Former President George W. Bush said that there is “pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled” in the 2016 presidential election during a Milken Institute summit in Abu Dhabi, CNN reports.
“Whether they affected the outcome is another question, but they meddled, and that’s dangerous for democracy,” Bush added.
“It’s problematic that a foreign nation is involved in our election system because democracy is only as good as the people trust in results,” Bush also said.
According to ABC News, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was involved in and influenced the 2016 presidential election, and numerous investigations have gone underway to determine if the Trump campaign had any connection to or helped the Russian government in any way.
Trump has denied any collusion with Russia.
When speaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bush said that Putin was very “zero-sum,” ABC News reports.
Bush told the audience at the summit that “Putin is a brilliant tactician who has the capacity to detect weakness and exploit it,” but said that Putin has “a chip on his shoulder,” CNN reports.
“The reason he does is because the demise of the Soviet Union troubles him. Therefore, much of his moves [are] to regain Soviet hegemony,” Bush added.
Bush also stressed that it was important to support NATO and other alliances that the U.S. has, ABC News reports. “[Putin] is pushing, constantly pushing, probing weaknesses. That’s why NATO is very important,” Bush said.
According to CNN, Bush has been very outspoken about the current political climate in the U.S. over the last year.
During a speech last year, Bush discussed nationalism and Russian aggression, saying, “The Russian government has made a project of turning Americans against each other,” CNN reports.
He added that Russian interference would not be successful, but “foreign aggressions, including cyberattacks, disinformation and financial influence, should never be downplayed or tolerated.”