Ellen DeGeneres took to Twitter on Monday evening to defend herself for hanging out with former U.S. President George W. Bush over the weekend at a Dallas Cowboys NFL game.
The pair were spotted beside each other at the game in a stadium suite, joined by Bush’s wife Laura and DeGeneres’ wife Portia de Rossi.
The daytime talk show host tweeted a video of herself reciting a 4-minute monologue talking about the football game.
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“Yes, that was me at the Cowboys game with George W. Bush over the weekend. Here’s the whole story,” DeGeneres tweeted.
“So this weekend, I went to Dallas for the Cowboys game. And it may not seem like a big deal for a celebrity to attend a football game, but I never leave my house. So it is a big deal,” DeGeneres began.
She continued: “So Portia and I were invited by Charlotte Jones. She’s the daughter of Jerry Jones who owns the Dallas Cowboys.
“And we went because we wanted to keep up with the Joneses.”
“We get to sit in this very fancy suite, because, you know, he owns the whole place. So his suite is — it’s fancy. And he’s got fancy friends. And I don’t mean fancy like ‘Real Housewife’ fancy,” she explained.
She showed a video she had taken at the game which showed Bush sitting beside her.
“I’ve got to say, when we were invited, I was — you know I was aware that I was going to be surrounded with people from very different views and beliefs. And I’m not talking about politics,” she explained.
“I was rooting for the Packers and get this — everybody in the Cowboys’ suite was rooting for the Cowboys,” DeGeneres said as the crowd erupted with laughter.
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She went on to address the criticism she faced after the photo of herself and Bush surfaced on social media.
“But during the game, they showed a shot of George and me laughing together. And so, people were upset. They thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” DeGeneres said.
“A lot of people were mad. And they did what people do when they’re mad… they tweet.”
The host shared a tweet from a Twitter user that read, “Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again.”
DeGeneres did not share any negative tweets with the audience but there were plenty on Twitter.
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DeGeneres went on to explain that she is “friends with George Bush,” who appeared as a guest on The Ellen Show in 2017.
“In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have. We’re all different and I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK. that we’re all different,” she said.
DeGeneres said that “just beside I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean I’m not going to be friends with them.”
“When I say, ‘be kind to one another,’ I don’t only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone.”
Bush’s rep told TMZ that he wasn’t aware people were upset until he saw DeGeneres address it on Tuesday’s episode of the show.
TMZ reports that Bush “fully supports what she had to say about it, especially on being kind to folks with views that are different than your own.”
The outlet also reports that DeGeneres and Bush “have actually grown closer recently, after he made an appearance on her show.”
Both couples went onto the field for photos on Sunday, but were not photographed together.
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