George W. Bush Calls Kanye’s Katrina Comment “One Of The Most Disgusting Moments In My Presidency”

MEDIA ITE ^ | 11/03/2010 | Steve Krakauer

[WebFocus]

Taking a break from election results, NBC News has released a few excerpts from Matt Lauer’s wide-ranging interview with former Pres. George W. Bush as he promotes his new book.

He talks about 9/11, about Donald Rumsfeld and a lot more. But he also talks about Kanye West.

Yes, that Kanye West. While he’ll probably love the shout-out, his comments after Hurricane Katrina during a live telethon had a profound negative effect on Pres. Bush. Here’s the exchange:

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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.

Wow. We’ll have more on this as the week goes on. The interview airs Monday at 8pmET on NBC as part of an hour-long special, and Pres. Bush will be live on Today next Wednesday.

The image is from the interview.

[Servant of the Cross]

Hey (sic) just became the mouthpiece for thousands of people that were in big trouble, seeing bodies literally littered around them with no help in sight.

And that justifies his actual racism and ignorant slandering of President Bush?! Your perspective on Katrina sounds no different than Olberdork's. Sniff.

[SunTzuWu]

He did not give a good appearance of handling Katrina well.

I'll give you that one. But...

...it sure appeared like Federal help took about 3 days to get there...

That's the fault of Blanco. By law the US Govt can't send the National Guard in until the States Governor requests aid. The rest of the military was there from day one. A large portion of blame lies with Mayor Naggen (sp?) for not following the emergency preparedness plan.

In my opinion President Bush's greatest fault lay in not answering the constant attacks by the press.

[Deb]

Presidents don’t respond to whiskey-addled rap singers publicly for heaven’s sake. That’s something historical dwarves like Clinton, Carter and Obama would do.

[Deb]

No one in government should lower themselves to respond to entertainers, especially losers like Kanye West who are even hated by members of their own industry. Taylor Swift barely responded when he jerked out at the music awards.

[Servant of the Cross]

Hey ... stop that! You expose my knee-jerk propensity to make ill-thought out snap judgments.

[Servant of the Cross]

Snort. The Federal response to Katrina (more Brownie than Bush) was dictated by Blanco and Nagin. You'll never find two more incompetent and embarrassing bureaucrats.