George W. Bush critiques Trump on free press

Former President George W. Bush rarely weighs in on current political events, but on Feb 27 he offered some of his most pointed critiques of President Donald Trump's statements and policies. “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush said. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account." "Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse power, whether it be here or elsewhere,” he added. Bush noted that during his presidency, he sought to persuade people like Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect a free press. “It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent free press when we're not willing to have one ourselves,” Bush said.