Former President George W. Bush said in an interview with CNN that’s due to air this weekend that his initial reaction to the video of Eric Garner’s altercation with New York police was one of sadness.
“I thought how sad,” he said in the interview. “The verdict was hard to understand. … It’s sad that race continues to play such an emotional, divisive part of life.”
Mr. Bush relayed to CNN’s Candy Crowley the conversation he had with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over dinner, shortly after the grand jury ruled that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shouldn’t be indicted for the shooting death of teen Michael Brown.
“She said, ’You’ve got to understand that there are a lot of black folks around that are incredibly more and more distrusting of law enforcement,’” Mr. Bush said, Politico reported. “Which is a shame, because law enforcement’s job is to protect everybody.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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