Former President George W. Bush said Thursday he wrote-in former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the 2020 presidential election.
Bush revealed his presidential pick in a Thursday interview with People magazine. “She knows it,” Bush said of Rice, who served as the secretary of state under his administration from 2005 to 2009. “But she told me she would refuse to accept the office.”
George W. Bush Says He Wrote-In Condoleezza Rice in 2020 Election and Clarifies ‘Nativist’ Comment https://t.co/rZSKkaAiur
— People (@people) April 22, 2021
The former president openly admitted that he voted neither for former President Donald Trump, of whose policies he has long been critical, nor for President Joe Biden, People magazine reported.
Bush also toned down some of the criticism he leveled at the Republican party during the Tuesday interview with “The TODAY Show.” “I would describe it as isolationist, protectionist and to a certain extent nativist,” Bush said at the time.
“Really what I should have said — there’s loud voices who are isolationists, protectionists and nativists, something, by the way, I talked about when I was president,” Bush told People magazine. “My concerns [are] about those -isms, but I painted with too broad a brush… because by saying what I said, it excluded a lot of Republicans who believe we can fix the problem.”
“The truth of the matter is: a wall won’t work unless there’s comprehensive reform, like work visas, asylum system fixed and border patrol agents focused on their job,” Bush said of Trump’s immigration policy, according to People. “And so there needs to be an all-the-above approach to securing the border and we’ll see.” (RELATED: George W. Bush Names Failure To Pass Immigration Reform As ‘One Of The Biggest Disappointments’ Of His Presidency)
Bush’s spokesperson had previously denied in June 2020 a New York Times article which claimed Bush was not going to support Trump in the 2020 presidential election.