WASHINGTON – Former President George Bush was no fan of the Big Apple, according to Nixon White House tapes released yesterday.
In a two-minute phone call between the older Bush and President Nixon in 1971, Bush confided that he loved his then-job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations – but hated living in New York.
“I don’t like that part of it, and I don’t like the family living here in New York . . . but the job has been fascinating,” Bush answered when Nixon asked him if he liked “that New York society crowd.”
Ken Lisaius, spokesman for presidential candidate George W. Bush, insisted the father’s crack wasn’t anything personal.
“The Bushes are a Texas family used to wide-open spaces. Anyone who lives in Manhattan knows there’s not a whole lot of wide-open spaces,” said Lisaius, a native New Yorker.