George W. Bush Kicks Off A+E Upfront With History Plug And Trump Subtweets

Courtesy A+E Networks

President George W. Bush opened the A+E Networks upfront in New York with an elaborate plug for upper-case History (the network) and lower-case history (the discipline).

The 43rd U.S. president never mentioned President Donald Trump by name. But he critiqued “America first policies” and treatment of immigrants. He also emphasized his love of reading and the importance of history in a manner that resembled an extended verbal series of subtweets of Trump.

“The presidency is more important than the one who occupies the office,” Bush said. “I understand a lot of people are concerned right now, but let me take you back to 1968.” He detailed the protests, assassinations and wars that created a cataclysm so great that Bush, then 22, “wondered how we were going to make it.” One reason America will be resilient, he argued, is its sense of its own history.

After the September 11 attacks, Bush said, “people would come up to me and say, Oh, man, you had the worst presidency ever. I said, Read about Lincoln.'”

Bush said History is his favorite TV network, and the business purpose of his appearance before media buyers at Jazz at Lincoln Center was to highlight several brand extensions of the network via podcasts, speaking series and a three-day event, HistoryCon. The presidents remarks highlighted an event that also featured Sylvester Stallone, Robin Roberts and Paul Buccieri in his first upfront as head of A+E. (Last year, just three days before the companys upfront, Nancy Dubuc left for the top post at Vice Media, leading her onetime mentor and predecessor in the corner office, Abby Raven, to pinch hit on short notice.)

In addition to touting the idea of reading (famously not the current presidents favorite pastime), Bush denounced “America first policies,” which he said “let our allies be ravaged by Hitler.”

This wasnt the first time Bush has taken aimRead More – Source

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