George W. Bush voted for Condoleeza Rice in 2020 presidential election

Bush shared that news doing press for “Out of Many, One,” his book of painted portraits capturing the faces of U.S. immigrants.

Former President George W. Bush told People magazine this week he wrote in the name of Condoleeza Rice when he voted for president in the November 2020 election.

Last June, The New York Times reported that Bush would not vote for the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump. At the time, a spokesperson denied the claim.

In a People interview, the former president said he told his former secretary of state he had written for her. “She knows it,” said Bush, 74, “But she told me she would refuse to accept the office.”

Bush has been doing press to support the release of his book, Out of Many, One, which features his painted portraits of American immigrants and the stories of their lives.

He took the time to also clarify statements he made, in which he called current-day Republicans “isolationist, protectionist, and, to a certain extent, nativist.”

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“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,” Bush said. “My concerns [are] about those -isms, but I painted with too broad a brush … because by saying what I said, it excluded a lot of Republicans who believe we can fix the problem.”

He has said Out of Many, One is an effort to soften hearts and inspire compassionate immigration reform. In a statement, Bush wrote that the book highlights “the inspiring journeys of America’s immigrants and the contributions they make to the life and prosperity of our nation.”

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Bush also addressed the controversial border wall that Trump made a signature piece of his presidency. He said both he and former President Barack Obama both added to the border wall during their presidencies.

“The truth of the matter is: a wall won’t work unless there’s comprehensive reform, like work visas, asylum system fixed and border patrol agents focused on their job,” Bush told the magazine. “And so there needs to be an all-the-above approach to securing the border and we’ll see.”

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