george herbert walker bush. he died at the age of . as the nation mourns, washington is preparing for a week ofo events honor america's 41st president. good evening. i'm erika gonzalez. esident george h.w. bush was many things. his love for country and family ever present throughout life. even until his final moments. n nbc looks back at his life andc le >> reporter: flags are flying at half staph in honor of george herbert walker bush. the 41sist prent spent much of his life in kenny bunk port growing up andeturned to the family compound every summer. >> it was the most amazing people you could imagine. that's why there's such a sense of loss.he >> reporter: former president impacted many lives in years.e -- 94 and political foes became first friends like bill clinton. he tweeted i am grate for for everye min i spent with him and will hold his friendship as one of my life's greatest giftsa barack o wrote america has lot a patriot. while our hearts are heavy, they are also filled with gratitude. president trump said he called members of the bush family to offer his condolences. >> he was a veryine n. i met him on numerous occasions. he was a quality man who truly loved his family. he w

. >> reporter: if confirmed, barr would return to a position he held der esident george h.w. bush and replace matt whitaker under fire for attacking the russia investigation. republicans tonight quick to praise the pick but democrats are demanding barr that would oversee the russia inquiry commit to protecting robert mueller after barr's criticism of members of mueller's team. n >>is case, he a wants somebos attorney general who is going to basically protect him and not question what he's doing. >> reporter: also tonight, four sources familiar with the matter say chief of expected to depart been days after a tenure, with policy clashes. the president last month noncommittal when asked about kelly's future. >> people leave. people leave. >> reporter: kly's likely replacement, vice president pence's chief of staff an ambitious 36-year-old political strategist. peter alexander, nbc news. >>> i'm andrea mitchell, president trump's choice to replace nikkhaley at the u.n., a former "fox and friends" anchor with no prior government experience. >> she's very talented, very smart. very qui

laura: tomorrow we will have full coverage here on bbc world news of the state funeral of esident george h.w. bush do join us. in other news, wall street tumbled 3% today with the dow jones falling almost 800 points, the biggest decline june 2016. the drop came amidst worries that the u.s. and china are not making enough progress on trade differences. the u.s. bond marketent unsettling signs about economic with. the government of british prime minister theresa may has become the first in history to be held in contempt of parliament, as the use ofommons voted to make the governmentcl de the full legal advice given about the brexit deal. want greater say of what shsort of brexit therld be if lawmakers reject the deal next week. italian police have arrested the suspected new head of the sicilian mafia as well as 45 other alleged mobsters in ao major blow tganized crime. investigators believe the sicilian mafia was trying to reorganize itself after the previous head died in prison last year. it seems a day does not go by without president trump tweeting about what he calls the witchhunt robert mueller

of course, we are all, as a nation, remembering former esident george h.w. bushags flying at half-staff in his honor. today, there formerdent will be f

esident george w. bush. this strips away all of those protections. >> woodruff: so including what happened under george h.w. bush and his son. >> yes, and obama. so it's a very significant rollback that lifts federal protections, particularly on wetlands. yu know, back to what it was more than ears ago. >> woodruff: so what happens now? this is a prop hal. whpens next? >> right. so this is a proposal. it's open for public comment for 60 days. the trump administration will then take that public comment under consideration. it could revise or make changes to the rule. xd at some point t year, they are expected to then issue a final rul i and ths done. and then i would expect the moment that it'ets com, probably in the first half of 2019, we will start to see major lawsuits on behalf ofgr environmentaups, states, you know, groups saying, "this is going to lead to major pollution of wetlands and waterways." >> woodruff: and you were telling us the trump administration expects that to happen. do they expect they can win in court? >> they absolutely do. but e timing of thiule is not accidental.e pectization they w

esident wi hold? >> you know, presidents, like human beings, generaly, areot perfect. george h.w. bush a man of great accomplishment and high character, but that's not to say he dann't maky mistakes as a person and a president. one of the things he did in his 1988 campaign is pushed new ries of attack ads. it had an ad that involved willie horton. both the campaigns had, and pecially an ad by that independent group, touched on cial fears, was divisive and exploitive and proviad for rougher type of politics we've seen since then. it seemed at many ways atdd with who george bush was, but he was also enormously c about everything. he wanted to win the office, sought the office in 1980 an again in 1988 and won it but won it in a tough way. >> susan page, peter roussel, chris buckley, thank you so much to all of you for being with us today. >> nawaz: and a reminder: we will have special live coverage of the funeral services for president george h.w. bush here in washington on wednesday, beginninat 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> nawaz: as we reported earlier, over the weekend president trump said hi

. >> sreenivasan: esident trump cancelled a scheduled press conference at the g20 summit in buenos aires, argentina, today, citing the death of former president george h.w. bush. in the tweet, he said out of respec would "wait until after the funeral to have a press conference." the summ wrapped up with world leaders agreeing on some trade issues but not unanimously on a hoin of other issues, includ climate change. f newshoeign affairs and defense correspondent nick schifrin joins us now fromen aires. nick, usually there are these communiqueses about what the entire conference does agree on inspect this case, there were a lot of things that we didn'tag e on. so how do we get over that impasse, and what's on the piece of paper? chifrin: yeah, three or four main disagreements, you mentioned one of them-- climat change. basically there is a g20 and a g19. the 9 is the reference to the 19 countries that are either in the paris climate accord or support the paris climate accord and the united states. and this communique got over that difference byust acknowledging the u.s. is not going to support paris climate accord and that is language, hari, we've seen in the p

esidents. nbc news. >> this morning the bush family rele a statement saying jeb, neil, marvin, doro and i e saddened t announce that after 94 remarkable years our dear dad has died. george h.w. bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. the entire bush family is deeply grateful for 41's life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for dad and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens. president trump also reasing a statement overnight saying in part, our hearts ache with his loss and , the american people, send our prayers to the entire bush family asth we hono life and legacy of 41. president trump, as you know, has a front relationship with the bushfamily, opting not to attend barbara bush's funeral. melania trump attended in his place. trump also attacked the speechds point of lig he's set to speak before coming back to washington tonight.ei plans are made for former president bush to lie in state in a service at the national cathedral. final plans have not been announced. t >>>se are fond memories from our own archives. that's our own jim vance. he had an opportunity to fish edth the pre