George W. Bush’s viral “candy moment” with Michelle Obama at McCain’s funeral is finally being explained, and the small gesture is turning out to carry a meaning far deeper than anyone realized. What looked like a lighthearted exchange is now drawing attention for what it may reveal about their private dynamic behind the scenes. As the story unfolds, fans are questioning whether this moment was more intentional — and more symbolic — than it first appeared. - GMT - G1

The Republican former president told his daughter Jenna Bush Hager that he gets “a little antsy” at public events

NEED TO KNOW

• Former President George W. Bush revisited a viral moment with former first lady Michelle Obama during a recent interview with his daughter, Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager
• Bush and Obama made headlines in 2018, when the 43rd president slipped her something during Sen. John McCain’s funeral
• Bush, during the interview with his daughter, said he believes the country is “starved” for more bipartisan friendships

Former President George W. Bush is revisiting his most viral moment with former first lady Michelle Obama.

The Republican former president, 79, recently sat down with his daughter, Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager, for “History Talks,” an event hosted by the History Channel to honor the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Bush Hager, 44, interviewed all four living former presidents on Saturday, April 18, in Philadelphia about their time in the White House and their message to the country ahead of its semiquincentennial.

During Bush Hager’s conversation with her father, which aired on Tuesday, April 21, on Today, the 43rd president touched on his unexpected friendship with Obama, including a moment at the late Sen. John McCain’s funeral in 2018, when a camera caught him slipping her what appeared to be a piece of candy.

“I get a little antsy, as I’m sure you know, and I was sitting next to Michelle. That’s who I sit next to at funerals,” Bush said. “And I was kind of teasing her and stuff, and I slipped her an Altoid. Not as a joke, but I thought she might want one.”

“And I got in the car afterwards, and you said, ‘You’re trending,’” he added to his daughter. “I didn’t know what trending meant.”

“It turns out, the country is starved to see a white, center-right Republican and an African American center-left Democrat having fun and being able to converse, not as political figures but as citizens,” Bush said. “And I intend to continue to try to do that.”

In a 2021 interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Bush said he had been “shocked” by the public reaction to the moment. “The American people were so surprised that Michelle Obama and I could be friends,” he said.

Obama, for her part, told Bush Hager in 2019 that she and Bush could look past their political differences and appreciate their shared values.

“We disagree on policy, but we don’t disagree on humanity, we don’t disagree about love and compassion,” she said. “I think that’s true for all of us — it’s just that we get lost in our fear of what’s different.”

After the death of Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush, in late 2018, the Democratic former first lady canceled two planned stops on her Becoming book tour to attend the funeral in Washington — where Bush created a tradition by appearing to hand her another piece of candy.

Speaking to Today earlier that year, Obama had said of Bush, “He is my partner in crime at every major thing where all the formers gather. So we’re together all the time, and I love him to death.”

Though Bush described the object he gave Obama at McCain’s funeral as an Altoid in his most recent interview, Obama has previously said it was an “old cough drop.”

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“That’s the funny thing, because they were in the little White House box, and I was like, ‘How long have you had these?’ And he said, ‘A long time, we got a lot of these!’” Obama told then-hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie. Moments like those, she added, are “what people are hungry for.”

“Party doesn’t separate us,” she said. “Color, gender — those kinds of things don’t separate us. It’s the message that we send.”