(Reuters/Jason Reed )Former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama.Former President George W. Bush apparently did something over the weekend that is quite rare for him: He criticized his successor in the White House.
According to multiple
reports on a closed-door Saturday event with Jewish donors, Bush offered
his harshest public assessment of President Barack Obama's foreign
policy.
Bloomberg's Josh Rogin reported that Bush said
Obama had caused the US to "retreat" around the world and that Obama
had charted the wrong course in his nuclear negotiations with Iran.
"He also said Obama was
misreading Iran's intentions while relaxing sanctions on Tehran too
easily," Rogin wrote of Bush's remarks at a Nevada event hosted by the
Republican Jewish Coalition. "Bush said that Obama's plan to lift
sanctions on Iran with a promise that they could snap back in place at
any time was not plausible.
"He also said the deal would be
bad for American national security in the long term: 'You think the
Middle East is chaotic now? Imagine what it looks like for our
grandchildren. That's how Americans should view the deal.'"
Bush further criticized Obama for pulling US troops out of Iraq too quickly in 2011, though Obama has insisted his hands were tied on the matter. Both Rogin and The New York Times reported that Bush quoted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and said, "Pulling out of Iraq was a strategic blunder."
"Several attendees sensed a
tacit critique of Mr. Obama and his failure to follow through on his
threats to use force when Mr. Bush said 'you gotta mean it' when talking
tough, and that America's allies and enemies needed to know where an
American leader stood," The Times' Jason Horowitz and Maggie Haberman
wrote.
Bush has made a habit out of almost never attacking Obama in public, even when prodded by reporters to do so. In a Fox News interview last year, Bush said he felt such barbs would be damaging to the presidency.
"I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president
undermine a current president," he said at the time. "I think it's bad
for the presidency for that matter."
On the other hand, Bush's No. 2,
former Vice President Dick Cheney, has clearly felt almost no
reservations about criticizing Obama. Cheney frequently laments that Obama is one of the worst presidents in history.
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