Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency

By John Byrne
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 11:13 EST
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In an interview slated to be broadcast next Monday at 8pm ET, former President George W. Bush will say that criticism by Kanye West — in which the then-president was dubbed a “racist” — was the “worst moment” of his presidency.

“I didn’t appreciate it then,” Bush says. “I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, “I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.” It’s another thing to say, “This man’s a racist.” I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my Presidency.”

Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, who caught the quip, wrote that “while it was obviously rare and off-putting for a rap star to insist that the president didn’t care about black people, it’s also somewhat unexpected that that would be Bush’s personal, political nadir.”

Excerpts from the interview with NBC News’ Matt Lauer follow.

MATT LAUER: About a week after the storm hit NBC aired a telethon asking for help for the victims of Katrina. We had celebrities coming in to ask for money. And I remember it vividly because I hosted it. And at one part of the evening I introduced Kanye West. Were you watching?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Nope.

MATT LAUER: You remember what he said?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes, I do. He called me a racist.

MATT LAUER: Well, what he said, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: That’s — “he’s a racist.” And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, “I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.” It’s another thing to say, “This man’s a racist.” I resent it, it’s not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments in my Presidency.

MATT LAUER: This from the book. “Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust.” You go on. “I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all time low.”

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah. I still feel that way as you read those words. I felt ‘em when I heard ‘em, felt ‘em when I wrote ‘em and I felt ‘em when I’m listening to ‘em.

MATT LAUER: You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your Presidency?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. My record was strong I felt when it came to race relations and giving people a chance. And– it was a disgusting moment.

Kanye West’s remark, broadcast during a telethon to fundraise for victims of Hurricane Katrina, follows.

John Byrne
John Byrne
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  • PrissyPatriot

    Oh Dubya does care about some black people. If they have money or something else he can use. Like Alan Keyes clones, Condi and Powell (while he was still willing to do his bidding)

  • Kill Bill

    I dont know if Bush is racist or not.

    What is apparent is that in political parties there are racists that are appeased by political figures.

    Isnt that the same as supporting racism?

  • Anonymous

    Truth hurts? Was that the problem George?

  • http://liposuctioncostsmenwomen.com/?p=144113   Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency – Raw Story by Liposuction Costs Men Women

    [...] Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist 'the worst moment' of my presidencyRaw StoryIt's one thing to say, "I don't appreciate the way he's handled his business." It's another thing to say, "This man's a racist." I resent it, it's not true, …and more » [...]

  • Anonymous

    He was told that nation is under attack on 9/11 and he read a book to kids. He gets called a racist and gets upset.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UAYWWQ6PIS523OZNUGILXEGOPU Patty

    What the Hell? Worst moment? What about his perfromance during Katrina? Or the Iraq War? Or the fact his policies almost brought on another Great Depression? The man is delusional.

  • shinyorbs

    wow Shrub, you really are a narcissistic pig aren’t you? It’s all about you, isn’t it Georgie? Keerist there are TON’s of things you should feel bad about that you did during your dictatorship…

  • Anonymous

    George bevis Bush has a resume so colorful, that even the brothers of Joseph, whose coat of many colors had made them envious, would be even more foolishly jealous. Not only is bevis has this distinction as outlined in the piece regarding Kayne’s assesment of our departed ex-leader of the not so free world, his is not so fond of dogs with missing appendages, but also of veterans with a lot more missing. Really, he didn’t HAVE to sic his Rotweiler, pet named KKK Rove-R to mangle this poor vet that had no legs, one arm blown away while vacationing in Vietnam. He (Bush & Rove-R) must have the same philosphy as the will known actor who had Bobby Jones as his part time golf instructor, Mr W.C. Fields, who remarked, “Anyone who hates animals and babys can’t be ALL BAD.”

  • http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/bush-kanye-west-calling-racist-the-worst-moment-presidency/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency | Raw Story — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by The Raw Story, Merone Eritrea , andrew f. hampe, Aaron Sarfito , wintafresh and others. wintafresh said: WOW Bush said "@KanyeWest calling me a racist the worst moment of my presidency" WTF WAS 9'11?????????? http://is.gd/gFztB [...]

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    It’s very telling that Bush would characterize this moment of trivia from a hack rapper as a “worst moment”. How vapid do you have to be to stand amidst the wreckage of near total failure from day 1 to the end of 2008…and find this little moment to be the ‘worst’.

    Ok Rawstory…enough Bush excerpts. I mean it…I’m not sure a window into 8 years of tragic squandered opportunity and inadequate non-leadership is worth the ‘cringe factor’ every time I read another moment of Bush’s ‘inner thoughts’.

  • Anonymous

    Kanye? Not Iraq??? Yeah right.

  • Anonymous

    People calling Kanye a quality musician are still the worst moments.

  • Anonymous

    bu$h is not a racist, but Obama is. America truly has become a parallel universe.

  • Anonymous

    “I didn’t like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich.”

    So what DID you do, again?

  • Anonymous

    Being called a racist by Kanye is an honor.

  • Anonymous

    “Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency”

    Gee. Worse than ordering the invasion of Iraq based on a set of false claims and thus murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians?

    Bush is psychopath.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Zentrails/100001475536421 Bob Zentrails

    Any mention of the MILLIONS of Iraqi’s he killed, maimed, or tortured?

    How come nobody puts a Hitler mustache on this guy’s photos?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Zentrails/100001475536421 Bob Zentrails

    Yeah, we should never criticize anyone for something they actually did, only what Fox “News” says they have done. It’s an unwritten, little known, part of the Constitution.

  • Anonymous

    So let’s get this right: You sat on your ass for 9 months, ignoring every warning that came around that we were going to be attacked, you GOT us attacked, you attacked TWO countries based on lies, you outed an active CIA agent, you shit on the constitution, you spied on innocent Americans, you doubled the already too goddamned too high REPUBLICAN debt, you gave away a surplus to the very people who DIDN’T build it up in the first place with your IDIOTIC tax cuts, you ran two ILLEGAL wars OFF BUDGET, you stopped counting unemployed people after 2 years to make YOUR own numbers look better, you presided over tax cuts that shipped 8 MILLION jobs overseas with NOTHING to replace them, you IGNORED tens of thousands in NO after Katrina for 5 DAYS, you gave over a trillion of OUR dollars away to the most corrupt, greedy, selfish and STUPID people in power when THEY were the problem in the first place, you politicized the DOJ to the point of absolute corruption, and being called a racist is the worst thing that happened to you?

    You should have been impeached, drawn and quartered, and your head put on a pike and paraded through the streets of the capital for all to see. You should have been taken out and shot for being a goddamned traitor. Your father passed a law that made it a capital crime to out a CIA agent, it should have been used AGAINST YOU. You are the single WORST president that has EVER been in this country, you will go down in history as a fool, a traitor and a total failure. I only hope there IS a hell so you can take up permanent residence. You are an embarrassment and a national disgrace. Why you have been allowed to live, let alone still walk the streets as a free man is beyond me. The fact that you have a book coming out is a national travesty.

    Go away and rot in hell, you maggot fucking bastard.

  • Anonymous

    This son of a whore should read his own mom’s comments, touring the Astrodome after Katrina:

    “What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas,” Barbara Bush said in an interview on Monday with the radio program “Marketplace.” “Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.”

    And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway,” she said, “so this is working very well for them.

    Source: New York Times

    Heckuva job, Brownie!

  • Anonymous

    So that’s why Bush let all those people die in Katrina.

    Now why did he let all those people die on 9/11?

    And why then did he go kill hundreds of thousands Iraqis?

    Bush hates black people because of Kanye West and he hates Iraqis because Saddam Hussein tried to kill his dad.

    Representative of most American people who hate President Obama because he is black.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you so much George JR. I am sure that you have made your Mom proud. This is just another confirmation of your complete lack of humanity and I have to blame it on Mom and Pop. Find a rock stay under it and quit trying to redeem yourself. It only makes it worse. Murderer! Traitor! Sabatour!!!

  • Chip

    Poor junior, someone called him a name. It was worse than 9/11, Katrina or even a whole goddamn war. This is how people with personality disorders think.

  • Anonymous

    It might be unfair to say that Bush is a rascist. This would have implied some overt action on his part and he was not one to break a sweat to help anyone except for people who had money to burn. It might be more accurate to say that he is so ego centric that he is devoid of even the most basic empathy toward others. In a word he related to others in the same way as a toddler.

  • grindermonkey

    No, the worst moment in Bush’s presidency was the breath he took during the oath of office. There is no such thing as racism. But there are mass murderers.

  • Anonymous

    Not 9/11? Hmmmmm

  • Anonymous

    George Bush was such a a horrible president, it is certainly a challenge to pick a “lowest” point in his atrocious presidency.

  • http://www.rawstory.com RawStory

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  • mick

    Not 911 ,his involvement was just to do what Cheney told him to do .

  • mick

    Dam you pretzel ….just one more minute….

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Denis-Robert/100000064904083 Denis Robert

    Shows how disconnected with reality the man is. The worst moment of his presidency? Not reading “The Pet Goat” upside down while the towers were falling???

    What a moron.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JK5ANRUXYPQIYFECEEXEK2ETQM Dana

    George Bush, your ‘presidency’ alone is one of the ‘worst moments’ in history…period!

  • Anonymous

    That’s what makes it all the more bizarre. Someone with half a brain like Gore Vidal or even Putin can call him on his stupidity, but it’s the Kanye West criticism that sticks.

  • Anonymous

    West did NOT call you a Racist, he said “George Bush does not care about Black people”.

    Once a moron, always a moron!

  • hauksdottir

    A sane leader would think that losing a city of a million of his own people on his watch would be a devastating indictment of failure. There were hurricane warnings. His own administration is responsible for that.

    He has to know that the wars he ignited in Afghanistan and Iraq (with spillage into another half-dozen countries) are failures.

    Decision after decision: failure.

    Since he is so self-absorbed, perhaps being dragged in shackles to The Hague for War Crimes will be the only way to get through to him. There is no statute of limitations. The world waits.

  • Anonymous

    Yes indeed. They probably are blood brothers :P

  • Anonymous

    Moronic Jewphobe alert!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gregory-Martin/100000564476826 Gregory Martin

    Please. If New Orleans would’ve been a predominantly white Republican city, no expense would’ve been spared to aid the survivors and rebuild the city.

  • Anonymous

    That sums it up. Keep in mind that he was supported by those who just took the HOR back.

  • Anonymous

    I’m sure Barbara would have been much prouder if little georgie had just not let what the bad black boy said bother his beautiful mind.

  • Anonymous

    So it’s true; the truth does hurt, even an unrepentant bastard like Bush feels the sting of the truth–who knew?

  • BoLeeBee

    Totally agree – Jr. is damaged and likely stuck emotionally at the age his sister Robin (who he was very close to), died of leukemia just short of 4yrs. Terminally absent politico/CIA operative (likely involved in JFK assassination?) Bush Sr., and socialite Babs drove from Houston out to Midland (550 miles – wtf??) where Jr was in elementary school to tell him his sister, who he knew was sick but never told of the severity, died 2 days earlier. The next day, Sr. went golfing. Jr. was not allowed to come to her burial. There is a book – “Bush on the Couch” which runs thru a commonly done CIA – world leader psychological analysis on Jr. He’s a troubled soul, war criminal, mass murderer, psychopath – these are the Bush family endowments.

  • BoLeeBee

    Eggggxactly…

  • BoLeeBee

    remember that SNL bit with Eddie Murphy?
    C-I-L-L, my landlord… I have a substitution, but Dick, Donny, Paulie 1st… the list is endless, but SO ARE WE. . .

    then Carlisle

    then HB, XE, BP, Koch, Bechtel, , ,

    then….[ insert artificially-animated, non-corporeal, globally-present-"person" name here]

    money kills humans – it might as well be on the known toxins list

  • Anonymous

    Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency, but I sure enjoyed my illegal war and killing all those innocent brown people.

  • Knot

    Funny, for me that was one of the best moments of Bush’s presidency. The media had been running a non-stop warapalooza and dissenting voices were relegated to the fringes and deemed traitors or worse. It wasn’t so much the truth of his statement, and Mike Myers awesome facial response, it was that he got a voice of dissent on a major TV broadcast in those dark days of WMD, Saddam did 9/11, and black people are looters.

    On one weekend leading up too the Iraq invasion and occupation between eight and thirty million people demonstrated against the war and were thoroughly ignored by Bush and the media. Seeing how effective the media was at shutting out voices that didn’t tow the company line, Kanye West’s statement being aired on national TV, and then going viral on the internet, gave a lot of people hope that our voices would not be silenced forever.

  • Anonymous

    That’s funny, I like it.

    Barbara and George and probably most of the people who think of humans of a different race as just not as good as that special group they are part of, think that not hating is like treating people equally. Barbara is probably unable to understand how the incredibally racist statement she made in the Texas stadium could be anything other than charitable. As a good Christian women she does all she can for the plight of the Negros

  • Anonymous

    preach on, Brother WJM51. preach on.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you for this information. I did not know this. For such a prominent family, it is remarkable how little is known about them. It seems like there is a constant history of lost documents and mysterious fires anytime some tries to find background information on any of the Bush’s. Looks like any child growing up in that family is going to be damaged goods. There are probably reptiles who are more nurturing parents than the Bush’s.

  • Anonymous

    Butiti is the FUCKING TRUTH! ALL redneckkked republikkklans are RACISTS!

  • Anonymous

    Little Bush’s whole life is a fucking charade.

    I am sure the book was written by someone else and he just put his name on it, kind of like his presidency.

    I heard that he may be suffering from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome since his mother was a big drinker while she was pregnant with him.

    Whatever the reason, he is a simple mind, born to privilege, saddled with legacy, and bound to his hollow character.

  • Anonymous

    Read Kitty Kelly’s book about the Bush Crime Family Dynasty , great read , and ask , why didn’t the Bush family sue to stop publication ? Kitty must have told the truth . Still tough to beat the truth in court , if you can find it there .

  • http://www.facebook.com/WorleyGig Gail Worley

    George Bush was such a a horrible president, it is certainly a challenge to pick a “lowest” point in his atrocious presidency.

  • Anonymous

    Saying he doesn’t care about black people is not the same as saying he hates black people. I think a more accurate statement would be ” George Bush doesn’t care about people”. He doesn’t care about poor people of any color. Both him and Cheney might not hate black people but are both quite willing to exploit the racist fears of people to get what they want. Simply, they may bear no malice, instead cruel indifference to anyone who gets in their way.

  • Anonymous

    I can think of plenty more disgusting moments, if he cared about black people he should be able to think of at least one.

  • http://twitter.com/johnnyfern johnnyfern

    who knew W was such a sensitive, delicate soul? That poor dear. Maybe he and Taylor Swift can get together and pen a revenge song.

    http://www.dadinleftfield.com

  • Anonymous

    Hmmm, I kinda feel like sitting there reading a book while planes flew into the World Trade Center would have been his “worst moment”! But then he could have done all those great things in the aftermath.

  • Anonymous

    …and he’s still cocky about all of it.

  • Anonymous

    He’s white.

  • Anonymous

    How is Obama racist? He is half white. I know it’s hard to admit. Not to mention he had more exposure to the world in the first 10 years of his life then Bush did in his whole life up to his Presidency.

  • Anonymous

    Musicians play instruments.

  • Anonymous

    Do not insult Bevis like that.

  • http://twitter.com/Bill_Owen William Owen

    Bush isn’t a racist. That’s a ridiculous lie!! He was an equal opportunity killer.

  • Anonymous

    True, and West thinks he can play them all.

  • http://thelowdown2.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/the-lowdown-radio-news-presidents-and-rap-stars-ricky-martin-and-the-bieb/ The Lowdown Radio News… Presidents and Rap Stars, Ricky Martin and the Bieb « THE LOWDOWN RADIO SHOW

    [...] “Most disgusting moment” of your presidency, huh? For some reason it just doesn’t seem to match up right. George W. Bush, Former President, has a new book coming out called “Decision Points” where he talks about a range of subjects from Hurricane Katrina and all through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Promo for the new book, Bush did an Interview with Matt Lauer of the Today Show. The interview will air Monday, November 8, but since it was a prerecorded interview, certain parts get leaked out. One such leak was when Bush spoke about the “worst moment” of his Presidency. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the Bush administration was criticized for not being prepared to handle the devastation and also for not following through on its duties to the people. So NBC aired a telethon to raise money for Hurricane victims and had a slew of celebrities there to hep. At one point, actor Mike Myers and Kanye West were doing a short spot for the telethon and a very visibly agitated Kanye said at the end, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Look at the old footage here: [...]

  • http://datarecoveryservicescosts.com/?p=192744   Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist ‘the worst moment’ of my presidency – Raw Story by Data Recovery Services Costs

    [...] Bush: Kanye West calling me a racist 'the worst moment' of my presidencyRaw StoryI didn't like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was …and more » [...]