Bush Family Member Says Bush 41 And 43 May Vote For Clinton

Are these the faces of Clinton voters? George P. Bush thinks so.

Bush 43 And Bush 41 Together

George P. Bush, currently the only member of the Bush dynasty holding political office, says it’s possible that his Uncle and Grandfather, both former Presidents, could end up voting for Hillary Clinton:

George P. Bush said Tuesday that his uncle, former President George W. Bush, may join his grandfather George H.W. Bush in casting his ballots for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, according to the Associated Press.

The Texas land commissioner made the comments while addressing a small Republican rally in San Marcos, Texas, on Tuesday night, saying that both former presidents in the family may “potentially” vote for the Democratic presidential ticket come Election Day.

Later asked to clarify his comments by the AP, George P. Bush said that he was just “speculating” and couldn’t say with certainty how they’d vote.

This comment from the younger Bush isn’t the first suggestion that at least one of the two living former Republican Presidents would end up voting for a Democrat this year. Back in September, Politico reported that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend had said that George H.W. Bush told her that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton this year. The Bush family declined to comment on the report, and many people criticized Townsend for revealing the contents of what was meant to be a private conversation, but the report has never been specifically denied. Given the fact that the elder Bush has, for the first time since leaving office, declined to endorse the nominee of his party, and adding in the fact that the family as a whole has made its opposition to Trump clear simply by its silence, it would not be all that surprising if this prediction ended up being true. It’s also worth noting that there has been a strong family relationship between the Bushes and the Clintons for the past decade or more, starting generally with the point at which George W. Bush asked his father and Bill Clinton to co-chair the relief effort for the devastating tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004. Since then, the two men have been seen together quite frequently, and even George W. and Jeb Bush have seemingly been part of the circle. That’s not to say that there aren’t political differences between the families — after all, it wasn’t that long ago that Jeb Bush himself was hoping to be the Republican who took on Hillary Clinton this year — but it seems clear that the Bush’s have more in common with Clinton than they do with Trump and his ilk of supporters that have taken over the Republican Party.

What’s extraordinary about the situation isn’t just the prospect of a former Republican President voting for a Democrat, but the fact that this year is the first time since the end of World War II that a former President of either party has failed to endorse their party’s eventual nominee. The only exception to that rule during that time period has been Richard Nixon who generally declined to endorse anyone after he left office in 1974, although in all honesty it’s unlikely that a Nixon endorsement would have helped any Republican nominee for any office anywhere in the country given the circumstances of his departure from office. With respect to the Bush’s, though, it’s highly unusual and makes the possibility that both father and son could end up voting for Hillary Clinton all the more likely. The question it also raises is how many more ‘establishment’ Republicans might be joining them, but we’ll have to wait until we see some exit polls after Tuesday to find that out.

FILED UNDER: *FEATURED, 2016 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. C. Clavin says:

    I was no fan of Bush 43’s. He is responsible for the largest foreign policy blunder in our history. He dawdled while the economy burned. Etc.
    But I’ve never doubted that he loves his country.
    You cannot love this country and vote for Trump. If you vote for Trump, you very well may think you love this country…but you have serious mental health issues that prevent you from thinking clearly…and you are contributing to it’s demise.

  2. Pch101 says:

    The base will just take this as another indication that the Bushes are all RINOs.

    It’s odd that the establishment that was there first doesn’t do more to fight to take its party back. Instead of leaking stories to the press, why don’t they loudly and repeatedly endorse Clinton as they call for rebuilding the party in 2017?

    If the establishment keeps pussyfooting around, the base is just going to kick them to the curb and burn the thing down, so they have nothing to lose. (And to think that they were always the first to point out that it isn’t possible to negotiate with terrorists…)

  3. C. Clavin says:
  4. JKB says:

    @C. Clavin: Welcome to Donald Trump’s ‘Mericuh…

    And when they catch the Hillary supporter who did this, let’s hope they are not afforded the Hillary prosecutorial “discretion” and are actually prosecuted.

  5. JKB says:

    Well, if anything might support Trump’s bonafides as a change from the DC establishment party, this would be a big one. And not a surprise given the assessment of a Trump win by Camille Paglia I linked to in an earlier post.

    And it’s looking like this might be a close one, not a blow out so many were putting their hopes on, which means there will be no purge of Trump supporters.

  6. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @JKB:

    It’s projected to be around a 20% to 24% margin of victory in the electoral college, which is the only election that actually matters. Your party has, among many other problems, a geographic weakness. Too many of its supporters live in sparsely populated fly-over country, while not enough of them live in populous states to counter the Dems urban advantage.

    Couple that with Republican demographic problems, and its a recipe for increasingly difficult presidential elections for the GOP going forward – especially if it can’t find a way to rid itself of the bombthrowers. You guys are, in every perceptible sense, turning into the Know-Nothing Party, Act 2.

  7. barbintheboonies says:

    The Republican party is not the same as it was before. It has pushed so far right, it is in a league of it`s own. It`s has been taken over by people who will say and do anything to get total power. The Democratic party is not so very good either. They are not too much better than the Republicans they just go about it differently. It sounds better when they give their pitch, but when the smoke clears you are still in the same place, just a little poorer. I believe change will come, when we change how things are done. Money is obscene in government and we the people lose because of it. I believe when some people who enter into politics, they have high hopes of making things better for the country. Then they are beaten down by those who promise to vote their way, or by future glory, money, and fame. After a while they just get pulled into the sewer with the others. The saying money is the root of all evil is more prevalent today than when it was first said.

  8. Slugger says:

    I am not surprised. HRC started life as a Goldwater girl. I expect that she’ll act much like Bill Clinton did when he was POTUS. He lowered the number of federal government employees, pushed through welfare reform, etc. The only thing he did that no Republican president of the last 75 years has done was to present a balanced budget for his last year in office. Clintons are the best kind of Republicans.

  9. al-Ameda says:

    I can only say this about the current travails of Hillary Clinton: It’s too bad the Democratic Party had such a weak pool of possible candidates in 2012. We knew this was coming – 25 years of constant opposition investigation is a strong heads-up. Democrats are fortunate that Republicans decided to go full Beavis-and-Butthead in 2016. Hopefully Beavis-and-Butthead don’t take the White House as they have The House.

    Maybe, just maybe, in light of the increasingly real possibility that Trump could win this thing, we can put to rest the the quaint notion of an enduring ‘wisdom of The People’? There is no such thing as an ongoing ‘wisdom of The People.’ Sometimes we The People collectively demonstrate it, a lot of the time we’re nowhere near it.

  10. KM says:

    @JKB::

    And when they catch the Hillary supporter who did this

    ** WARNING: NO TRUE SCOTSMAN ALERT!!! **

    Honestly, anytime anything negative associated with Trumpkins pops up its either: (1) false-flag/ Hillary supporter, (2) a “joke”, (3) a RINO or (4) misunderstood (damn media!!). Like the guy screaming Jew-S-A on camera at a Donald Trump rally wearing Trump gear MUST be a Hillary plant. Because when you hear hoof-beats at a rodeo, its the zebras coming for you.

    Keeping saying it long enough and you’ll convince the guy that did it he really is a sleeper-cell traitorous HillBot and we’ll see him turn himself in. The police need a good laugh nowadays anyway….

  11. JKB says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    Sorry, but the blow out the “elite” wanted to wipe out the Trump supporters has to come in the popular vote.

    The electoral college is a different problem and the RCP no toss-up call today showed the EC as 273-265, not really a blow out there. Not to mention, Trump is the first Republican candidate to make a direct appeal to the African-American community in a long time. If Trump shows some inroads there, that will really scramble the board and he might given African-Americans have lost ground under Obama.

    And did you hear about Trump edging out Clinton in the early rounds of the Minnesota high school mock vote? And that looks like with a lot of the urban districts in that early round.

  12. M. Bouffant says:

    I am not very impressed by your use of apostrophes to form the plurals of Bushes & Clintons. Did you ever take an English class?

  13. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @JKB:

    Sometimes I wonder why I keep forgetting that you’re an idiot.

    Stay tuned for next Tuesday. You’re not going to like it.

    at all …

  14. gVOR08 says:

    Apropos Doug’s later post, this is all meaningless BS unless W and HW produce selfies with their marked ballots.

  15. JKB says:

    @HarvardLaw92:

    You think its going to be a blow out? Whose denying the polls now?

    If Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket and heading for the hills. Because it’ll be muzzle-loading season and a few days in nature will help restore peace after this election season.

  16. C. Clavin says:

    Soon after the election, December 16th, President-Elect Trump, an admitted serial sexual assaulter, will be in court for the rape of a 13 year old model. The girl who is taking Trump to court for rape is going public today at 3 pacific time.
    If we elect this man we truly are a banana republic.

    https://twitter.com/LisaBloom/status/793880513018785792/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

  17. C. Clavin says:

    @JKB:
    You think its going to be a blow out?
    Trumpkins like you amaze me. How fwcking stupid are you? He specifically said 20-24% in the EC.
    No wonder you have a man-crush on Trump…you’re unable to make sense of very simple things.

  18. HarvardLaw92 says:

    @JKB:

    and a few days … peace

    Why so modest?

    🙂

  19. C. Clavin says:

    Stay classy Republicans.
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/02/oklahoma-state-rep-hillary-clinton-deserves-firing-squad.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl
    How do these idiots get elected?
    Oh…that’s right…the get elected by idiots.

  20. stonetools says:

    I have said for some time that it is the duty of every rational patriotic American to vote for Hillary Clinton-especially if they are voting in a swing state. The threat of a Trump presidency is just that great.
    Glad the Bushes agree. I thought GHWB was a decent President. I’ll just pass over my assessment of GWB. They are right in this case to pick Hillary, if they did so.

  21. JKB says:

    @C. Clavin:

    And yet, the RCP no toss up EC today is just a difference of 8 electoral votes which is about 3%.

    So no, I don’t expect a blow out. It looks to be close. Not beyond prospects that Trump could win.

  22. C. Clavin says:

    @JKB:
    RCP includes Rasmussen and other Republican polling outfits.
    Look at 538 or PEC…historically they are far more accurate.

  23. An Interested Party says:

    Not to mention, Trump is the first Republican candidate to make a direct appeal to the African-American community in a long time.

    Uh huh, and he’ll probably get the lowest percentage of the African-American vote ever…by the way, “what do you have to lose” is a rather pathetic direct appeal…

    If Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket and heading for the hills. Because it’ll be muzzle-loading season and a few days in nature will help restore peace after this election season.

    Well, hopefully a bear won’t sneak up on you while you’re loading that musket and maul you irrevocably…that would just be so…tragic…

  24. stonetools says:

    I think that the polls are undercounting Hillary’s lead. I think Hillary’s GOTV is going to be worth 2-3 points.
    I remember 2012, when Obama supposedly had just a 0.7 per cent in the Polls. Obama won rather comfortably, by 4 per cent. I expect a similar dynamic to happen this year.
    Despite all that folks, vote. ( I’ve already voted). They don’t count expectations and hopes.

  25. michael reynolds says:

    @JKB:

    If Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket and heading for the hills. Because it’ll be muzzle-loading season and a few days in nature will help restore peace after this election season.

    This is a surprisingly effective metaphor for masturbation.

    Yes, JKB, if you are disappointed you must ‘grab your musket’ and head for ‘the hills,’ those reassuring mammary glands we all love so much. You arouse yourself with fantasies of ‘muzzle-loading’ season, then ‘grab your musket’ until release, and then symbolically exile yourself from society, in what is perhaps expiation? A cleansing ritual?

    Well, when ‘the hills’ are out of town who among us doesn’t ‘grab the musket,’ eh? Am I right?

  26. JKB says:

    @michael reynolds:

    Y’all sure are a boorish bunch. Might be able to teach Donald Trump a thing or two about being vulgar.

    And how will you be when Trump is President. The Cubs just won, so nothing is impossible anymore.

  27. H C says:

    If the 2 former Republican Presidents’, Bush 41 and 43 vote for a SERIAL LIAR, soon to be indicted Criminal………….they will forever be on my list of America destroyers, along with BO . LABELED RINOS……………….FROM THIS DAY FOWARD. DISGRACES’ TO THIS ONCE GREAT CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC………….AND TRAITORS’ TO OUR AMERICA !

  28. michael reynolds says:

    @JKB:

    Classic. You turn up your nose at mildly outré comments but propose to give 4000 nuclear weapons to a mentally unstable cretin whose most famous quote will always be, “Grab ’em by the pussy.”

    You believe in nothing, JKB, nothing but racism, misogyny, hate and spite. Empty little man.

    What’s really funny is that you think if Trumpy the Pig wins you’ve accomplished something. Sorry to break it to you, pal, but presidents do not drive culture. Trump will be a national humiliation, but we will still dominate the culture and will outlast you and your dying breed.

  29. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Pch101: Because they are afraid that the rebuilding of it will involve removing their influence on the party? Wouldn’t stop me, mind you, but that’s why I have no political power to speak of in the first place.

  30. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @JKB: It will, indeed be difficult to purge the party of Trump supporters in a party that consists of Trump supporters. True enough.

  31. JKB says:

    @michael reynolds:

    Well, if Trump wins, he will have accomplished the most important goal, keeping the criminal threat to America, Hillary Clinton, out of the Presidency.

    As you claim, Trump, as President, cannot impact the “socially communicated knowledge and behavior.” Although, Bill Clinton as the First Penis was able to affect culture, negatively, due to his boorish behavior.

    I understand you need to descend to name calling and insults. You may want to take break before you pop a blood vessel in a fit of Marxist rage.

    This is the necessary unavoidable consequence of the fact that, according to Marxist doctrine, you do not consider the possibility of dissent among honest people; either you think as I do, or you are a traitor and must be liquidated.

    von Mises, Ludwig (1952). Marxism Unmasked

  32. JKB says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker:

    And it remains to be seen whether the Democratic party leadership will be able to keep control of the party from prison.

  33. KM says:

    @JKB:

    And how will you be when Trump is President. The Cubs just won, so nothing is impossible anymore.

    Nothing is truly impossible, just really f’ing unlikely. Back to the Future was off by one year on the Cubs win, after all. The what-if game that people like to play now for his victory require quite a few ifs – CNN last night noted he needs *every* battleground state *plus* at least a blue one. A single loss dooms him. Hillary? Just needs what she already has. As much as everyone keeps trying to diminish it by saying she’s “only a few points ahead” in battleground states or in general, a victory is a victory. He needs an unbroken string of wins he hasn’t shown to be able to deliver.

    The Cubs won because they keeping winning this year. He’s not winning. Therefore, he loses. It’s really simple when you get down to it.

  34. Pch101 says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker:

    The establishment is already losing influence as is. They are hoping against hope that cowering in the corner and letting things play out. is an effective solution.

    At this point, the GOP is primed for Balkanizing. The question is one of who will be in charge and dominating the other, not whether it is going to happen. Since the rabble won’t cut deals, one of those groups needs to leave. The establishment may want their votes, but that’s just wishful thinking at this point.

  35. C. Clavin says:

    @JKB:
    Dude…you keep calling her a criminal…but 30 years of investigations have proven otherwise.
    30 years…seriously…WTF?
    Are you really that fwcking stupid? Are Republicans really that fwcking stupid?
    Or is she just so smart she has outwitted you idiots at every step…

  36. C. Clavin says:

    I see the Iowa cop killer is a Trump supporter.
    Welcome to Donald Trump’s ‘Mericuh.

  37. C. Clavin says:

    @JKB:
    Meantime Trump is actually headed to court, on rape and fraud charges.
    He has already admitted to serial sexual assault.
    And yet you seem unfazed by that.
    Now clearly the two things aren’t the same.
    You see some inconsequential emails and sexual assault and decide some inconsequential emails are the only thing that matters.
    What a maroon…

  38. gVOR08 says:

    @Pch101:

    At this point, the GOP is primed for Balkanizing. The question is one of who will be in charge and dominating the other, not whether it is going to happen.

    My fear is that many of the establishment GOPs will drift to the Democratic Party, which will be all too welcoming. This will leave a Republican Party made up of the Tea Party, Trumpistas, and probably the Kochs. So we’ll have a wing nut right Republican Party, a center right Democratic Party, and a void on the left.

  39. michael reynolds says:

    @gVOR08:

    99% of Republicans will roll over for Trump if he wins. 90% will still support him if he loses.

    They’re weak, cowardly and stand for nothing. The percentage of Republicans who actually are willing to stand up for the constitution and democracy itself is single digits. They’ve always been brown shirts in waiting, fascists by temperament.

    But we’ll pick up some college-educated women. The bitter old white men will go on being bitter old white men, but the thing with old people is: we don’t have more children, and younger people do. This cycle is the Gandalf-Balrog showdown. This is is the Balrog’s last flick of the whip before he falls to his doom and Gandalf emerges more powerful.

    What a contemptible show white men have put on this year. It is past time for women to step up and give us a good hard shove. For God’s sake get us away from the levers of power – we’ve lost our fwcking minds.

  40. Pch101 says:

    @gVOR08:

    The establishment won’t move to the Democrats because of supply-side economics and abortion.

    On the other hand, I would welcome a Democratic party that was more vocal about supporting business. We should be able to embrace free enterprise principles sans Arthur Laffer’s gibberish or excessive deregulation.

    What we’re seeing now is akin to Strom Thurmond in 1948 and George Wallace in the 60s, except that the southern bloc has morphed into a somewhat broader populist movement and it is fighting for dominance within its party instead of leaving. American history is an ongoing series of Southern-driven racial conflicts, and this is just an extension of that.

  41. C. Clavin says:

    @JKB:
    Also…Brazil just opened a criminal investigation into pension fund investment in Tump’s Rio de Janiero hotel. And that can carry consequences under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
    But you keep worrying about a few e-mails that mean nothing to anyone but partisan hacks.

  42. C. Clavin says:

    This is critically important:
    It’s pretty crystal clear now that this entire e-mail thing, as well as the Clinton Foundation investigation, is entirely the work of rabid Trump supporters at the FBI.
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/fbi-leaks-hillary-clinton-james-comey-donald-trump
    WHICH IS REALLY FWCKING SCARY…
    If Trump is elected then these brown-shirts will be at his beck and call to persecute his enemies based upon absolutely nothing at all. And if the idea of the FBI being at the right hand of a vindictive thin-skinned child-king doesn’t scare you…probably nothing will.

  43. Tyrell says:

    Who is Cheney voting for ?

  44. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @gVOR08: I could be better to simply acknowledge that there already is some void on the left and that the Democrats are. relative to global standards–as opposed to those of JKB, von Mies, Jenos, and Faux News–already fairly center right. Certainly not as far to the right it might become with an infusion of GOP establishment types, but the party is already pretty corporatist in economic policy and Neocon in foreign policy. (And I don’t expect Hillary to find her inner progressive on November 9th, either.)

  45. Pete S says:

    @Tyrell: There is only one candidate openly campaigning on a pledge to commit war crimes and pillage foreign countries while pretending to chase terrorists, I assume he has Cheney’s enthusiastic support.

  46. @HarvardLaw92: However, the GOP has a geographical advantage in House and Senate elections.

    The GOP Is going nowhere.