Fox News’ Brit Hume and Chris Wallace praise Bush for protecting country

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As President Bush descended the Capitol steps to take his place at the Obama inauguration, Fox News co-anchors Chris Wallace and Brit Hume made a case for the greatness of the 43rd president, who’s leaving office with record-low approval ratings.

‘Historians will be saying it now and for a long time,’ Wallace said. ‘He took care of Job One, which was to protect the country. And who among us on Sept. 12, 2001, would have thought that we could say that the homeland has not been attacked since.’

Hume agreed. ‘That this country would pass into a new presidency eight years later with not a single attack? i certainly didn’t believe that. I woke up every morning for six months wondering whether we’d been attacked again.’

And that is why, Hume said, it is too early to pass judgment on the last eight years. ‘We may not be able to judge the magnanimity of that — or, uh, the enormity of that — for some time. Because a lot of what happened, a lot of things that got taken care of behind the scenes, cannot be made known. They’re classified, they’re secret operations. ... So it will be very hard to judge this presidency until all is known about what was going on behind the scenes here and abroad.’

— Scott Collins