President George W. Bush's Thoughts on Putin and the Press

our first guest is the 43rd President of the United States his new book is called portraits of courage please welcome president george w bush [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it's a little bit of dancing it wasn't committed to it fully but it was a little bit of dance yeah yeah and I'm sober yeah it's hard to dance sober it really is these are all of these people drunk yeah I'm so excited to have you here are you as excited as I am to be here yeah kinda yeah no I am people don't know this but my daughter Jenna and your good buddies yes we are and so my attitude is if you're a good buddy of Jenna you're a good buddy of mine she says she's a lovely girl if she was on the show and we called you and you answered the phone you actually picked up and talked to us while she was on them yeah and I was actually the president yeah I know in the treaty room in the White House that's amazing yeah we were very excited they picked up well thank you yeah I love I really I love your whole family your dad and and and your mom and they I know we're both in the hospital recently but then they were at the Super Bowl so I was yeah yeah they're good yeah I'm the only president with both parents alive after the presidency really which is a huge blessing yeah it is it is and so actually I'm the only one or two presidents with both parents alive during the presidency I didn't know that either yeah see how you learn things and I learned things together we we teach each other yes we do yeah teach me how to dance please I'm not the one to do that that's twitch but but really I do love them very much but you have when you you left office and you pretty much stayed out of politics you kind of went and lived your life which is great I'm sure and and more relaxing but I have to ask you what you think of what's going on now well I think they said the first time our nation has ever been divided I remember what it was like when I got out of college there was a Vietnam War and a draft there were major race riots there was political assassinations the president was nearly impeached and a lot of people thought the country was going down the tubes and it turns out we're too strong to go down the tubes and some very optimistic but yeah I'm not a politician Oh my whole view is I don't think it serves the nation or the office of president to have a former president criticize his successors and so I am I'm happy to be off the stage yes except this one yeah thanks thanks for being on this stage so I this is this is a concern though for me I'll bring it up and this is not political this is really something that I think it's important obviously the the media was not you know great to you they're not great to most presidents the media is tough you expect them to be tough but Trump is raging in out right just war against all press and not allowing press to to do their job which i think is a very dangerous thing well I said something the other day and of course the headlines were bush criticizes Trump here's what I believed when I was president post president the nation needs a free and independent press and the reason why is is that power can be very corrupting and we need a press corps to hold politicians to account including me and yeah I didn't like it sometimes when people said things that you know about me but you know that's the job I always viewed the relay I'm gonna drop a big word on you symbiotic relationship yeah four syllables yeah don't ask me to spell it all right and that is I needed the press to get the message out and they needed me to make news and so yeah but it but it's very important I mean that yes it is very important we need to hear from everybody and you then it's up to us to figure out you know so I used to tell you know a lot of these tyrants when I would visit with them as president that they needed to have a free press and I would point to our country as an example where you know power doesn't doesn't make you immune to criticism or the corruption investigations and so yeah I'm a big believer in the free press just like I'm a big believer in free religion you can worship or not worship and you're equally American yeah doesn't matter how you work when you say tyrants were you speaking of Putin because you had a relationship with Putin and Trump has a relationship with Putin but I believe it's different yeah well so I introduced Putin to Barney you remember Barney little Scottish terrier yes the little guy had legs and he kind of dissed him he looked at him like you think that's a dog anyway so a year later a year later Putin says would you like to meet my dog glory and I were with Putin and his dog outside of Moscow I said yeah I'd like to meet meet him and out comes a giant hound kind of loping across the Birks line yard and Putin looks at me and says bigger stronger and faster than Barney and you know it speaks volumes when you listen to what somebody says and so in other words he's got a chip on his shoulder yep yeah and so yeah I had a contentious relationship with him and I I think whoever the president is is going to find out that Putin will push and push and push until somebody stands up to him yeah so Trump should get a hound [Applause]

Channel: TheEllenShow

Views: 7,835,139

Keywords: george bush, george w bush, president, presidential, politics, putin, press, debate, political, president bush, trump, obama, donald trump, barack obama, ellen degeneres, PLM

Id: rKeFXs8a0Xk

Length: 6min 18sec (378 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 02 2017