Former President Bill Clinton defended his successor, former President George W. Bush, for not speaking out in support of either presidential candidate in the 2024 Election despite calls for him to do so.
The remarks from Clinton came during a sitdown interview with CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere, in which he also shared some of Bush’s thoughts on down-ballot elections, where he appears to be spending his energy.
“First of all, he’s spoken up, I think, more than he’s gotten credit for, and he takes every opportunity that I’ve seen to talk about how important immigration is and how we can’t survive without it,” Clinton said of Bush.
Clinton went on to say that Bush “likes Colin Allred,” the former president’s local congressman and the Democrat challenging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his Senate seat.
“Oh, yeah. He’ll tell anybody that, that he’s a good guy,” Clinton said.
The former president went on to share with CNN that life is different when you leave politics, and he thinks Bush wants to make clear what he believes in without pushing himself too much from the party.
“He also knows, beginning with our relationship, it’s very different when you’re out of political life when there is no competition, no consequence,” Clinton said. “And I think he believes that since he was a proud Republican all those years, it’s enough for him to make clear what he believes with all this without giving up the party he’s been with all his life.”
CNN reported that it shared Clinton’s comments with someone close to Bush, who shared that “President Bush has indeed moved on from presidential politics, but he has been working quietly and diligently to keep the Senate in GOP control.”
The remarks from Clinton come after former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the daughter of Bush’s former vice president, Dick Cheney, called on the former president to support Democratic nominee Vice President Harris.
“I can’t explain why George W. Bush hasn’t spoken out, but I think it’s time, and I wish that he would,” Cheney said on an episode of The New Yorker’s Radio Hour.
The former member of the House has been an avid supporter of Harris, whom her father also endorsed in September. Cheney led the House investigation into former President Trump’s efforts to stay in office after the 2020 election, resulting in her being ostracized from the GOP.
Despite calls on him to speak out in support of Trump or Harris, Bush has maintained that his time in presidential politics is over.
“President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago,” his office shared with NBC News in early September.