George W. Bush Says GOP Committing Suicide by Donald Trump
Former President George W. Bush said in an interview with The Intercept on Thursday that the GOP’s embrace of the “Anglo-Saxon ideals” and demonstrably false ideas promoted by Donald Trump constitutes a death knell for the party.
No doubt a controversial figure in American politics, Bush has nevertheless remained an influential voice among the GOPs more traditional inner circles.
A transcript of the conversation is below.
Reporter Sarah Isgur:
There have been elements within the Republican Party, now that have been in favor of, well, as they phrase it, ‘Anglo-Saxon traditions’ being put into law. I’m curious whether there is a version of the Republican Party if they followed that strain in three years or five years, where you would say, ‘I’m not a Republican?’
Bush:
No I’d say there’s not going to be a party. I mean I read about that and I’m saying to myself, ‘Wow, these people need to read my book.’ And I mean, it’s like saying when I was running for Governor of Texas, you’ll never get any Latino votes because you’re Republican. And I said you watch. And I worked hard. And the key thing was to let them know that I could hear their voice. I mean, democracy is great in that sense. And the idea of kind of saying you can only be Republican ‘if,’ then the ultimate extension of that is it ends up being a one-person party.
Correspondent Steve Hayes then asked Bush to remark on what has become the governing credo within the GOP – that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Hayes:
But there are more of those people today than there were in the Republican Party during your tenure.
Bush:
I hope not.
Hayes:
Either that, or they’re louder. Right? Many members of Congress, I mean, they were talking about starting a caucus.
Bush equated that to political suicide:
Yeah, well. You know, to me that basically says that we want to be extinct.
Hayes:
We’ve seen other elements of that. Some of the same people were talking about starting the Anglo-Saxon caucus are the people who were hyping up the idea that the election was stolen from Joe Biden. More than 50% of Republicans across the country think the election was stolen. Do you?
Bush:
No. I guess I’m one of the other 50%.
Hayes:
What—
Bush:
By the way, I’m still a Republican, proudly to be Republican. I think Republicans will have a second chance to govern, because I believe that the Biden administration is a uniting factor, and particularly on the fiscal side of things. So, you know, we’ll see. But I know this—that if the Republican Party stands for exclusivity, you know, used to be country clubs, now evidently it’s white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, then it’s not going to win anything.