By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) – Former President George W. Bush appeared Monday to take several shots at Donald Trump, including his effort to bar immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries that has been stymied by U.S. courts.
When pressed by Today Show host Matt Lauer on whether he supports the executive order, Bush said, “I am for an immigration policy that is welcoming and that upholds the law,” appearing to take a dig at the now defunct travel restrictions that many criticized for being an unconstitutional Muslim ban.
“It’s very important for all of us to recognize one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to or not worship at all. A bedrock of our freedom is the right to worship freely,” the 43rd president added.
Trump is currently crafting a new executive order to replace the one met with subsequent legal defeats, and he said Friday he would keep "radical Islamic terrorists" out of the U.S.
Bush also broke with the sitting president amid his ongoing feud with major news outlets that Trump has called the “fake news” media.
Trump has gone so far as to declare outlets such as the New York Times, NBC News, and CNN the “enemy of the American people” after a series of stories appeared to expose wrongdoing within his administration.
Trump's consternation was not shared by Bush who, like the sitting president, was met with media scrutiny during his tenure.
“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush said.
“We need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive,” said Bush. “It’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power whether it be here or elsewhere.”