now? >> yeah. what i don't understand about some of the things going on today, a lot of people get up there and they beat their chest and say i'm going to be like ronald reagan. i'm not going to talk to the enemy. well, ronald reagan, while he was very, very conservative and

he held his principles very d p deeply and viscerally, he was at heart -- he understood that we judge our presidents on the basis of what they can get through the congress, and he was quite prepared to compromise if necessary in order to get what he wanted accomplished. i can't tell you how many times i'd be sitting there in the oval with him just the two of us and we'd be talking about some question up on the hill, some piece of legislation. he'd say, jim, i'd rather get 80% of what i want than go over the cliff with my flag flying. he was actually pretty pragmatic. he was a principled pragmatist. he would never compromise his core beliefs, but if he needed to shave here or there at the margins in order to get something accomplished, he was quite prepared to do it. and i think that's one of the things, andrea, that accounts for the fact that his two-term presidency was seen to be as successful as it was.

>> thank you so much, james baker. it's really a privilege to talk to you. thank you for your recollections. >> thank you. >> and i'm joined now by president reagan's last chief of staff, kenneth duberstein, spearheaded some of those great legislative victories. chief of staff after the iran contra scandal threatened to bring down the presidency. it was a constitutional crisis at the time. >> absolutely. but i had hesitated coming back to the white house. president reagan was at 37% in the polls. people had said he wasn't simply a lame duck, he was a virtual dead duck. and i remember being called to the oval office and the president got up from behind his desk and he said, ken, i

understand why you're hesitating, but i just want you to know one thing -- nancy and i want you to come back home for the last two years. that's the partnership. that's the protectiveness. you know, that expression that reagan always used, trust but verify. the problem was he trusted everybody. she was the verification. she was the one who made sure that people were working on his agenda and not their own agenda. >> and famously, she helped lead to the firing of don regan, one of your predecessors. >> well, jim baker and i never hung up on nancy reagan. >> who had hung up on the first lady. >> many times. >> you talked to her every day. >> several times a day. >> and she wanted to know his schedule, whom he was meeting with, all of that. >> no. but she also was a fountain of information for me. she would call me between

quarter of 9:00 when he left the residence and 9:00 when he showed up in the oval and share with me if he slept well the night before, what he had reacted to that was on the front page of "the new york times" or "the washington post," what they'd seen on tv, that he liked or didn't like. to give me a few minutes' heads up, a few minutes running time to put some answers together. -- so that i could be responsive and help him out putting his answers together. >> her political acumen was so keen. >> and she was willing to share it with me. you know, one of the things from nancy reagan was that she had great insights because she listened to friend and foe, whether it was kate graham or meg greenfield of "the washington post" or whether it was george will or others. she was always picking up the

insights. >> robert strauss, the -- >> bob strauss, of course. and she would share that with me. it wasn't widely known. she shared it with jim baker. she shared it with mike deaver. but there were a few of us that she was willing to confide in because she knew that we were on her husband's agenda and not our own agenda and we could help make her husband that much more effective. >> ken duberstein, thank you so much. thanks for being with us today. >> thank you. thanks. coming up, the latest from the 2016 campaign. the fallout from last night's big democratic debate. the fireworks in flint, michigan. any moment now donald trump is holing a campaign rally in concord, north carolina weather the republican test tightening up.

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well, isle tell you something else that senator sanders was against. he was against the auto bailout. i voted to save the auto industry. he voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry. i think that is a pretty big difference. >> well, if you are talking about the wall street bailout, where some of your friends destroyed this economy -- >> you know. >> excuse me. i'm talking. >> if you're going to talk, tell the whole story, senator sanders. >> let me tell my story. you tell yours. >> i will. if we're going to argue about the '90s, let's try to get the facts straight. >> a few of the heated moments from last night's democratic debate in flint, michigan, hillary clinton taking on bernie sanders over a bill critical to michigan's survival, his vote against the auto bailout.

it was the auto bailout wrapped in the wall street bailout. they were one and the same. what does last night's debate mean for candidates ahead of tomorrow's bigamymy primary? kristin, first to you, because they were both aggressive last night, and she really tried to put him on the defense -- on defense regarding that auto bailout, which was so critical to michigan. >> you're absolutely right, andrea. it was a pivotal moment last night. she had been on defense for days over this issue of trade. they'd been hammering her for supporting past trade deals like nafta which a lot of folks in michigan opposed. she was ready with that comeback last night, slamming him for being opposed to the auto bailout as you just said, very popular here in michigan, folks here credited with saving a lot of jobs and the economy. and what's so fascinating, andrea, it allows her to do two things, first hug president obama, which as we know, very

popular among democrats, a strategy she's been deploying all along. second of all she's using a tactic president obama used in 2012 when he took on mitt romney. it helped him to win a number of midwest states like ohio, for example, and so she's deploying that tactic now. we veal to see if it works. today the clinton campaign out with a new radio ad. they think this is something that's going to get them to the fineish line. our latest poll shows her with a 17-point lead. if you talk to both campaigns, they think this race is much closer. the clinton campaign trying to downplay expectations, but the reality is this is a critical state for both of them. andrea? >> and casey, bernie sanders thinks he has a pretty good shot in michigan. the polls are narrowing somewhat even though she's been ahead, because of the trade issues. >> that's right, andrea. they focused very much on this for so many days, which is why this wall street bailout thing seemed to take bernie sanders by surprise.

he kind of wraps the auto industry and wall street together into one, and that of course is not the perception here in michigan. he's used to railing against big business, big corporations. that's not how these big auto companies are viewed here because they employ so many people and for such a long time were a source of very well-paying manufacturing jobs and provided, you know, great quality of life to many, many workers in michigan. so he clearly has evolved from that, telling a crowd today that hillary clinton is mischaracterizing his position, and as you point out, this was about half of the money for the wall street bailout wrapped up together with these auto companies. and of course some of it was financing for cars and trucks essentially. remember, people stopped buying new cars and trucks. so part of that wall street bailout was critical. but i do think this is something of a curveball that could change the conversation here in the last 48 hours before people vote in michigan. and kristen touched on this a little bit, but it's hard to

overstate how important michigan is for the sanders campaign at this stage in the race. they are trying to argue that it's possible for them to overcome this pledge delegate lead that the clinton campaign says is durable, and michigan is a place where they could potentially prove that they can eat into it because it could mean they could also do well in states like illinois and ohio that are coming up on march 15th. but if they don't making that argument is going to be a lot harder, andrea. >> cakasie hunt and kristen weller, thank you both so much. coming up, hollywood comes to washington. how nancy reagan transformed the role of first lady and choreographed some of the east wing's most unforgettable moments. egg that just tastes better. so fresh from the farm. delicious. perfect. only one egg with more great nutrition... like 4 times more vitamin d and 10 times more vitamin e. and 25% less saturated fat. only one egg good enough for my family.

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except to say i can't imagine life without her. >> ronald and nancy reagan's devotion to each other was a touch stone for the white house staff. no one witnessed this more closely than the first lady's former social secretary and right hand aide, gayle burt. she joins me now. i know this is a really somber and touching moment for you. you were so close to her and saw her over these years as she was caring for ronald reagan and then in her own slow and lonely decline. she was lonely in those years without him. >> she was. as a matter of fact, when i saw her in october she told me that she thought god had forgotten her. and that was a really hard thing to hear but we talked about it and we talked about all of the great things she'd been able to witness in her 94 years, and we talked about that ronald reagan

had become the gold standard for both candidates and both parties for referring to ronald reagan as the gold standard. and when they came to washington and he was a grade b movie actor who sort of bumbled into this job, to have come from that to the gold standard was something worth living for, i think. >> and a real achievement for her, as jim baker was noting earlier in the program, he would not have been the ronald reagan and the president we knew without nancy reagan. and you saw the way she paid attention to details. talk about frank sinatra, some of her hollywood friends who helped her choreograph years of white house events. >> yeah. the first person i talked to when i took my job was frank sinat sinat sinatra. and i should back up. mike deaver told me before i went upstairs for my interview with her that i should never forget that ronald reagan would

not be president were it not for nancy reagan. >> and he was such a close aide from california, deputy chief of staff but a much larger role in their lives. >> yes. yes. and like a son to both of them in many ways. but when i came to my job, there was frank sinatra, who was calling all the time, organizing the light and the sound in the east room because the east room was acoustically very difficult to have performances in, and baryshnikov was upt set because he had hit his head on the chandelier during one of his leaps. and so, you know, the next time we had a dancer, we built the stage on the floor for that were because she was a good friend of baryshnikov's and he told her about bumping his head on the chandelier. >> the culture and entertainment but using frank sinatra as a production aide and lighting direct

director. >> i know. i know. my mother used to sort of hyperventilate whenever he would call my home and she would be there because for women of a certain age, frank sinatra was sort of still the heart throb. >> i would say women of all ages as an artist. what about travolta? john travolta -- here you had princess diana coming to a state dinner and she wanted to dance or the white house wanted her to be able to dance? >> i think -- no. mrs. reagan was trying to think of ways to engage her and connect with her and sort of make a nod to her. and so we sat for days thinking about who we knew who could dance with her. >> i'm going to -- the president, by the way, president obama has just spoken for the first time since mrs. reagan's death. we're back to get that tape so let's listen to that and then we'll resume with john travolta and princess diana. >> you know, i had the

opportunity to meet mrs. reagan once. obviously, she was already advanced in age but could not have been more gracious and more charming to myself and michelle when we first came into office. i think it's been well documented the extraordinary lo love she had for her husband and the extraordinary comfort and strength that she provided him during really hard times. as somebody who's been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, i know how much she meant not just to president reagan but to the country as a whole. he was lucky to have her and i'm sure he would have been the

first to acknowledge that, so she will be missed. >> unusual meeting with the fed chair as well. i interrupted you in the sense of the televised presidency, the choreography of it all. ronald reagan really brought all of those elements and here you had john travolta as the choice to dance -- who could be better? >> it was not an obvious choice at the time. he was not the megamovie star he is today. he had done in the '70s those saturday night fever movies but in the 80s he'd sort of done the "look who's talking" movies and he was not a megastar. but we couldn't think of anyone else. i knew his producer robert stickwood, the producer of the "saturday night fever" movies. i called him, and travolta agreed to come. we gave the sheet music for "saturday night fever" to the marine -- the conductor of the marine orchestra, and they

rehearsed the music all the time up until the day of that dinner. we coached john travolta to go um to the president, who was dancing with diana, and tap him on the shoulder and cut in, which travolta did not want to do. but he did. it was all -- it was choreographed but it was wonderful, and at the end they had a nice dance, but at the end princess diana curtsied to john travolta and ronald reagan bowed and it was a very nice moment. but it's that kind of individual thing that mrs. reagan really cared about, orchestrating so that someone felt touched by what had just happened. and, you know, i think she's the first first lady to have incorporated hollywood with what she did. she -- "miami vice" was a big tv show back then with don johnson

and phillip michael thomas. and she engaged them. she brought them to dinner at the white house. and she engaged them in her just say no drug campaign. and, you know, went on various different tv shows, "diff'rent stroke strokes", she was the first first lady to do that. she realized she had a bully pulpit and she tried to within some constraints bring a little bit of hollywood to her megaphone. >> gayle burt, thank you so much for all of your recs. we appreciate that so much. and i know this is a difficult time for all of her friends. >> yeah. and for you too. i know how close you were to her. >> and now in north carolina, jacob rascon, our correspondent there, where donald trump is about to speak. jacob?

>> reporter: donald trump is taking the stage. >> i tried to get it. i just couldn't press down on that accelerator very far. i might have gotten up to about 85. that's about all. it's a special talent. it's a special -- special kind of courage, like everything else. you need a special -- world i guess of specialization to an extent. mark, i want to thank you very much. really an honor. and i have to tell you -- and i want to thank nascar and brian france was with us last week at a venue, and he got up on behalf of nascar. and brian is an amazing guy. he's done some job, i'll tell you that. for them to endorse me was a great honor. thank you very much. so a lot of things have been happening and the lot of polls have come out and the latest one, national poll, cnn, trump 49%. [ cheers ] little marco rubio, you know

he's -- he's a no-show in the u.s. senate. he never goes to vote. i'll tell you what, that guy, he couldn't be elected dogcatcher in florida. the people in florida -- i'm in florida. that's my second home, andly tell you he is not very popular. you know, he got elected, then he said i'm not going to ever vote so, he has one of the worst attendance in history of the u.s. senate. you have rubio at 16%, cruz at 15%, kasich at 6%. and i just want to tell you that's pretty good stuff, right? you know, one of the polls just came out -- isn't that a beautiful sight? beautiful. i love it. one of the polls -- you know, you only use the one where is we're doing well but we're doing well in most of them. so. one of the polls just came out and a number of them have just come out. i'm beating hillary clinton quite easily. thank you. [ cheers ]

honestly, we haven't even really started. we had one little skirmish about a month ago. [ yelling ] who said that? and he means it. so we've been going around and it's been amazing. we won new hampshire. he won south carolina. oh, south carolina. we love south carolina, right? we love south carolina. nevada, georgia, tennessee, vermont, arkansas, massachusetts. we're going to have i think a couple of good ones tomorrow, i hope. let's see what happens, but we have some good ones. michigan's going to be -- look, i've been fighting hard for cars. cars are going to be made in our count country. they're going to be made in our country. we have been. we've been fighting very hard for that industry. i've been in michigan a lot. i think we're going to do well. we have idaho. we love idaho potatoes, right?

who doesn't have potatoes from idaho? and we have mississippi, which i'm there a lot, actually, and what a great -- do we love mississippi? yes? right? we have hawaii. i have a big hotel there and employ a lot of people. then the following week we go with florida and ohio and some others. it's going to be -- [ yelling ] let me ask you most importantly, who's going to win north carolina? i think we're going to do great here. should we do the pledge? should we do the pledge? raise your hand. i swear i'm going to vote for donald trump next week. i swear.

just with the people here i think we win. really good to be here on a monday morning like this. this is incredible. i'll tell you what -- our country -- somebody just shouted out about jobs and shouted it out to mark. thank you very much. oh, we have a protester! we have a protester! out. out. out. be nice. out. out. get out of here. get out. i thought it was too early for protesters. get 'em out of here. see the way he puts up his hand, puts out the wrong finger, and we're supposed to take it nowadays. >> and another raucous rally for donald trump in north carolina. joining me now is nbc political

analyst ben ginsburg. ben, as we see donald trump back in form today, we are wondering whams next with the delegate count. you are the expert on delegates and conventions and the possibility of contested conventions. let's talk about the delegate map right now. i'm seeing as we look at these polls and we all imagine whether or not john kasich can win ohio and whether or not marco rubio can come back from a real deficit there and actually take the lead in florida. >> yeah. those will be really crucial primaries. mississippi and michigan tomorrow as well. and the three other states beyond florida and ohio that go march 15th. so donald trump can either put it away by winning both ohio and florida and finishing strong in the other states or this is going to be a really long slide. you all have on your website a really good delegate tracker that shows how if he wins ohio

and florida he just has to win 52% of the remaining delegates. that's manageable. if he loses one of the states it gets much more difficult. if he loses both, then it's tough to see how anyone has a majority in cleveland. by way of history, though, four years ago, mitt romney also running against three other candidates was at about 56% of the votes after last weekend. donald trump is in the low 40s at about 42%. took mitt romney until april to win the nomination, so it looks like one way or another it's going to be a long slog through april if not may. >> i wanted to play a little bit of florm "meet the press" with chuck todd because he really did not finally slam the door, by my account. let's watch. >> are you comfortable supporting case case, marco

rubio, or ted cruz, any one of those three candidates against donald trump? >> absolutely. any one of those three is a real republican. donald trump, on the other hand, is someone who remits something entirely different, and in my view is not at all the real deal. >> that wasn't exactly that piece of sound, but when asked whether he would absolutely close the door on running, he said well, no one ever shuts the door completely on that. what do you think? is this mitt romney's perhaps poorly considered move to be the alternative at a convention and perhaps it's backfired? >> no, i don't think so. i mean, i take him at his word in that he is opposed to donald trump. he doesn't think he'd be a good nominee for the republican party. he's urged other people to vote for the three remaining candidates. look, i think he is fully aware of how difficult, nearly impossible it could be for

someone who has not been campaigning to all of a sudden be turned to by a convention. it's not impossible but wow is it unlikely. so i think his response is sort of parallel to that reality. >> ben ginsburg, thanks so much. >> thanks, andrea. >> race this race is getting curiouser and curiouser. >> yes, it is. coming up next, something not curious but so unusual -- a hollywood love story brought to washington. nancy reagan remembered as her husband's most trusted adviser, chief protector, and best friend. >> what's the one memory that pleases you most? >> that i married ronnie. >> nothing beats that? >> nothing beats that. what would have happened to me if i hadn't parried ronnie? >> oh, i think you probably would have done okay. >> no. no. because there's never going to be another ronnie.

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so many all together in one room like this and i thought you might like to say a few nice words to them. they're all from the press and radio and television. maybe just a friendly little greeting would do. how about just a word or two, something friendly, even one kind word? >> i'm thinking. i'm thinking. >> the timing was all of it. nancy reagan like her husband started her career as an actor. training served her well during her service to the country as an ambassador for her husband's white house and outspoken champion for many causes. i'm joined by michael beschloss,

nbc news presidential historian and on the phone sheila tate, who served as former press secretary to former first lady nancy reagan. good to at least talk to you today. sheila, you have so many remembrances, but i am struck by what gayle burt shared with us within this hour, that in their last visit in october in california mrs. reagan said to her that god has forgotten me. she was so lonely after the president's death and with many of her friends of course also passing on and failing health. this was a very tough, long good-bye. >> um, yeah. i hadn't heard that. you know, she's been in very frail health for quite some time. and, you know, i think she wanted -- she wanted to be with

him. you know, as sad as it is and as upset as all of us are, i think we all could make our peace with it because we know this is where -- she wanted to be with him and they're in a better place. >> they certainly are, sheila. michael beschlochlosbeschloss, this couple, the way she helped him become a better president than he otherwise would have been, according to jim baker and mike deaver years ago, that he never would have been president in quite the same way had she not given her political acumen and her -- her sense of style and also her great sense of people. >> yeah. they complemented each other really perfectly pote as a marriage and also a political partnership. one thing they had in common, they both came out of these terrible childhoods. ronald reagan's father was hard drinking, had a hard time supporting the family, as a man

as he seemed to have been. and nancy reagan was to some extent abandoned by her mother, was an actress who went away for large periods of time name reacted to this differently. ronald reagan famously tended to romanticize situations. he was this famous optimist. it was at the center of his political personality. nancy reagan in a way reacted to these things in the opposite way, which was to fas en in on what are the threats to, you know, me and my husband and to be very looking at the dark side. politically it worked wonderfully because ronald reagan needed someone to watch his back, but, you know, what you were mentioning and what gayle burt was mentioning about what plas mrs. reagan had said, it rang so true. i knew mrs. reagan a tiny bit in the later years. i asked her a couple years ago, are you getting to travel at all. she said i don't want to travel. i just want to stay in this house because it makes me feel closer to ronnie.

>> and their son ron reagan jr. shared how radically, sheila, this assassination attempt in 1981, only 69 days into their presidency, shaped her views going forward. i wanted to play a little bit of ron speaking to matt lauer today. >> i don't think that she ever had another day during his presidency where there wasn't some fear involved and particularly of course when he went out in public at all. he meant everything to her. and seeing your spouse gunned down in the street and having him almost die is to say the least traumatic. and so i don't think she ever was without some anxiety and fear from then on. >> and, sheila, reflect on that and how that affected her. >> well, i think it's totally understandable given, you know, the violent act against your spouse has got to be terrifying.

and she was in shock that day. i spent most of that day with her while she waited for him to come out of the operating room. and she doesn't even remember it. you know, it's all a blur to her. so i think ron's exactly right that that lingered. but she did deal with it. i mean, it wasn't something she talked about all the time or that, you know, we were aware of a lot of anxiety. but she was very careful. >> michael, it was also part of her protectiveness of schedule, of his -- >> totally. total totally. >> fatigue. he was wounded a lot more seriously than any of us knew at that time. >> absolutely. she felt that was her job for the rest of his presidency. in the following year, don regan, who she had fired as

chief of staff, got his revenge by publishing a memoir, castigating her for having sought out someone to do astrology to help her do scheduling, and this was used against her at the time, but in retrospect, knowing how she felt, that she was looking for comfort in some kind of way of finding, you know, some way of, you know, finding some predictability in that chaotic atmosphere, you understand why that happened. and you could look back on that with a lot more compassion. >> and, sheila, the fact that she and the president supported gun laws because of what happened of course to him and to james brady, your friend and their press secretary, and also in later years her support for stem cell research, which was controversial at the time for alzheimer's. >> mm-hmm. yep. yeah. i mean, you know, life experiences change your opinions sometimes.

i think a's what occurred there and it was entirely worthwhile for her to really lobby for both those issues. i was looking at one early interview she did where george w. bush was not going to allow it will use of stem cells for researcher, and she said that's the way he feels. that's okay. i think she recognized that she had been in that place and she had changed, and he really believed a certain way and she honored it and recognized it. you know, when barack obama got into office, she was grateful for his support. but, you know, nancy reagan was always protective of him, and the thing that -- people castigated her for that whether it had to do with astronomy or astrology or -- i mean, for instance, i remember being with

her out in las vegas. she was going to speak at this big event. and she handed me his schedule. it had just been sent to her. she said look at this. i looked at it and she said, they've got him going tomorrow from morning till night including a dinner, and she said that is -- he doesn't work well that way. he needs a little slower pace. she said every time i leave town they shove more people into his schedule, and, you know, she always sort of -- she was amused by it but a little bit annoyed as well. she always -- and then when he got alzheimer's she was praised for the same characteristics. she guarded him and took care of him and made sure that he wasn't, you know, exposed to the public curiosity. >> always protective.

exactly. tate tate, thanks for your memories and of course michael beschloss, our colleague here. we'll be right back. at mfs investment management, we believe in the power of active management. by debating our research to find the best investments. by looking at global and local insights to benefit from different points of view. and by consistently breaking apart risk to focus on long-term value. we actively manage with expertise and conviction. so you can invest with more certainty. mfs. that's the power of active management. i've been blind since birth. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the da learn about non-24 by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. i have an orc-o-gram we for an "owen."e.

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that does it for this edition of "mitch reports." follow the show online on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. chris jansing picks up our coverage live from the university of mississippi for 2016. businesses being hacked and intellectual property being stolen. that is cyber-crime and it affects each and every one of us. microsoft created the digital crimes unit to fight cyber-crime. we use the microsoft cloud to visualize information so we can track down the criminals. when it comes to the cloud, trust and security are paramount. we're building what we learn back into the cloud to make people and organizations safer.

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