Tag: George H.W. Bush

A Contrast in Styles as Trump, Country Bid Farewell to George H.W. Bush

Pres. Trump and first lady pay respect at former Pres. George H.W. Bush’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call

41st president’s 1992 defeat could offer lessons for 45’s expected re-election bid

The late President George H.W. Bush will leave the Capitol for the final time Wednesday morning and make one last pass by the White House before his flag-draped casket is placed at the front of the National Cathedral for his state funeral farewell. Seated a few feet away will be a very different president, Donald Trump.

The late Republican president’s four years in office and 1992 defeat to an upstart Democratic governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, offer contrast to the incumbent’s raucous two years and lessons for his expected re-election bid. The two presidents’ work with Congress and legislative histories differ sharply, as do how they comported themselves — from Bush’s thoughtful letter-writing to Trump’s off-the-cuff tweeting.

“As history records, during those years he set the standard as a sound counselor and loyal adviser to an outsider who came to Washington, D.C., to shake things up, to cut taxes, rebuild the military. And together, they did just that,” Vice President Mike Pence said Monday of Vice President Bush and President Ronald Reagan as Bush’s flag-draped casket arrived to lie in state Monday in the Capitol Rotunda.

View the complete December 5 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

White House attacks legacies of both Bush presidents after reports that they refused to vote for Trump

The following article by Avi Selk was posted on the Washington Post website November 4, 2017:

On Oct. 19, former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush made veiled criticisms about the Trump administration’s threats to democracy and unity. (Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)

The White House on Saturday disparaged the legacies of the only two living Republican presidents to precede Donald Trump, after reports that both men castigated Trump in interviews last year and refused to vote for him.

Former president George H.W. Bush mocked then-candidate Trump as a “blowhard” and voted for a Democratic president, while the younger Bush worried aloud that Trump would destroy the idea of a Republican president in all but name, according to “The Last Republicans,” which is scheduled to go on sale later this month. Continue reading “White House attacks legacies of both Bush presidents after reports that they refused to vote for Trump”