title:  WATCH: George W. Bush Just Proved He Was A Better President Than Trump Will Ever Be
text: If it wasn t clear before that Donald Trump is worse than George W. Bush ever was, it s definitely clear now.During an appearance on the TODAY Show on Monday, Bush was asked to comment on Trump s assault on the free press, and he absolutely destroyed him. 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, and it s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power. One of those people, Bush pointed out, is Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who controls the media in his country with an iron fist.In fact, Bush said he tried to persuade Putin to allow a free and independent press in Russia.Apparently, Putin didn t budge.Now Trump is copying his buddy Putin by trying to muzzle the free press in the United States, much to the glee of conservatives who think the media should operate as a propaganda machine for their agenda.Trump has declared the media  fake news  every time he sees a story he doesn t like and has even gone so far as to bar news outlets like CNN and the New York Times from press briefings.And Trump s effort to undermine the free press harms America s mission to spread democracy throughout the world because Trump is making us look like a bunch of hypocrites. It s kind of hard to tell others to have an independent free press when we re not willing to have one ourselves,  Bush said.Bush even believes the American people deserve an investigation into Trump s ties with Russia, which have only deepened and become more of a scandal in recent weeks because Trump s administration is trying to use the CIA, FBI, and top Republicans on the Senate and House Intelligence Committees to bury the reports.Furthermore, Bush took a shot at Trump s anti-Muslim travel ban, which caused worldwide chaos and was blocked by the courts. A bedrock of our freedom is the right to worship freely,  Bush said. During Bush s eight years in office, he strove to defend Islam when bigoted people like Trump attacked it as a religion of terrorism just because a few fanatics wrongly used it to justify their deadly attacks.Here s the video via YouTube.In a way, George W. Bush must be so happy right now. On the one hand, Donald Trump is a complete disaster who is acting like a tyrant. It s definitely hurting American prestige and our reputation. But one the other hand, Bush is no longer considered the worst president in American history. Trump managed to take that title in under a month.Featured image via screenshot