Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to the hospital on Sunday — the day after his wife, Barbara’s, funeral — “after contracting an infection that spread to his blood,” the Washington Post reports.
Bush Legacy
Stone Says Barbara Bush Is ‘Descending Into Hell’
Trump ally Roger Stone has doubled down on his criticism of Barbara Bush after calling the former first lady “a nasty drunk” following news she had died Tuesday at the age of 92, the Washington Examiner reports.
Said Stone: “She is descending into hell right now. She’s not going to heaven. She was a bad person.”
Quote of the Day
“I’ll never beat that record.”
— President Trump, quoted by The Hill, noting that former President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush were married for 73 years.
Barbara Bush Is Dead
Former First Lady of the United States Barbara Bush has died, according to CBS News.
She was 92 years old.
Barbara Bush Refuses Additional Medical Care
NBC News: “Former First Lady Barbara Bush will not seek additional medical treatment after a series of recent hospitalizations… In a statement, the spokesman said Bush, 92, would instead focus on ‘comfort care’ after consulting with doctors and family members.”
“It wasn’t immediately clear what Bush, the wife of former President George H.W. Bush and mother of former President George W. Bush, had been hospitalized for.”
Trump Pardons Scooter Libby
President Trump pardoned “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury, the Washington Post reports.
“Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and was fined $250,000. His sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush. Although Libby was spared jail time, he was not pardoned.”
Trump Will Likely Pardon Scooter Libby
President Trump is poised to pardon Scooter Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, ABC News reports.
“The move would mark another controversial pardon for Trump and could raise questions as an increasing number of the president’s political allies have landed themselves in legal jeopardy. The White House has repeatedly said that no pardons are currently on the table for people caught up in the Russia investigation.”
Not That Different Than George W. Bush
“If they squint hard enough, Republicans looking at President Trump can almost see George W. Bush,” the New York Times reports.
“Government spending and the debt are soaring, provoking grumblings about fiscal recklessness. Taxes were slashed at the expense of balanced budgets. Thousands of additional troops have been deployed into war zones half a world away. And with the exception of some highly specific tariffs, international trade remains free and unfettered.”
“For all the ways Mr. Trump has defied and flouted the norms of his office, many policies that he has approved are downright ordinary by the standards of modern Republican administrations.”
Quote of the Day
“The fact that there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about who the president was blows my mind.”
— Former President George W. Bush, quoted by Politico, adding that Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “didn’t make one fucking decision.”
Bush Alums Rise In Trump White House
Associated Press: “The Bush influence has only grown stronger recently, as Trump nominated Alex Azar to lead the Health and Human Services Department, where he served under the Bush administration, and tapped Jerome ‘Jay’ Powell to be chairman of the Federal Reserve. Powell served in the Treasury Department under President George H.W. Bush.”
“The Bush alums in the administration include Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who served as Bush’s labor secretary, and Dina Powell, a deputy national security adviser who oversaw White House personnel and later served in Bush’s State Department under Condoleezza Rice. Even the president’s schedule and day-to-day operations are overseen by a former member of Bush’s inner circle: Joe Hagin, who served as deputy White House chief of staff.”
Woman Says Bush Groped Her When She was 16
“Roslyn Corrigan was sixteen years old when she got a chance to meet George H.W. Bush, excited to be introduced to a former president having grown up dreaming of going into politics,” Time reports.
“But Corrigan was crushed by her encounter: Bush, then 79 years old, groped her buttocks at a November 2003 event in The Woodlands, Texas, office of the Central Intelligence Agency where Corrigan’s father gathered with fellow intelligence officers and family members to meet Bush, Corrigan said. Corrigan is the sixth woman since Oct. 24 to accuse Bush publicly of grabbing her buttocks without consent.”
Bush Apologizes After Actress Accused Him of Groping
Former President George H.W. Bush issued an apology after an actress accused him of sexually assaulting her during a photo op four years ago, The Hill reports.
Bannon Delivers Blistering Attack on Bush
Stephen Bannon said there “has not been a more destructive presidency than George Bush’s,” while arguing that Bush “embarrassed himself” with a “high falutin” speech which criticized President Trump, CNN reports.
He added that Bush “has no earthly idea of whether he’s coming or going… just like it was when he was president.”
Misremembering George W. Bush
Brian Beutler: “Trump is a uniquely dangerous and unfit president in many ways, but he tempts liberals to paint the Republican leaders who preceded him in an afterglow of decency and high-mindedness that is hard to detect if you go searching for it in the recent past.”
“Through a process of both forgetting and cohort replacement, the unremitting awfulness of the George W. Bush presidency—particularly its early years—has been rewritten in a faction of the liberal imagination as a kind of golden age when political debate was more honest and fact-driven. Things are in some ways worse now, but if that era ever existed, it predated George W. Bush by many years.”
The Bush-Cheney Legacy
Coming next month: Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World by David Ray Griffin.