George Bush Slams Kanye West Over 'Katrina' Comments
'One of the most disgusting moments in my presidency'
By
Former President George W. Bush finally spoke out about rapper Kanye West's racially-charged Hurricane Katrina comments during an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer which is set to air next Monday.
West famously declared [1] that “George Bush doesn't care about black people,” at a live fundraising telethon in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Apparently this remark had a major impact on President Bush, who told Lauer that “it was one of the most disgusting moments in my presidency.”
Here is an excerpt from the interview (via Mediaite [2]):
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.
In President Bush's upcoming memoir, “Decision Points,” which will be released next week, he goes into greater detail about his mindset during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“I prided myself on my ability to make crisp and effective decisions. Yet in the days after Katrina, that didn't happen. The problem was not that I made the wrong decisions. It was that I took too long to decide,” wrote Bush, according [3] to The New York Times. “I made an additional mistake by failing to adequately communicate my concern for the victims of Katrina. This was a problem of perception, not reality. My heart broke at the sight of helpless people trapped on their rooftops waiting to be rescued.”
Bush added that, “I was as frustrated as I had been at any point in my presidency.”
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