Is it true that George Bush considered the loss of Ukraine a good thing for the Russians, and called Jimmy Carter a “village fool”?

In the Russian segment of the Internet, a text with excerpts from an “absolutely stunning interview” of US President George H. W. Bush, in which he assesses the loss of Ukraine as a benefit for the Russians, and calls former US President Jimmy Carter “village idiot Jimmy,” is widely distributed. We checked whether Bush actually gave such an interview and whether these assessments were contained there.

The interview in question has been reprinted thousands of times. Mainly in blogs, but not only. It is also found in regional Internet media, and in the opposition Ukrainian publication, and in "LiveJournal» political strategist Oleg Matveychev, former professor at the Higher School of Economics, and now Financial University. A quote from it is also on the website of the historical magazine "Amateur".

This interview was allegedly given either in October or December 1992 by President George H. W. Bush, who was soon leaving the White House, to journalist Sarah McClendon. It contains the following fragments:

“Mr. President, you think that the loss of Ukraine is good for the Russians, but the former national security adviser...
—Are you talking about Brzezinski? The village idiot Jimmy couldn't tell an apple from a cow pat in politics, so he listened to idiots and clowns. “I voluntarily resigned from the post of director of the CIA so that my name would not have anything to do with this farce.”

“You want to say that all this humanitarian aid to the Russians, all these chicken legs...
— It was all from my personal funds. The Russians needed money, and I supported them as best I could. They needed food, and I ordered them to be fed from my personal funds. There were people who shared with me, but we did not spend a single cent from the federal treasury on this. Not a cent!

“Oh, if only we could keep the Union from disintegrating, if only it got used to our kind hand and eventually became tame, like a lap dog...”

The first thing worth noticing in connection with these revelations is the complete absence of their traces in English, although it is obvious that if the interview had been taken and published somewhere, it would have been immediately quoted then, in 1992, in the original language hundreds of times. More precisely, one English text exists on the site topwar.ru, but this is simply a Russian text translated into English, which is also proven by the link to original source.

The interview surfaced surprisingly at the right time, in January 2014. In November 2013, the Maidan took place in Kyiv, and it became clear that Ukraine was leaving Russian influence. And then no one knew anything about the future Crimean operation and the events that followed it in eastern Ukraine.

So, this text first appeared on January 5, 2014 on the anonymous resource “Such News,” which is now called “Such Americans.” However, the text of the original publication is currently unavailable. But a publication dated January 9, 2014 is available on an also anonymous “pro-Russian” resource "Politicus", which apparently launched the subsequent wave of reposts.

Interestingly, different publications differ in detail. For example, there is a version of the text where Bush allegedly speaks in more detail about Carter’s former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski: “This Polish Jew with his kahal, I’m afraid, will be able to bring the country to a direct collision with Russia, they have no experience in organizing such matters - the two world wars they organized do not allow their plans to be taken lightly.”

This option is the first time appeared March 16, 2015, all on the same Politicus. There are other discrepancies in text modifications. So, the first publication ends like this: “Once again, it’s 1992. It seems to everyone that Russia is in the ass, the republics that have received freedom are rejoicing and waiting for manna from heaven to fall from the sky, everyone will have a Mercedes and a villa in Cannes. But Bush Sr. already knew everything.”

And later ones are like this: “The New-York Times dated 10/21/1992.

The entire interview between D. Bush and G. Ford can be read on The New York Times website in the archive for the indicated dates.”

How did it happen that the supposedly true origin of the text became known later? Here's how. After the text of the pseudo-interview appears bloggers "LiveJournal" began to actively discuss and look for clues on the English-speaking Internet. They quickly discovered that American conspiracy theorists had also been busy searching for the missing interview with George W. Bush. This interview was allegedly conducted by Sarah McLendon, the first woman in the American presidential pool, who interviewed ten US presidents during her career and wrote about it book.

For some reason, they were not embarrassed that in those quotes from that interview, neither Ukraine, nor Brzezinski, nor Jimmy [Carter] were mentioned. But a well-known quote from Bush was mentioned, which had long been dismantled American fact checkers. It goes like this: “Sarah, if the American people ever find out what we have done, we will be chased through the streets and eventually lynched.”

It must also be said that it is difficult to suspect George Bush of such frankness in the interview with McLendon, who made a name for herself precisely by inconvenient, pressing questions: she asked them at press conferences, including to Bush. You can watch and listen to Ms. McLendon's February 1992 interview about Bush's bid for a second term. She is extremely critical of him configured.

And of course, there is nothing like this in New York Times, was not found in American archives. Thus, it turned out that one home-grown fake “stuck” to another - an American one.

Fake

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. How Russian Media Faked Interview of George H. W. Bush with The New York Times
2. Did George H.W. Bush Say He Would Be 'Lynched' If Americans Knew the Truth?
3. stated on July 14, 2019 in a Facebook post: "Says George H.W. Bush once said "If the American People ever find out what we have done, they will chase us down the street and lynch us."