Washington Free Beacon editor Matthew Continetti said Sunday that remarks by ex-presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama that were implicitly critical of Donald Trump played into Trump's critiques of the two-party duopoly.
Bush and Obama made separate speeches last week that were critical of politics in the present as too divisive. Bush's came during remarks at the Bush Institute in New York City, while Obama was on the campaign trail.
Bush's remarks in particular were noteworthy given his relative silence on political issues during the Obama years, despite any private disagreements he held toward his successor.
"Fox News Sunday" substitute host Dana Perino, who served as Bush's press secretary, told Continetti she had a theory that if Bush delivered the exact same comments in 2014, the media would have interpreted it as critical of Obama for presiding over increased divisions and a reduced American role abroad.
"I do think President Bush's remarks were more general than President Obama's, which were in the midst of a campaign for Virginia governor," Continetti said. "Striking me to the degree that they overlapped the messages, I think that feeds into President Trump's critique of the two-party duopoly."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration didn't take the ex-presidents' widely reported speeches as being anti-Trump, however.