George W. Bush Couldn't Believe His Friendship With This Person Caused Such A Stir
George W. Bush and Michelle Obama may not belong to the same political party, but they're still pals. Obama has made her feelings about Bush quite clear, once saying on Today that the former president is her "partner in crime" and that she "love[s] him to death."
Bush has also had nothing but nice things to say of the former first lady. "She kind of likes my sense of humor," he told People in 2017. "Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like."
The camaraderie between the two has confused a lot of people over the years, something that Bush doesn't really understand. In a recent interview with CBS News, Bush spoke of how the public reacted with surprise after seeing them share a friendly moment at John McCain's funeral in 2018. "It shocked me," said Bush (via People). "We got in the car and I think Barbara or Jenna said, 'Hey, you're trending!' The American people were so surprised that Michelle Obama and I could be friends."
George W. Bush thinks America is too 'polarized'
Bush added that the bewildered reactions to his friendship with Obama are actually an indicator of a bigger issue. "I think it's a problem that Americans are so polarized in their thinking that they can't imagine a George W. Bush and a Michelle Obama being friends," he told CBS (via People).
Bush has commented on the uniqueness of his friendship with Obama before, and his puzzlement that people just don't get how a former Republican president can be such good friends with a former Democratic first lady. As far as he's concerned, politics has nothing to do with their friendship.
"I'm kind of a needler, and she handles it pretty well,” he said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2017 (via Today). "[The friendship] surprised everybody. That's what's so weird about society today, [the surprise] that people on opposite sides of the political spectrum can actually like each other."