in our case, it drew us together i think. >> doug brinkley, mrs. bush was very insistent in saying she loved all of her children, in every interview, if you ever asked or even not asked, having a child who is president or governor is same as her other children. >> and that is the way all moms should be. we believed her when she said that. there was no favoritism. and you know, one of the reasons, you know, that we are all mourning barbara bush's passing and celebrating her life is because of that marriage, we forgot what george herbert walker bush meant. he was president for german reunionfication, and the berlin wall coming down. one of our great foreign policy president. yet memoir was cowritten. and yet didn't seem to be bragging. barbara bush has written one of the best memoirs ever as a first lady. very well done. and she kept diaries of her years and we have only seen snippets of the diary that is included. but eventually, i hope these will be made available to scholars. because she had keen insights to people. she could read anybody like a b

i'll bring in our doug brinkley and our historian and briefly to admiral kirby, what should we expect from the military tonight? in terms of specific information? >> i think it is possible this briefing could be by secretary mattis himself and i suspect that he'll lay out what we hit and why we hit those sites and probably a good sense of what munitions they were struck. so put some definitiveness to what we've been reporting over the last hour or so. i think he will also really try to bound this, anderson. i think he'll be clear that this does not mean we're getting further enmeshed in the civil war and say it doesn't change the military mission on the ground in syria which is still focused on isis and while he'll admit there could be follow-on strikes based on the battle damage assessment of these strikes or and russian or iranian reaction and i think he'll say they'll take that as it comes. i don't think he'll be announcing some major long -- prolonged air campaign. i think he will be measured and keep this within a scope. >> as we wait for the military briefing, i'll bring in doug

. >> doug brinkley, just the extraordinary decency of mrs. bush over the years, in public life.sort of harkens back to another time, both her and the former president. >> it really does. you were just talking about secret service. and she had a little feud with the secret service because as first lady, she wanted to be driven in a very small car, not a giant limo. they said no, you've got to do the limo. she thought it was very ostentatious. she won that battle. she started to be taken around in a much smaller vehicle. then she wanted to fly commercial. she didn't want to have air force one privileges when she had to go give a speech. she argued long and hard about flying commercial. but the secret service won that particular one. i'll tell, some of these flexes that we're having here, one story i picked up that i've never told before or written, but william webster, former head of the cia, told me that -- it's one of his best stories, he's allowing me to tell it -- that they created a body did you believe for george herbert walker bush at cia, meaning somebody who looked just l

i want to bring in doug brinkley to talk more about michael cohen under criminal investigation just in the last couple of minutes here. again, if you are just joining us, the significant piece of news that dropped this afternoon is the president's personal attorney a man he's known and worked with for years and years and more than just a attorney to the president and in wake of the raid, under criminal investigation. >> it is the worst news that donald trump could possibly have. >> why? >> because trump is the kind of figure, the reason he got elected -- is roguish and out of the box and he's worked in a building in new york and casinos, for that long of a period of time, they now are going to be able to find evidence of donald trump breaking the law and it doesn't take 15 breaks of the law. it is one. and if you are trump, that the one thing you won't want to happen. he figured he could handle how to deal with rosenstein and how to deal with the mueller report on collusion. but this gets back to stormy daniels and maybe much more. i don't know how any of us like our lawyers being raid

campaign, along with april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio network, and doug brinkley, professor on the rice university, across the street from the hospital why president bush is. and this weekend, he was at his wife's funeral. some of these images that we can show, you know, they're incredibly poignant. here he is looking at his wife's casket. and then obviously seeing her drive away for the last time. this moment for him, it's really impossible for almost anyone to understand his position. he had been with her for 73 years. >> that's right, erin. and he put on such a brave face for all of america. he had to take care of his own children and the grandchildren. and there's so many friends. on cnn, we spent days talking about how popular the bushes are. they have thousands of friends. and george herbert walker bush is known for always writing thank you notes, doing follow-up with people. so the amount of love and affection towards that family was very large last week. you can only imagine how much pressure was on him, how exhausted, fatigued, insomnia, morning, grief, a

. >> so i want to bring in now cnn presidential historian douglas brinkley. doug, welcome to the panel. we see this photo, the former president alone side his daughter dora looking at his wife he is casket. you know what we are all thinking tonight is the timing of this. just days after he laid to rest the love of his life. >> that's right. i mean george herbert walker bush is obviously broken hearted, exhausted. he had to basically be the host of events in houston and college station. and he's been in and out of methodist hospital the last few years. so i think his body is just sort of worn out. the timing of it is the country is praying for him right now. we had almost a great remembrance of barbara bush that was bipartisan. everybody in the country is mourning her debt. -- death. to get this shocking news today that he's in this kind of state has everybody kind of frozen right now, praying that he will pull through. >> you know, craig, talk to me more about the love story between barbara and george bush, please. >> it began at a christmas dance. and it moved qu