Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Did George W Bush ever mock death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker?
26th August 2018 | Ennis85

Posted on 08/26/2018 3:55:02 PM PDT by Ennis85

I was just on a blog post today about the death of John McCain and there was a discussion about his integrity compared to his opponents. And one of the people he was compared to was his Republican primary opponent of 2000 George Bush.

This comment caught my eye;

"In 2000 George Bush and John McCain were competing in the South Carolina Republican primary. Bush chose to spread rumours that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock, and McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was used as the proof. Bush won the closely contested primary. Bush was never a decent person like McCain, as we knew from before when he mocked and jeered at a woman sentenced to death and pleading to him, the Governor of Texas, for mercy.

George Bush Sr. also did not balk at using racist dirty tricks in the 1988 campaign against Dukakis."

I decided to do some digging and from what I found out it originated from an interview with Tucker Carlson

"From: "Devil May Care" by Tucker Carlson, Talk Magazine, September 1999, p. 106

"Bush's brand of forthright tough-guy populism can be appealing, and it has played well in Texas. Yet occasionally there are flashes of meanness visible beneath it. While driving back from the speech later that day, Bush mentions Karla Faye Tucker, a double murderer who was executed in Texas last year. In the weeks before the execution, Bush says, Bianca Jagger and a number of other protesters came to Austin to demand clemency for Tucker. 'Did you meet with any of them?' I ask.

Bush whips around and stares at me. 'No, I didn't meet with any of them,' he snaps, as though I've just asked the dumbest, most offensive question ever posed. 'I didn't meet with Larry King either when he came down for it. I watched his interview with , though. He asked her real difficult questions, like 'What would you say to Governor Bush?' 'What was her answer?' I wonder. 'Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, 'don't kill me.' I must look shocked -- ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel, even for someone as militantly anticrime as Bush -- because he immediately stops smirking.

'It's tough stuff,' Bush says, suddenly somber, 'but my job is to enforce the law.' As it turns out, the Larry King-Karla Faye Tucker exchange Bush recounted never took place, at least not on television. During her interview with King, however, Tucker did imply that Bush was succumbing to election-year pressure from pro-death penalty voters. Apparently Bush never forgot it. He has a long memory for slights." (Carlson, Talk, 9/99)"

Like from what I could see the only evidence I can see is Tucker Carlson's take on the interview not a transcript or anything like that.

So I just wanted to know out of curiosity was it ever confirmed whether Bush ever did that or if Bush himself ever denied doing so? Of all the things I've seen thrown at him over the years I can only vaguely recall this being brought up even once.


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: bush; deathrow; georgebush; karlafayetucker; texas
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last
To: 50mm

Did you switch the cups around?


21 posted on 08/26/2018 4:22:04 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

Never, EVER use the word “integrity” when talking about John McButtface.


22 posted on 08/26/2018 4:24:36 PM PDT by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85
If he did, it wasn't befitting the role of governor.

Carrying out the rule of law and letting an execution to proceed should be something absent personal feeling toward the matter. That means divorcing one's self from either supporting the execution of the condemned or trying to stop it based on your own convictions.

The death of another person is sometimes necessary. It should never be mocked or gloated about.

23 posted on 08/26/2018 4:26:25 PM PDT by Ciaphas Cain ("Progressivism" is as every kind of evil: it can never create, only corrupt and destroy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

“This comment caught my eye”

BREAKING NEWS: People on the Internet can lie.


24 posted on 08/26/2018 4:26:44 PM PDT by McGruff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

Karla Faye was nothing. She was a kneejerk killer.

Betty Lou was a thoughtful and hard-working kind of gal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lou_Beets


25 posted on 08/26/2018 4:27:32 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Grimmy

Too busy starting a land war in Asia, so no.


26 posted on 08/26/2018 4:30:42 PM PDT by 50mm (-.. .-. .. -. -.- / --- ...- .- .-.. - .. -. . /)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

“Bush chose to spread rumours that McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock, and McCain’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter was used as the proof. Bush won the closely contested primary.”

That wasn’t Bush or his campaign, it was independent PACs. Candidates have no control over that, and it’s illegal for them to try to tell them what to say or not.


27 posted on 08/26/2018 4:32:44 PM PDT by Hugin ("I fear for Hugin that he will not come back, yet I tremble more for Munin.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

Who cares if he did and I find it hilarious that leftists are still seething at Lee Atwater for taking the gloves off.


28 posted on 08/26/2018 4:42:38 PM PDT by Shadow44
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

If so, she DESERVED it.


29 posted on 08/26/2018 4:47:14 PM PDT by BobL (I drive a pick up truck because it makes me feel like a man)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lakeshark
Do we know this for a fact, or is it somebody's account of an interview that was never used?

I'm asking it because I believed it at the time, but later somebody challenged me and said he was convinced Bush nevr did that, or at least that Bush's response was characterized as contemptuous only because of the interviewer's biased (mis)interpretation.

30 posted on 08/26/2018 4:48:33 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("It is better to be slapped with the Truth than to be kissed with a Lie.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: McGruff

In any case, thank God McCain was not president when 9/11 hit.


31 posted on 08/26/2018 4:49:22 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: 50mm

That’s ok. I’m immune to iocane powder.


32 posted on 08/26/2018 4:56:05 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino
thank God McCain was not president when 9/11 hit at any time.
33 posted on 08/26/2018 5:29:24 PM PDT by McGruff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Ennis85

“’Please,’ Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, ‘don’t kill me.’ ... ‘It’s tough stuff,’ Bush says, suddenly somber, ‘but my job is to enforce the law.’”

One of Bush’s better moments. It cracked me up too


34 posted on 08/26/2018 5:51:31 PM PDT by plain talk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

Karla confessed to having multiple orgasms as she chopped up her victims—really sick stuff.

Her lawyers may have pled to stop her execution, but I remember seeing a couple of interviews where she said she was Christian and she was at peace with being executed.


35 posted on 08/26/2018 5:59:10 PM PDT by RooRoobird20 ("Democrats haven't been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

“Bush did the right thing”

Bush couldn’t stop it anyway. The Texas Gov can only give a 30 day stay and the parole board decides again.


36 posted on 08/26/2018 6:37:35 PM PDT by Figment
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: a fool in paradise

Karla claims to have had an orgasm with each blow of the pickax.

BTW, I have the last cloth doll she made. No, I’m not one of the death sentence fans. It was pure happenstance. Cute doll with no bad vibes.


37 posted on 08/26/2018 6:56:17 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: RooRoobird20

She married the prison chaplain.


38 posted on 08/26/2018 7:01:22 PM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: bgill

My stepbrother was a classroom teacher at the Huntsville Texas prison where Karla was executed. He taught prisoners trying to earn their GED’s.

His classroom had big windows that overlooked the walkway the prisoners about to be executed had to be escorted down. He saw quite a few “dead men walking” and Karla Faye Tucker was one of them.


39 posted on 08/26/2018 7:07:18 PM PDT by RooRoobird20 ("Democrats haven't been this angry since Republicans freed the slaves.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

I have a pretty good memory, and recall it just as I described it.

I have no link. It was early in the campaign.


40 posted on 08/26/2018 8:37:05 PM PDT by Lakeshark (Trump. He stands for the great issues of the day. Stay the course!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson