The Guardian (USA)

George W Bush reveals he voted for Condoleezz­a Rice in 2020 US election

- Jada Butler

Former president George W Bush revealed in an interview with People magazine that he didn’t vote for either the Republican incumbent Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidenti­al election. Instead, he wrote in Condoleezz­a Rice.

Rice, who served as secretary of state for Bush from 2005 to 2009, was aware of the write-in. But, “She told me she would refuse to accept the office,” Bush shared.

This revelation comes amid a promotiona­l book tour for Bush’s new compilatio­n of oil paintings depicting American immigrants and their stories.

It’s all in an effort, Bush says, to soften hearts for compassion­ate immigratio­n reforms after several years of harsh and “frightenin­g” anti-immigrant rhetoric, mostly from his own Republican

party.

Earlier this week, Bush criticized the GOP, calling current actors in the party “isolationi­st, protection­ist and, to a certain extent, nativist”. Bush told People that he “painted with too broad a brush” and excluded “a lot of Republican­s who believe we can fix the problem”.

But the former president is not without his own history of faults, and his journey to rehabilita­tion after a devastatin­g presidency built upon the “war on terror” isn’t as well received by many as one would think.

Bush’s legacy includes the illegal invasion of Iraq in search of non-existent weapons of mass destructio­n, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. He resisted LGBTQ+ rights, botched the government response to Hurricane Katrina and presided over the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

 ??  ?? George W Bush shakes hands with Condoleezz­a Rice in Washington DC on 5 January 2006. Photograph: Matthew Cavanaugh/EPA
George W Bush shakes hands with Condoleezz­a Rice in Washington DC on 5 January 2006. Photograph: Matthew Cavanaugh/EPA

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