Former President George W. Bush said the death of Eric Garner during an arrest in New York and the ensuing grand-jury decision were “sad” and that his former secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, helped him understand the issue. Bush said he had not delved into why a grand jury declined Wednesday to indict a police officer for Garner’s death in July, which touched off last week’s widespread protests, “but it’s sad that race continues to play such a, you know, a kind of emotional, divisive part of life.” Bush made his comments during an interview ith CNN’s Candy Crowley that aired Sunday on State of the Union. The former president said the protests came up during a recent dinner with Rice, who is black. “And she said, ‘You’ve just got to understand, there’s just a lot of black folks around who are incredibly—more and more—distrusting of law enforcement,’” Bush said. “Which is a shame because law enforcement’s job is to protect everybody.”
