“I don’t think it’s good for the country to have a former president undermine a current president; I think it’s bad for the presidency for that matter,” former President George W. Bush told Sean Hannity in a November 2014 interview. “I’m perfectly content to be out of the limelight.”
For the most part, Bush was true to his words and refrained from attacking the man who filled his shoes, President Barack Obama. So what would cause this mild-mannered man who worked so hard to stay above the fray to abandon such ideals for the temporary satisfaction of a cheap shot? President Trump, apparently.
In an exclusive sit-down with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Bush chimed in on the feud between the media and Trump. Bush used the “limelight” to back-hand the man who derailed his brother in the primaries and routinely criticized the former president’s foreign policy blunders in the Middle East.
“We needed the media to hold people like me to account,” Bush told Lauer. “Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.”
The message the former Republican president delivered was clear: Trump is trying to rise above any accountability and the press is the one institution that can stop him. Strong words from a man who was likely tossing cow pies while his Democratic successor was ushering in an era of failed liberalism.
To Republicans like Bush, Democrats are not the real enemy. Democrats come and go, and eventually establishment Republicans will regain the power they lost. But Trump presents a greater danger than a Democrat, because Trump has exposed the establishment con.
For decades, the GOP told conservatives their values were not winnable issues. Conservatives were told attempts to secure the border would result in losing Hispanics and elections. They were told fighting for American jobs would upset the gods of globalism. They were told their values were as useful as outdated milk.
In one election cycle, Trump proved the nonsense coming down from the GOP Ivory Tower amounted to bushels of lies. Now Trump is doing the one thing the old guard refused to do: stand up to the media that tilts left.
But the invested politicians that Bush once represented need the media to stop Trump. If the media can paint Trump as unstable, racist or any other ugly adjective, maybe the American people will have buyer’s remorse.
If Trump wins his war with the media, however, the old-guard GOP loses. It is why former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer is rushing to the defense of a press that once savaged the administration he served.
“[Trump has] been hostile to the press and the press returns the favor,” Fleischer recently told the San Diego Tribune. Does he really expect the American people to believe that if Trump offered the mainstream media tea and crumpets they would return the gesture with fair coverage?
During Bush’s presidency he was savaged by the press. Whether it was missing weapons of mass destruction or implied racism in dealing with Hurricane Katrina, the media savaged Bush. Even when he left the White House, the mainstream media attacked Bush for being “disrespectful” during a memorial honoring slain Dallas police officers.
Some would say Bush’s restraint from responding to the media attacks was presidential, but it was truly part of the problem. Bush tried to work with a press who had a political interest in his failure. That is not presidential, it is pitiful.
Trump is correcting the problem. He is showing the American people that if they fight for their values and rise above the Beltway intimidation machine they can win. This is exactly what establishment Republicans and Democrats fear.
By breaking his silence to align with Democrats and the press, Bush is not showing people they made a mistake with Trump. He is showing them they got it right.
Joseph Murray (@realJoeMurray) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. Previously, he was a campaign official for Pat Buchanan. He is the author of “Odd Man Out” and is administrator of the LGBTrump Facebook page.
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