Will George W. Bush endorse Joe Biden?
Congressional Republicans can’t even stand up to rebuke President Trumpfor falsely accusing a cable news host of murder — despite pleas to stop from the family of the woman, who died of natural causes back in 2001.
But imagine if former President Bush, as Trump’s most recent Republican predecessor, backed a Democrat. Bush’s voice has the singular power to reach moderate Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters, freeing them to walk away from the Party of Trump.
The split between Bush and Trump got attention earlier this month when Trump lashed out at the 43rd president for issuing a simple call for national unity in fighting the coronavirus.
Trump attacked Bush on Twitter saying: “He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax [impeachment] in American history.”
But Bush’s statement never mentioned Trump.
The former president reportedly did not vote for Trump in 2016 but he did not vote for the Democrat, Hillary Clinton, either.
In a 2017 speech, Bush seemed to be rebuking the current president for allowing national politics to become “degraded by casual cruelty … argument turns too easily into animosity.” He avoided directly calling out Trump by name.
Bush has also spoken up for longstanding Republican beliefs now under fire from the current administration.
He said in that same 2017 speech that free trade around the world is key to finding new markets for U.S. goods, as well as maintaining “an international order rooted in freedom and free markets.”
And again without calling Trump’s name, Bush made the point that Republicans have a history of welcoming immigrants, people with “talent, energy and enterprise from all over the world,” and noted that “people of every race, religion and ethnicity can be fully and equally American.”
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For all of their faults and foibles, Presidents Carter, Clinton, Obama and Bush — men I have personally interviewed — played presidential politics with a profound sense of public service. That included the old-school notion of holding their tongues during the 2016 presidential campaign.
But if their rhetoric over the last month is any indication, I think they are determined not to make the same mistake twice.
There is no question about whom Carter, Clinton and Obama plan to support.
That leaves Bush holding the biggest stick here. Groups of leading conservative thinkers in The Lincoln Project and a new group including several former top GOP officials called Republican Voters Against Trump have set the table for Bush to speak up.
If he announces he is voting for Biden, it will change some votes….
More from Juan Williams @ The Hill…
image….huffingtonpost.com
George Will not only calls for Trump’s defeat, but also the “routing” of the Senate GOP
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/no-one-should-want-four-more-years-of-this-taste-of-ashes/2020/06/01/1a80ecf4-a425-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html
Trump is working hard to give Will his wish…
I just saw this Scott, very powerful coming from a Reagan Republican. The part about removing all of Trump’s enablers from office was particularly interesting. The Republican Party has proven again that it is only interested in power, tax cuts, and telling women what they can or cannot do with their personal health decisions. The best part was the wrath Will saved for the Senate Republicans. This article underscores the lunacy of not voting for Biden. The prejudice of that decision runs deep.
I agree Keith. Will is one conservative who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016, but clearly sees the need to do more this time around. No resting on his laurels here!
There are more ….
Will and others are trying to get them to come forward…