# Bush quotes: are they real?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 27, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769 "2004-03-27T18:09:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cheddarsnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@cheddarsnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheddarsnax)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769/1 "2004-03-27T18:09:02Z")

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These quotes, allegedly from George W. Bush, have been floating around for a while. Are they real? Has Bush denied any of them?

[ul]  
[li]In 1988, GW Bush responded “pussy” when asked what he and his father talked about[/li][li]GW Bush called a reporter a “fucking son of a bitch” in 1988[/li][li]March 2002: “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”[/li][/ul]

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769/2 "2004-03-27T18:27:12Z")

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> [@cheddarsnax](#):
>
> These quotes, allegedly from George W. Bush, have been floating around for a while. Are they real? Has Bush denied any of them?  
> •March 2002: “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”

[Time Magazine, March 2003](http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1101030331-435968,00.html)

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769/3 "2004-03-27T18:34:37Z")

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There was an incident which was caught on tape during an election rally in 2000. GW called a reporter a “major league asshole.”

> [@](#):
>
> Then Bush spotted New York Times reporter Adam Clymer, who has been with the paper since 1977, serving as national political correspondent during the 1980 presidential race, as polling editor from 1983 to 1990 and as political editor during the successful presidential campaign of Bush’s father in 1988.
> 
> “There’s Adam Clymer – major league asshole – from the New York Times,” Bush said.
> 
> “Yeah, big time,” returned Cheney.

[Cite.](http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/09/04/cuss_word/index.html)

Haj

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**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-quotes-are-they-real/236769/4 "2004-03-27T18:36:29Z")

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Ugh. I forgot to put the quote from the same cite that answes the OP.

> [@](#):
>
> Though he’s done a decent job of hiding it in this election cycle, Bush has been known to use salty language. At the Republican National Convention in 1988, he was asked by a Hartford Courant reporter about what he and his father talked about when they weren’t talking about politics.
> 
> “Pussy,” Bush replied.

Haj