Bill Clinton defends George W. Bush for not taking sides in 2024 presidential race

Former President Clinton defended former President George W. Bush for not playing a more active role in the 2024 presidential campaign and making clearer whom he supports as candidate for president.

“First of all, he’s spoken up, I think, more than he’s gotten credit for, and he takes every opportunity that I’ve seen to talk about how important immigration is and how we can’t survive without it,” Clinton told CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere in an exclusive interview from his campaign bus.

Clinton told CNN that Bush “likes Colin Allred,” who is Bush’s local congressman and the Democrat who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for his Senate seat. Clinton told CNN that Bush said so directly.

“Oh, yeah. He’ll tell anybody that, that he’s a good guy,” Clinton said about Bush’s feelings of Allred, according to CNN.

CNN reported that Bush congratulated Allred on his victory in 2018 to the House, but that Bush was not involved in the Senate race.

Clinton talked to CNN about how different life is outside of political life, and he said he thinks Bush wants to make clear what he believes in without distancing himself too much from the party.

“He also knows, beginning with our relationship, it’s very different when you’re out of political life, when there is no competition, no consequence,” Clinton said, according to CNN. “And I think he believes that since he was a proud Republican all those years, it’s enough for him to make clear what he believes with all this, without giving up the party he’s been with all his life.”

CNN read Clinton’s comments to someone close to Bush, the news outlet reported, and that person said, “President Bush has indeed moved on from presidential politics, but he has been working quietly and diligently to keep the Senate in GOP control.”

Clinton has been on the campaign trail for Vice President Harris in a last-minute push before Election Day.