While discussing Barbara Bush’s legacy on Tuesday evening, CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Jeffrey Toobin could not resist using the opportunity to slam President Donald Trump.
After news broke of Barbara Bush’s passing, Toobin rattled off the “list of adjectives” associated with the former First Lady—“public-service oriented, the honesty, decency”—and asked, “what about the contrast to our current president?”
“I mean this family, whatever else you think of the Bushes, were a family that was wall-to-wall decent… good to people… considerate of others,” Toobin said. “And I’m sorry, I just keep thinking of Donald Trump in the White House who has none of the qualities that the Bushes have. It’s just a sign of how different this country is now than it was not that many years ago.”
Barbara Bush was critical of Trump during the 2016 election cycle, saying she did not understand how women could vote for Trump. She also said that she was “sick of him” and didn’t waste time thinking about Trump.
Cooper said that Barbara Bush “was so repelled by Donald Trump” and added that Trump is “antithetical to all of the values she grew up believing and lived her life by.”
Toobin then mocked Trump for getting draft deferments because of bone spurs and contrasted Trump’s deferments with George H.W. Bush’s heroism.
On Tuesday evening, Trump ordered U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff through sunset on Saturday, when Barbara Bush will be buried at the George Bush Presidential Library at College Station, Texas.