A relaxed, wisecracking George W. Bush sat down Monday for a wide-ranging interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, defending the Wall Street bailout, telling an off-color (and very funny) joke about Vladimir Putin and teasing his hoodie-wearing host — even fist-bumping the young billionaire at one point.
The former president, who has been on the talk-show circuit pitching his book, “Decision Points,” did the live-streamed interview on Facebook’s home page from the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., answering questions from Zuckerberg, his co-host and the Facebookers in the audience.
Bush weighed in on the Wikileaks controversy: “It will hurt … it’s disloyal to the country.”
Bush had the crowd laughing throughout the session with self-deprecating anecdotes and observations, including a story about Putin showing his dog to the president and bragging that his animal was “bigger, faster, and stronger” than Barney (Bush’s Scottish-Terrier).”
Bush joked that the exchange bothered him a little, until Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper told him: “At least he only showed you his dog.”
Bush seemed to hit it off with the Facebook founder, needling him about about bad English grades and even chiding the 26-year-old billionaire about dropping out of college.
The whole interview is available here.
