News announcing the passing of former President George H.W. Bush shocked the country today. As America mourns, we have seen that several former presidents and colleagues of Bush have come forward to honor his life and legacy. Unfortunately, one of those people happened to be Donald Trump, who had no business adding his two cents (by the way, he f*cked the whole thing up). But thankfully, former President Bill Clinton put Trump in his place.
In honor of his predecessor, Clinton shared the personal letter that Bush had left him on Inauguration Day in 1993, as a tribute to the man Bush was and how supportive he had been to his successor despite the fact that they were from different political parties. In the letter, Bush had written:
Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck.”
Read the letter President George H.W. Bush left for incoming President Bill Clinton in 1993.
(Photo via @BeschlossDC) pic.twitter.com/SuM7341pd9
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 1, 2018
Clinton wrote about that letter in a piece for the Washington Post:
No words of mine or others can better reveal the heart of who he was than those he wrote himself. He was an honorable, gracious and decent man who believed in the United States, our Constitution, our institutions and our shared future. And he believed in his duty to defend and strengthen them, in victory and defeat. He also had a natural humanity, always hoping with all his heart that others’ journeys would include some of the joy that his family, his service and his adventures gave him.”
Clinton also stated that he’d admired Bush for always putting people before politics, and then remarked on what Bush’s passing means in today’s volatile political climate:
Given what politics looks like in America and around the world today, it’s easy to sigh and say George H.W. Bush belonged to an era that is gone and never coming back — where our opponents are not our enemies, where we are open to different ideas and changing our minds, where facts matter and where our devotion to our children’s future leads to honest compromise and shared progress. I know what he would say: “Nonsense. It’s your duty to get that America back.”
Clinton’s words, along with the sharing of Bush’s note to him, shows that we could not be farther from the dignified presidents of our past. Clinton has absolutely trashed Trump in this tribute to Bush, pointing out just how far America has gone astray from the country we once were — and it’s directly related to the impostor in the White House.
Bush’s note to Clinton shows how presidents are supposed to act — supporting each other for the greater good of the country. And even though former president Barack Obama upheld these values and had reached across party lines and tried to help Trump in his transition into the White House, Trump continued to act like a one-man show. The GOP should certainly be worried about what the unveiling of this personal note means for Trump and the Republican Party in 2020.
Featured image via screen capture
