W gave an interview recently and it was depicted widely as being a criticism of Donald Trump.
Former President George W. Bush seemed to criticize President Donald Trump in an interview with the Today Show Monday morning, saying the news media and freedom of religion are crucial to American democracy. There should also be an investigation into the alleged Russian hacking into the U.S. election, Bush said.
Those are all issues that Trump has dealt with in his first month in office. He has called the Russia story “fake news,” a distraction and even fabrication by the press, despite the fact that the CIA said in December Russia interfered with U.S. elections; he’s been hostile toward the news media, which culminated in his announcement last weekend that he’d boycott the White House Correspondents Dinner, a traditional event showing goodwill between the press and the president; and his administration has been revising an executive order that would temporarily ban visitors and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations.
Even Ace agreed with the line of thinking.
Eh, kind of annoying.
And Fox News jumped in:
Former President George W. Bush offered what appeared to be a thinly veiled critique of his Republican successor on Monday, as he defended the importance of the media and immigration policies that are “welcoming.”
I don’t agree. I think that wily Bush really agreed with Trump, but couched his words carefully to make it sound like he was being critical.
For instance, Yahoo quoted Bush as saying
“We need the media to hold people like me to account,”
But what he actually said was:
“We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.”
We need an independent media. Yes, we do need an independent media, but that is not what we have now. We have “journalists” in collusion with democrat administrations, “journalists” who leak debate questions, “journalists” who gushed over obama, and “journalists” who tingled when obama spoke. We have “journalists” who forget obama declared war on them but continued to bow at his feet.
That’s not very independent. W added:
“One of the things I spent a lot of time doing was trying to convince a person — like Vladimir Putin, for example — to accept the notion of an independent press. It’s kind of hard to tell others to have an independent free press when we’re not willing to have one ourselves,”
He recognizes the problem.
Matt Lauer did his best to try to goad W into attacking Trump, but Bush stayed above the fray.
What else did W say? About immigration:
“I am for an immigration policy that’s welcoming and upholds the law.”
That, in a nutshell, is Trump’s plan.
Then IBT, via Yahoo, goes on to infer that Trump plans to suppress the practice of religion:
After the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001, Bush famously denounced the extremists while defending the right of Muslims to worship freely in the U.S., a statement that has been referenced to contrast Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric about Muslims. Sixteen years after the 9/11 attacks, Bush echoed his original sentiment in the interview with Lauer.
“It’s important for all of us to recognize one or our great strengths is for people to be able to be able to worship the way they want to… a bedrock of our nation is the right to worship freely,” Bush said.
And that is 100% false.
An independent press would publish what W said and let you decide what he meant. Instead, they publish snippets, at times editing the quotes, and then they tell you what they think he meant. But we don’t have an independent press. I think W and Trump are very much on the same page. Once again W outsmarts the media.
And so I agree with W. We do need an independent press. It is indispensable. I look forward to the day. And we should have an immigration policy that is welcoming.
And lawful.
Thanks, Glenn
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
I see where the demacrats were moaning and groaning about trump wanting to help the victims of crimes commited by illegal aliens(Future demacrtic voters)its too darn bad that these demac-RATS re so out of touch with the american people their far too lost in stupidland to ever return from
When I heard the interview, that was exactly my view on it. Yes, we need an independent media; independent of either political power. Yes, it is intended to cause the great and powerful to realize they answer to someone. Obama never had to worry about that, and it showed.
I heard Pelosi saying Trump had a lot to do to ease the fears of immigrants which he has been threatening. No, the left (which includes the media) needs to retract the lies they tell about Trump’s immigration policies and stop intentionally using fear as a political weapon.
Yes, and independent media would be nice. I wish we had one.
Shouldn’t that read “goad W into attacking Trump”?
@Todd pukanecz:
Right you are. Thanks. I wrote this in between patients.
If it wasn’t obvious we need to check EVERYTHING the media claims with actual quotes, it should be.
Before President Trump’s speech the media was claiming he would compromise on “Dreamers.”
He didn’t.
Before the speech the media was claiming Gen McMasters said the Trump Admin would NOT call radical Islamic terrorism by that identifier.
Trump did so during his speech.
Thanks for catching this one, DrJohn.
Anyone wish to discuss Bush43’s interview with People Magazine?
http://people.com/politics/george-w-bush-on-trump-presidency/
Flopping Aces has become Fricking Joke
The CIA did not say in December Russia interfered with U.S. elections. Obama appointed felons said that. It is undisputed that Clapper perjured himself before Congress. Brennan was no better.
I agree that Bush attempted to remain above the fray. Not sure that he totally succeeded; but he tried to answer honestly without directly criticizing Trump. Lauer really was trying to egg him on.
The NBC video I watched online abruptly ended; I don’t think they were done with the interview; and I assume Bush was there to try and promote his book. But the video then cut to a different interview with him and one of his daughters.
@bc3b:
From your link:
People magazine is inserting their own interpretation and op-edding of their Bush interview. Just like the headlines I’ve seen from news rags in how much they want to use Bush’s comments to be direct criticism of Trump- somewhat putting their own political spin into what he said.
The MSM have lost their minds. Hysterical anti-Trump coverage. It’s leaked into the local news broadcasts. My ABC affiliate led this morning (3/2/17) with the “corruption” of Jeff Sessions…about this new “Watergate”…about the need for a “special prosecutor”. Their question seemed to be “is Russia running the Trump adminstration?” Nothing about Trump’s speech to congress. After 24 hours THAT became ‘old news’.
Honestly…they have lost their minds.
Regardless of any spin, if one cares to go way back to Reagan’s primary in the late 70’s, and follow the ‘Bush Dynasty’ to the present day, there is one thing one would learn: from a conservative point of view, never trust a Bush.
@bc3b:
You’re referring to the paid trolls, right?