Interviewed by NBC “Today Show’s” Matt Lauer today, former President George W. Bush touted the free press, calling it “indispensable for democracy.” Bush’s comments offer a veiled swipe against President Donald Trump who recently called the press Feb. 18 the “enemy of the people” at a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Florida. “We all need answers,” Bush told Lauer, related to questions about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Going into seclusion after former President Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009, Bush only returned to public view to help his brother Jeb’s sinking campaign before the South Carolina Primary Feb. 20, 2016. Jeb called Trump the “chaos” candidate, only to watch him finish a distant fifth. Trump challenged Bush-43’s decision to invade Iraq March 20, 2003, calling it one of the biggest mistakes in U.S. military history.
Despite booed Feb. 13 at a CBS News GOP debate in Greenville, S.C. for criticizing Bush-43’s Iraq War, Trump finished first, evidently resonating with independently-minded GOP voters. While Bush-43 began his presidency with a divided country after the Supreme Court ruled to stop more recounts in Florida, Bush never dealt with extreme media bias faced by Trump during the 2016 campaign and now his presidency. Throwing Trump a bone, Bush said the public’s “got to take the man at his word.” Bush told Lauer that he was for fair immigration policy. “I am for an immigration policy that is welcoming and that upholds the law,” said Bush, stating exactly Trump’s position. Most illegal immigrants don’t consider it “welcoming” to have Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] question their legal status when they’re in the country illegally.
Lauer’s interview questioned whether or not the country under Trump was far more divided than it was when Bush took office Jan. 20, 2001. Once part of PBS, Lauer’s now part of NBC, one the most biased networks against Trump. MSNBC’s programming with lead anchor Rachel Maddow worked feverishly to elect Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Lauer tried to press Bush on Trump’s Russian connections, asking whether there needed to be a Special Prosecutor. Bush faced the same questions about a Special Prosecutor over unanswered questions about the Iraq War. Former Vice President Dick Cheney was constantly dogged by the press over questionable intel leading up to the Iraq War. Trump’s alleged ties to Russia pale in comparison to the kind relentless questioning over Iraq’s Saddam Hussein’s alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
Watching Bush, a quiet but vocal Trump critic, imply there are legitimate remaining questions about Trump’s alleged ties to Moscow, shows the degree of divisions inside the GOP. Without commenting directly about Trump’s seven-country temporary travel ban, Bush said he called for religious tolerance after Sept. 11. “One of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want or no to worship at all,” said Bush, diverting attention away from deep concerns around Sept. 11 that the country was infiltrated by Islamic extremists. Watching more Islamic terrorism wash up on American streets, Trump wanted an immigration pause to figure out better ways to protect the homeland. Without commenting about deteriorated U.S.-Russian relations under eight years of Obama, Bush said he tried to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to tolerate a more free press.
Showing that he gets the U.S. free press under Trump, Bush talked about how it’s difficult to make the same arguments today with Putin. “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy, that we need an independent media to hold people like me to account,” Bush said. Bush had difficulty weighing into Trump’s charges that the media is the “enemy of the people.” It’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power,” Bush said, suggesting that Trump’s in that category. Lauer acknowledged nothing about NBC’s extreme prejudice against Trump, manufacturing “fake news” to turn public opinion against Trump. No one in the media has explained why the people rejected the press and voted for Trump in 2016, at least enough to win the Electoral College. Lauer and his colleagues at NBC and affiliates are as guilty of media bias as anyone.
No president since Richard Nixon faced more criticism from the media than former President George W. Bush. Bush had the backing of the media and people until he decided to concoct a case for war against Saddam Hussein. Once he committed the Pentagon to Iraq, it destabilized the Mideast, eventually causing the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] out of the Iraq’s ash heap. Speaking about the virtues of free press, Bush points fingers at Trump but accepts no responsibility for one the worst blunders in U.S. history. When the economy crashed in 2008, the costs of the Iraq War came home to roost. Bush made more excuses, eventually leaving office Jan. 20, 2009 with the worst approval ratings in modern history. Whatever media bias Trump faces today, it’s nothing compared to the fake news stories coming out of the Bush-43 White House to justify the Iraq War.
