George W. Bush and Kanye West Make Peace

In his new memoir "Decision Points," former President George W. Bush said it was a "low point" for him when, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, rapper Kanye West said on live television, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

On NBC's "Today Show" Wednesday morning, the former president and the musical performer separately expressed their willingness to move past the contentious moment.

"I would tell George Bush, in my moment of frustration, I didn't have the grounds to call him a racist," West said in a pre-taped interview aired for Mr. Bush. "But I believe that in a situation of high emotion like that, we as human beings don't always choose the right words."

Mr. Bush said that he appreciated the remarks.

"I am not a hater. I don't hate Kanye West," Mr. Bush said. "But I was talking about an environment in which people were willing to say things that hurt. Nobody wants to be called a racist, if in your heart you believe in equality of race."

The former president said on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in an interview aired yesterday that he made mistakes in the way he handled the 2005 natural disaster. He said, however, that it was unfair for West and others in the black community to pin his shortcomings to racism.

"I can see how the perception would be, 'maybe Bush didn't care,'" he said in that interview. "But to accuse me of being a racist is disgusting."

More on President Bush's new memoir:

Bush on "Decision Points" Tour Calls Handling of Katrina a "Mistake"
Bush Regrets Few Decisions from Presidency
Critics to Move Bush Memoir to "Crime" Section
Bush: Cheney Was Angry I Didn't Pardon Libby
Bush on Palin: I Am Not a Pundit
Bush Blindsided by Abu Ghraib, Financial Crisis
President Bush: Kanye West Comment "Disgusting"
Bush Considered Dropping Cheney from '04 Ticket

Watch CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod on "Washington Unplugged" discuss details included in former President George W. Bush's memoir "Decision Points":

[debbie1120]

I will say it again. During Katrina, where was Kanye West? Not in New Orleans, he was sitting in his mansion thinking about his next attempt to 15 mins of fame. There is no difference between Kanye West and Sean Penn. They pop up when they haven't been in the lime light for a while with stupid crap.

[LIBERALS-lie]

If Bush acted like Obama-He could call Kanye racists and the LIBERAL media would attack Kanye...

[stn_sage]

Don't care! These two can beat each other senseless with rubber bats in a rubber room for all I care!!

[thebob-bob]

A distraction from the major.
After WWII, the USA executed Japanese officials for the war crime of torturing prisoners, in some cases for waterboarding. Thereafter, waterboarding was defined as torture in many treaties put forth by the US and ratified by Congress. George W Bush has admitted to personally authorizing the waterboarding of prisoners needs to be held to account.

He can claim that he believed that the information he got saved lives. Others dispute that. It's irrelevant. The fact remains that he has admitted to war crimes.

His actions are a stain on the honor of all Americans.

[GreedyOldPartee]

The shrub still has that "nobody is home look" in his eyes, something?s well never change. Must need the money to come out of his gated neighborhood and petal his memory (lies) of what the he77 happen in those eight years the country went backwards.

[hamsterattack]

i hope they talked about their booze problems. bush drank so much in his 40s his brain is fried and kanye drinks at awards events and goes onstage and makes a fool of himself. maybe they could hit a club together and get drinks thrown at them.

[samsungbuyer]

oh Bartender !! I'll have a 'George Bush' please....

[pragmatist1]

Wonder when queen Oprah is going to apologize for her patent accusation that Katrina was handled poorly because it involved mostly blacks, as if to infer that there was a government conspiracy. She and others who accused Bush for a slow response failed to appreciate that it is the city and then the state that gets things going. A city, like New Orleans, run by a black mayor who hid in the comfort of a hotel room while his city and his own kind suffered and died. I commend Mr. West for his actions. Bush was no more a racist than Obama was in Obama's very slow action to get involved with those impacted by the BP disaster, who were mostly white and businesses. It's easy to quickly play the race card against whites. I'd like to see it equally played against blacks for a change.

[inketolstoy]

I'd like to see the race card stop being played by everybody with a brain. Someday maybe those that haven't reached the point were color of skin is a variety, not a identity, will see the error of their ways, like Mr. Bush and Kanye seem to do.

[jambo223]

Bush is one of those generational evils that comes along from time to time. Hopefully, this type of evil does not come around again for a very long time. It is unfortunate that Bush ever existed. And it is doubly unfortunate that he teamed up with Cheney, another seriously evil being. Maybe this is just a dark time that so many people like Bush and Cheney have emerged over the last 100-years or so. Maybe it is because the powerful weapons and world wide influence of these less than human beings that their effect can be so widespread and destroy so many lives. There is as much reason to forgive Bush and Cheney as there is to forgive any mass murderer or war criminal. Forgive yes, but consequences are in order or we risk the reappearance of such evil again even in our lifetimes.

[nomorelibs]

So sad the liberals have no clue what real evil is. Evil like Hussein, Chavez, Hitler adn Stalin. To put this man in that category makes you sound ignorant.

[troutfishyman]

And this is newsworthy? NOT!

[mtcolquitt]

Both are losers. Who cares?????????????