Back in March, New York Magazine let the world know what George W. Bush thought of Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.
“That was some weird shit,” Bush said, according to three people who claim to have heard the former president’s post-game assessment.
And it was some “weird shit.” During his speech, Trump painted a picture of a post-apocalyptic America that, until he descended from a golden escalator to announce his candidacy in 2015, was on the brink of becoming a failed state. Parts of it were so comically absurd as to be almost indistinguishable from a monologue you might expect Linda Hamilton to deliver in a Terminator sequel.
Well since then, there have been conflicting reports about what the Bush family thinks about Trump and for most of us, any doubts were laid to rest a couple of weeks ago when Dubya delivered a stunning rebuke of the current President during a speech at an event in New York.
Sure, the speech was hypocritical and as much as we hate to agree with Steve Bannon on anything, we’d have to concur with his contention that Bush didn’t write a single word of it.
But that’s not the point. The point was that Bush was clearly talking about Trump and hypocrisy aside, it was a stinging indictment (and we mean “indictment” figuratively – for now) of this administration’s agenda.
One person who swears the speech wasn’t about Trump is Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Have a listen to what she said a couple of weeks ago:
So much for this… https://t.co/PEvUQa9kYm
— Heisenberg Report (@heisenbergrpt) November 4, 2017
Well sorry Sarah, but it’s going to be a little harder to claim that the Bush Presidents aren’t critical of Trump now, because according to a new book about the father and son by historian Mark Updegrove (it’s called “The Last Republicans”), George H. W. Bush had this to say on record about Trump in May of 2016:
I don’t like him. I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.
Got that? Again, that is on record.
As for Dubya, here’s what he told Updegrove about Trump casting himself as “my own adviser”:
Wow, this guy doesn’t know what it means to be president.
To be sure, it’s not 100% clear that the younger Bush knew “what it means to be president” either. But that’s what makes this so hilarious. One of the stupidest men to ever occupy the Oval Office thinks that Donald Trump has no idea what he’s doing. Bush is a guy who once opined that he “knows that human being and fish can co-exist peacefully” – and even he knows Trump is a dangerous idiot.
As far as who they voted for, George H.W. Bush voted Clinton.
Dubya ” left the top of the ballot blank.”
Q. Want to know how truly FUBAR the USA is today?
A. Read this again, slowly:
“To be sure, it’s not 100% clear that the younger Bush knew “what it means to be president” either. But that’s what makes this so hilarious. One of the stupidest men to ever occupy the Oval Office thinks that Donald Trump has no idea what he’s doing. Bush is a guy who once opined that he “knows that human being and fish can co-exist peacefully” — and even he knows Trump is a dangerous idiot.
“As far as who they voted for, George H.W. Bush voted Clinton.
“Dubya ” left the top of the ballot blank.'”
I rest my case.
Howdy Marty!
People in Texas have a different way to convey an opinion of a fellow Texan as being stupid or ignorant or dumb, we like to say Bless his heart.
However, even I was not stupid enuf to leave the top of the ballot blank. I did not believe that Bernie had a prayer of winning and any votes that went to him would not help keep trump out of the WH. I also was not happy with Hillary as the only other option. So, I did what I had to do and held my nose and voted for Hillary. A vote against trump I reasoned as I drove home.
Since the Bush family are strong Republicans and Grandpa Bush admitted he voted for Democrat Hillary, it would seem he did the same thing I did.
Agreed, Murphy, Anyone not voting for Trump, voted for America.
Anyone who did not vote for Clinton voted for Trump. Whether they didn’t vote for anybody, whether they wrote in Ronald Reagan, whether they wrote in Ronald Colman. If they didn’t vote for Hillary, the voted for Trump. It’s just that simple.
It’s just not that simple.
For the those who mistakenly believed that they needed to cast a vote for one or the other, but hated Clinton and felt like the Bushes about Trump but nevertheless voted for Trump, that was catastrophic. In Michigan, if 12,000 voters who thought like felt as the Bushes did but voted for Trump, had not voted, he would have lost Michigan. Same story in Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. There were plenty of them as we now know.
Furthermore, Clinton won the popular vote by 2,865,000+ votes. Had those chose not to vote for either, that too wouldn’t have changed the outcome, but it would have been a second catastrophic outcome for America. The fact that he Trump lost the popular vote by 2,865,000, has been an important factor for many to know, understand and point to to demonstrate that a majority of Americans did not vote for this cretin. The power of that fact can be seen by watching Trump’s reaction to the fact that he lost the popular vote. had he won the popular vote it would have been a devastating moral blow to millions of Americans and people world wide.
It does not change the election result, of course, but that was not the point.
Maybe I misunderstood Milbank’s point – I thought he meant if you voted for no one, that helped Trump. If you voted for Bernie, it’s a lost vote and helps trump. Only a vote for Clinton went against trump. At least that is what I read by his comment.
That was his point Murphy. And my point was this: if in Michigan, for example,12,000 voters who voted for Trump chose not to vote for Trump (as W chose not to vote for him) Clinton would have won in Michigan. Therefore, not voting for Trump could have changed the outcome.
Popular vote doesn’t count… Learn about the constitution and rationale for it. US electoral college exists for a sound reason, so for example all the sex perverts in California such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin and Dustin Hoffman etc-etc can’t swamp all the decent folks elsewhere. Putting aside California with its illegals & perverts, Hillary convincingly lost the popular vote in the other 49 states. And hillary lost bigly in the Electoral College which is all that really matters.
Besides, Merkel won in Germany despite losing the popular vote by two-thirds. Canada’s new PM got an upset win with only 38% of the popular vote. First past the pole system. I think Electoral College is better.
notice how these type of commenters never mention Bill O’Reilly or Trump when they mention “perverts.” Have you read what’s in the O’Reilly settlement for $32 million?
kind of seems like you’re cherry picking your perverts. also, there is no connection between perverts and the damn election. that’s a truly fucking stupid thing to suggest.
Nobody cares about the Chimp’s opinion because he was a moron and usually wrong anyhow, like about the Iraqi “WMD program related activities and significant amounts of equipment”.
Bill Maher’s best skit ever, from last decade before he wasn’t funny anymore: