George W Bush reveals who he voted for in 2020 election – and it wasn’t Biden or Trump
Revelation follows criticism of Republican party in recent days
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Your support makes all the difference.George W. Bush has revealed who he cast his ballot for in the 2020 presidential race, and the answer is not an obvious one.
The two-term US president told People that the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, did not receive his backing – and neither did current President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Instead, the 74-year-old allegedly wrote-in a completely different candidate on his ballot, cast in McLennan County, Texas.
Mr Bush allegedly wrote the name of Condoleezza Rice, the first Black woman to serve as US secretary of state, instead of the candidates on offer.
She served from 2005 to 2009, during Mr Bush’s second term in office, and is currently the director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
"She knows it," Mr Bush told People of his decision to write-in Ms Rice for his vote. "But she told me she would refuse to accept the office."
Ms Rice, although a popular secretary of state and Bush administration official, said in the past that she was happy at Stanford and would not run for office.
Mr Trump, the former president, also reportedly asked Ms Rice to be his running mate in 2016, but she turned down the offer – paving the way for Mike Pence to become vice president.
During a promotional interview for an upcoming book of oil paintings of US immigrants, Mr Bush clarified comments made about the state of the Republican party on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday.
The former president described Republicans as being “isolationist, protectionist and to a certain extent nativist”, in remarks that the GOP afterwards critiqued.
“Really what I should have said – there’s loud voices who are isolationists, protectionists and nativists, something, by the way, I talked about when I was president,” Mr Bush told People.
“But I painted with too broad a brush,” he added, “because by saying what I said, it excluded a lot of Republicans who believe we can fix the problem.”
The remarks come days after another interview in which Mr Bush said Mr Trump was “undignified”.
“I feel a responsibility to uphold the dignity of the office, I did then and I do now, and I think it’s undignified to want to see my name in print all the time,” said Mr Bush of Mr Trump to CBS’s Sunday Morning.
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