0:00

It's time to take the quiz. Five questions, five

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0:15

This is the Fox News Rundown Extra.

0:21

I'm Dana Perino. Gene Becker

0:23

was Chief of Staff to President George

0:25

H.W. Bush after he left the White

0:27

House. The Deputy Press Secretary for

0:29

Barbara Bush and a dear friend of mine.

0:32

She is also an author. She

0:34

first wrote about her former boss

0:36

and her New York Times bestseller,

0:38

The Man I Knew, the Amazing

0:40

Story of George H.W. Bush's Post-Presidency.

0:43

Gene recently joined me on the Fox

0:45

News Rundown to discuss her latest book,

0:47

Character Matters, and some of the stories

0:49

she collected about Bush 41 from some of

0:51

the people who knew him best. We

0:53

had this great conversation about President Bush's

0:55

life and how he inspired the people

0:58

around him to serve a high purpose.

1:01

We made some edits for time and thought you might

1:03

want to hear the whole thing, especially since there's

1:05

a lot of great stuff we did not include

1:07

in our original segment. Thanks

1:09

for listening and if you haven't already,

1:12

please subscribe to the weekly Fox News

1:14

Rundown podcast. You can also

1:16

find my podcast, Perino on Politics,

1:18

every Monday by going

1:21

to foxnewspodcast.com. Now,

1:23

here's Gene Becker on the Fox

1:26

News Rundown Extra. Now,

1:28

here's Gene Becker on the Fox

1:30

News Rundown Extra. Gene

1:37

Becker, it is such a pleasure

1:39

to talk to you about Character

1:41

Matters. How did this book

1:43

come to be? Well, Dana, I would

1:45

love to tell you it was my brilliant

1:47

idea that I woke up one morning and

1:50

thought, I need to write a book called

1:52

Character Matters about George Herbert Walker Bush. But

1:55

it was my editor, our editor.

1:58

I think we have the same editor. It was

2:00

his idea. I was having lunch with him a

2:02

couple of years ago after the

2:04

man I knew came out, the book I wrote about

2:07

being his chief of staff for 25 years. And

2:10

I was pitching a couple of book ideas to

2:12

Sean and he looked at me across

2:14

the table and he said, yeah, yeah, fine, we'll do

2:16

those later. I have another book I

2:18

want you to write about George Herbert Walker Bush.

2:21

And I was a little confused. I said

2:23

to him, you do remember he died at

2:25

the end of the last book. And

2:28

he said, OK, point taken.

2:31

But he felt that George

2:33

Herbert Walker Bush had still had something to

2:35

say to the world. He says,

2:37

Jean, I just think there's so much we can learn

2:39

from this man. And out of

2:42

that conversation came Character Matters. I

2:44

adore this book, Character Matters. I think it's

2:46

one of the most important books I've read

2:48

in many moons. I love how

2:50

you put it together. I

2:53

love in particular the audio book.

2:56

As you pull together all these different voices

2:58

of the lessons that they learned and the

3:00

memories they have of George H. W. Bush,

3:03

the humor that he provided to them, the

3:06

comfort, the mentoring,

3:08

I just think it's incredible.

3:11

And wondered if you could tell me, if

3:14

you had to pick two

3:16

of your favorite stories from the book

3:18

that could help people today

3:20

think through where we are in

3:23

terms of being good

3:25

to one another and helping each

3:27

other, what would they be? That's

3:31

a really tough question because there are

3:33

so many great stories. I

3:35

saw this name a couple. In

3:37

the very first chapter, Condi Rice

3:40

writes an incredible story about when

3:42

she was on his National Security

3:44

Council team. She

3:47

was a young black woman,

3:49

not well known among foreign

3:52

policy circles. She was a

3:54

professor at Stanford. And

3:56

he took her to Malta with him,

3:58

his first summit with Gorbachev. And

4:01

in front of Gorbachev and all of

4:03

his people, but also in

4:05

front of his own team, James

4:07

Baker, all the State Department people,

4:10

he introduced Condi to Gorbachev and

4:12

he said, this is my Soviet

4:14

specialist. This is the

4:16

woman who has my ear on

4:19

all things Soviet. And

4:21

Condi just writes so eloquently about,

4:24

you know, particularly 30 years

4:26

ago, a lot of

4:29

men were still struggling about how

4:31

to, you know, treat

4:34

women in the workplace. And

4:36

she said for him to do

4:39

that, just set an example of how

4:42

you empower a young black

4:44

woman and that he was

4:46

just an incredible mentor, mentor to her. So

4:49

that would be one of the stories. There's

4:52

a great essay written by Joe

4:55

Strauss, the farmer speaker of the

4:57

house here in Houston, Texas, and

5:00

he writes about how

5:02

President Bush, both

5:05

houses of Congress were held by the

5:07

Democrats all four years he was president,

5:09

but how much legislation he managed to

5:12

get through and how no

5:14

one was better at reaching across the

5:16

aisle. And he writes a

5:18

very eloquent essay, Dana, about how important

5:20

it is to set aside

5:22

our differences and to work together.

5:25

And he says it doesn't have to be the way

5:27

it is now where everybody just sort of shouts at

5:29

each other. I've been quoting that

5:32

essay a lot when talking about the book.

5:35

One of my favorite short

5:37

essays is written by one of

5:39

Mrs. Bush's aides. She

5:41

was covering the front desk of the office one

5:43

day. Her name is Kara Sanders. And

5:46

the phone just lit up. And

5:49

one line was Colin Powell. One

5:51

line was James A. Baker III. One

5:55

line was then the governor of Texas,

5:57

George W. Bush, And she was

5:59

about ready to run. Into his office to say

6:01

oh my God Thirty on top two

6:03

First when the fourth line let out

6:05

and it was Barbara Bush says she

6:08

runs into his office and she said

6:10

sir I have club now surgery, baker

6:12

and Governor Bush on the lights. Oh

6:14

and your wife also is holding and

6:16

he said to her you put Barbara

6:18

through a huge l the other three

6:21

I will call them back and data

6:23

he was one smart man issue as

6:25

he knew exactly what to do and

6:27

I want to have you tell me

6:29

to. Other stories about.

6:32

Mary. Kate Carry, the speech writer.

6:35

In. The Book: she writes about how

6:37

one of her speeches just bombed with

6:39

an audience it's it's it's it's at

6:42

and how nobody laughed and he. Was

6:47

obviously. Disappointed

6:49

that the speeds didn't land. But.

6:51

She thought she would get fired. What

6:53

happened instead. Well

6:56

no one last known clapped it was

6:58

a complete bomb and he did ask

7:00

her about it in the elevator or

7:02

thanks to the garage it was a

7:05

speech there and watching did I get

7:07

rivers of the speech was too but

7:09

it was an important speech and it

7:12

bomb shoes on the junior speech writers

7:14

and she was prepared to get two

7:16

years. She's. Also sure she

7:19

should have been fired and instead

7:21

he said to her update will

7:23

just move on from that you'll

7:25

do better the next Encouraged her

7:27

to learn from her mistakes and

7:29

that was it And he did

7:32

teaser about it for the rest

7:34

says his life everytime you sorry

7:36

he would say so. Barricade. Has

7:38

a speech to the streets Were

7:40

enjoying these days. Key gave. A

7:42

Second Chance. He was a huge believer

7:45

in second chances. I can tell you

7:47

how many people said to me i

7:49

thought he was Rv that he said

7:51

now you're gonna learn from this and

7:53

we're going to move on. Listen

7:56

to the new Bread Airport just featuring

7:58

Common Room in Just Don't. Lawmakers

8:00

from opposite sides of the aisle. Someone

8:02

with all your bread bear favorite like

8:04

is also a panel and much more

8:06

available now and Fox News contests.com or

8:08

wherever you get your podcasts. What?

8:11

About the start of Points of Light

8:13

how that came to be and it's

8:15

referred to in the book by somebody

8:17

who didn't see the opportunity coming but

8:19

really embrace that and that is a

8:21

legacy that continues. To

8:23

Legacy that is very proud of

8:25

the series is very proud of

8:27

Points of Light he would love

8:29

meal. Bush is doing such a

8:31

great job of leading the organization

8:33

today. As Chairman of the Beard

8:35

to he was the closest Bush's

8:37

both president is a splash had

8:39

been volunteers their whole lives saved

8:41

when they lived in Midland Texas.

8:43

They help find that the Y

8:45

M, C A they are. They

8:47

always on certain their churches. After

8:50

their daughter Robin died Mrs. Bush

8:52

was a devoted hospital. Volunteer. He

8:54

really so. Deep

8:56

that his heart that every problem

8:59

in America to be sex. Not.

9:01

Necessarily by the government. Yes, the government's

9:03

health that fight us added people and

9:06

he used to say it as you

9:08

start in your neighborhood and then you

9:10

start in your city and the first

9:12

thing you know you have a movement.

9:14

So he first started Bad. Points of

9:17

Light is my favorite part of the

9:19

Points of Light story in the beginning

9:21

and his As Designs and A the

9:23

A Convention in his acceptance speech and

9:25

he talks about a thousand Points of

9:27

Light and his dream of the as

9:30

A Volunteer Movement and America. And

9:32

his first. As first campaign

9:35

trail back to the convention James

9:37

Baker and Center Alan Simpson the

9:39

Wyoming was traveling with sad and

9:41

they. They. Both at the next

9:44

speech right out of the box. after

9:46

the convention they both said to him.

9:48

What? the hell are you thinking this

9:51

points of light no one knows what

9:53

that means knowing cares is just a

9:55

dumb idea you you've gotta forget that

9:57

people want to talk about the economy

10:00

They want to talk about the Soviet Union,

10:02

forget points of light. And

10:04

he said, not going to do it, as

10:07

Dana Carvey would say. He says, I'm

10:09

devoted to points of light and Dana,

10:11

the rest is history. It's

10:14

certainly a history. I'm excited that this year, one of

10:16

my friends, a young woman named

10:18

Ashley Vick Brown, and she is going

10:20

to receive an award from

10:22

points of light. She does a lot

10:24

of wonderful work for foster care and the

10:27

Selfless Love Foundation. And let me tell

10:29

you, this young woman is doing incredible

10:31

work in that area. And that is

10:33

a great point of light. Did

10:35

you learn anything new from

10:38

this project? Did you hear a story about

10:41

George H.W. Bush that you didn't already know?

10:44

No, it goes back to Condi's

10:46

story. And I'm embarrassed

10:48

that I didn't really think

10:50

about this. There's at least three

10:52

or four stories in the book written by

10:54

women. He was way

10:57

ahead of his time, Dana, on

11:00

promoting women, putting

11:02

women in positions of power. My

11:06

own personal experience with him,

11:08

of course, could not have been more positive. I was his

11:10

chief of staff for 25 years. I

11:12

know he trusted me. I know he listened to

11:14

me. We used to

11:16

want he and I had a

11:18

couple of interesting conversations about misogynists

11:20

and misogyny, and he was

11:23

sort of surprised that such men existed. And I'm

11:25

like, oh, yeah, they do. And

11:27

I have a couple of examples for him. But

11:30

when the story sort of came in from

11:32

this book, for this book, there

11:34

was one from his congressional years,

11:36

a woman named Mary Raither, who

11:38

he made his head of legislative,

11:41

his legislative assistant. And

11:43

she used to take a notebook to the

11:45

meetings that she attended with him to take

11:47

notes, and he told her to stop. He

11:49

says, I don't want people to think you're

11:51

a secretary, Mary. I want them to know

11:54

your senior staff. Don't take notes. There's

11:56

another great story told by Bobby

11:58

Kilburg, who was. senior

12:01

staff, White House senior staff had

12:03

a public liaison. She

12:05

had some young children. He offered her

12:07

the job. She didn't think she could

12:09

say yes because of her

12:11

young children at home and he said to her,

12:13

Bobby we're gonna figure

12:16

this out. I want you on my team. You

12:19

helped me design the job that

12:21

worked for a young, a mother

12:23

of young children. And

12:25

there's a couple of other stories as

12:27

well beginning with Condies. I really,

12:30

it really came into sharp

12:32

focus for me and my proofreaders, my

12:34

volunteer proofreaders noticed the same thing. He

12:37

was way ahead of his time on

12:40

making sure that women

12:42

had a place on his team. Tell

12:46

me about in the

12:48

audiobook my

12:50

favorite actor, your

12:52

good friend who is the voice

12:54

of George H.W. Bush and

12:57

I find it's

12:59

so incredible the way he reads

13:01

and I feel like I'm listening to President

13:03

Bush 41. Oh my

13:06

gosh, that is the best compliment for

13:09

George. He will love that. So George

13:11

Tivorsky is a singer actor who lives

13:13

in New York. He's

13:15

a theater singer actor

13:18

and he was one of the Bush's favorite

13:21

singers. He used, they used to go see

13:23

him a lot. You have reform here in

13:25

Houston and the theater here in Houston also

13:27

in a Dunquit in the summertime and they

13:30

loved his voice. George

13:32

was a big Rodgers and Hammerstein. He

13:34

did the sound of music. He

13:36

loved doing Rodgers and Hammerstein. I

13:38

think they saw him play Captain

13:42

Von Trapp and the sound of music four or

13:44

five times. So he would

13:46

sing for them at Walker's Point. He would

13:48

sing for special groups and they became very

13:50

close. So when I wrote The Man I Knew

13:52

and my publisher, the

13:55

audiobook people,

13:57

was going to hire an actor to read

14:00

President Bush's quotes

14:02

and whatever he I had

14:04

him saying directly in that book and I

14:06

said, you know I have an idea for

14:08

you. I have an actor I would like

14:10

for you to consider and So

14:13

they had George come in for an audition

14:15

and the guy called me and said yeah

14:17

We hired him in about 30 seconds and

14:20

he just did a great job And I

14:22

think what helps Dana is that George

14:24

knew him so well He

14:27

knew you know, he knew him so well and

14:30

He is he is the perfect George Bush. I'm

14:33

getting a lot of emails and calls about

14:35

him. Oh, it's fabulous It's really great Jean

14:37

my last question for you is who is

14:39

this book for when you imagine your reader

14:41

or your listener to the audiobook? Who

14:44

do you hope reads this book? Well,

14:46

my first answer is gonna be everybody But

14:49

I'm gonna give you one sort of

14:52

smart-elic answer and then a serious answer

14:54

I would like to make it mandatory

14:56

reading for everybody who lives in Washington

14:58

DC And if you can if you

15:01

have any good ideas on how to make that happen Particularly

15:04

every single member of Congress, I think

15:06

should read this book. It's

15:08

really for young people I Read

15:11

so often and I talked to a

15:13

lot of college classes and even a

15:15

couple of high school classes And

15:17

they turn on TV and they're sort

15:19

of confused and depressed by what they

15:22

see they're worried about their country They

15:25

don't really understand what's happening.

15:27

And I want I hope this book will

15:29

help them understand it doesn't

15:31

have to be this way and That

15:34

they have it in their power To

15:37

I do think our the next

15:39

generation will turn this country around

15:42

and I want them to get have real

15:45

life examples of what real leadership

15:47

is and I'm getting a lot

15:49

of Reaction to this book

15:52

Dana. I think it's I

15:54

think it's hitting them right in their heart and

15:56

soul. I think it's working Well,

15:58

it hit me in my heart soul and I'm

16:01

grateful to you for writing it and

16:03

for the opportunity that I had to

16:05

know George H.W.

16:07

Bush and Barbara Bush and have been

16:09

able to share in their

16:11

life a little bit and to have benefited

16:13

from that. And thank you, Jean Becker, the

16:16

author of Character Matters. Dana,

16:18

can I say quickly, I hope you know

16:20

how much they loved you. Thank

16:23

you. I hope I see you soon. Bye. Okay. Bye-bye.

16:26

Thank you. Good to speak with you? You've

16:31

been to Fox

16:33

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17:03

Hi everybody, it's Brian Kilmeade. I want

17:05

you to join me weekdays at 9

17:07

AM East as we break down the

17:09

biggest stories of the day with some of

17:11

the biggest news makers and of course

17:13

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