Former Vice President Joe Biden criticized the "demeaning" nature of today's politics as he presented the National Constitution Center's Liberty Medal to former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush in Philadelphia on Sunday, CNN reported.
"As President Bush was my opposition as the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he was never my enemy," Biden said. "Think how demeaning our politics has become in terms of how we talk about one another. There's the opposition, not the enemies."
As chair of the center's board, Biden was the one who presented the award and said it “is a critical reminder that neither Republicans nor Democrats hold a monopoly on the values and the ideals that define us as a nation."
Biden a frequent critic of Trump and considered a likely Democratic candidate for president in 2020, said "It's no secret President Bush and I occasionally had our political disagreements. I always respected the president.”
He added that “We had a disagreement on a number of issues, which we made pretty clear to one another in private, and we were never hesitant to tell each other the honest to God's truth as we saw. That's the way the system is supposed to work -- voices raised in a contest of ideas to determine the direction we take as a nation."
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