Laura Bush Thursday refused to answer a question on whether she would support Republican front-runner Donald Trump and said that she and President George W. Bush "got off the sidelines" to help Jeb Bush's struggling campaign.
"I'm not going to answer," the former first lady
told USA Today's Susan Page when asked whether she would vote for Trump. "Don't ask that."
Bush and the president had kept a low profile since leaving office in 2009, but Laura Bush said they stepped forward to help the former Florida governor's campaign.
"We got off the sidelines for Jeb," she said. "He was our candidate."
Jeb Bush ended his run for the nomination last month after a disappointing showing in the South Carolina primary. He began his campaign in June.
Laura Bush wrote the introduction to a new book,
"We Are Afghan Women: Voices of Hope," that was published this month.
She also bashed Trump's attacks on Islam and Muslims.
"One of the very first things, one of the reasons we're a country, is because we believe in freedom of religion," Bush said. "We believe that people can be religious, they can choose any religion they wanted to — or they could not worship if they didn't want to.
"We don't have any religious test in the United States," she continued. "That's what we need to remember. We need to remember what our own values are."
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