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Presidents and the Constitution: George Bush

George H.W. Bush says his decision to seek congressional backing before going to war against Iraq in 1991 removed the threat of impeachment that might have followed.

Victory in the Persian Gulf War marked the political high point of his presidency. But there were many low points, including congressional battles over Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court.

In an interview with NPR's Cokie Roberts, the first President Bush discusses those events, plus the pardons of key officials in the Reagan and Bush administrations who had been indicated in the Iran-Contra affair. It's the last in a series of conversations with three former presidents about the Constitution.

(Recorded as part of a WHYY series featuring conversations with former U.S. presidents.)

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Cokie Roberts was one of the 'Founding Mothers' of NPR who helped make that network one of the premier sources of news and information in this country. She served as a congressional correspondent at NPR for more than 10 years and later appeared as a commentator on Morning Edition. In addition to her work for NPR, Roberts was a political commentator for ABC News, providing analysis for all network news programming.