Disservice?

Rumsfeld: George H.W. Bush did son Jeb a disservice with biography

By Nick Gass

Donald Rumsfeld believes George H.W. Bush did his son Jeb no favors with certain comments in his latest biography, the former defense secretary said Monday.

In Jon Meacham's "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush," the 41st president remarked that Rumsfeld served his son "badly" during his time at the Pentagon from 2001 to 2006, adding, "I don't like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything." Bush also dismissed Rumsfeld as "arrogant" and also characterized former Vice President Dick Cheney, his own defense secretary as "iron-ass" and "very different from the Dick Cheney I knew and worked with."

Speaking to NBC's Matt Lauer on "Today," Rumsfeld said that he was not surprised by Bush's comments, commenting, "No, we were never close."

"I was amazed that he said what he said when he said it, because I didn’t think it was very complimentary of his son, George W. Bush, and I didn’t think it was very helpful to his other son who was running for president," Rumsfeld mused. "So I thought it was kind of a strange thing for him to be doing."

As far as the other Donald in the political world, Lauer asked Rumsfeld if 20 years ago he would have believed the Manhattan business magnate would be leading the Republican field for president.

"It was out of the question. It’s just amazing, this election year. It’s so different from most of, if not all of the earlier ones I’ve experienced," he replied.

Trump, he said, "has touched a nerve in our country. And he’s caused people to respond in a way that most politicians have not been able to do."

"The fact that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are able to draw 10, 15, 20, 30,000 people to hear them speak says there’s something going on in our country that they’re appealing to in a very interesting, unusual way,” he commented.

Asked whether he would be comfortable with either Trump or Sanders as commander in chief, Rumsfeld stepped around the question.

“Goodness. That’s the kind of thing you’d want to get used to, and you’d have to think through. But you know, our system is amazing. It causes the American people, hundreds of millions of human beings to watch these people run around the track and then make a judgment about them, and what’s happening is, people are having a chance to look at a very deep, broad field of Republican candidates and a much more modest field of Democratic candidates and make a judgment about it," he said.

Lauer responded that it was a bit of a dodge, repeating his previous question.

“Can I see the person that gets elected by the American people serve as president of the United States, why, my goodness, we’ve been doing this for so many years? You bet," Rumsfeld said, to which Lauer responded, "You’re still good at this. There’s no question about it."