Michelle Obama explains her friendship with George W. Bush: "Our values are the same"

Twitter rained down on Ellen DeGeneres a couple of months ago when she was spotted with George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game. Netizens lambasted the talk show host for being friends with the former President, who is often criticized for his conservative politics and anti-gay history. Former first lady Michelle Obama, however, doesn’t see any problem with the pair's closeness. The 55-year-old was asked to give her take on the controversy during an interview with President Bush's daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, earlier this week. In response, the mother-of-two shed some light on her own dynamic with the 73-year-old.

"I think you’re friends with both Ellen and my dad. And they sat next to each other which caused some sort of online backlash. Your husband recently talked about the dangers of cancel culture. What do you say to people that want to be closer with each other?" Hager asked Michelle on Today earlier this week. The Obama matriarch replied, "I had an opportunity to sit by your father at funerals, the highs, and the lows, and we shared stories about our kids and about our parents."

"Our values are the same. We disagree on policy, but we don’t disagree on humanity, we don’t disagree about love and compassion. I think that’s true for all of us — it’s just that we get lost in our fear of what’s different," she added. This isn't the first time Hager and Michelle have discussed the former first lady's bond with the former President. According to PEOPLE, the 36-year-old brought up the topic when interviewing the Becoming author last month, during which she asked her why people are so interested in their friendship.

"Because I think the political discourse, the way it’s shown in the media, is — it’s all the nasty parts of it. You know? Because I guess we’ve become a culture where nasty sells. So people are just gonna keep feeding that. But the truth is much more complicated and complex than that. And I’d love if we as a country could get back to the place where we didn’t demonize people who disagreed with us. Because that’s essentially the difference between Republicans and Democrats," the mother-of-two said.

She added, "We’re all Americans. We all care about our family our kids, and we’re trying to get ahead." However, she admitted that the pair "have different ideas about what’s the best way to get there." On the other hand, she clarified that this "doesn’t make me evil. And that doesn’t make him, you know, stupid." Michelle concluded, "It’s just a disagreement and that’s how I feel about your father. You know? He’s a beautiful, funny, kind, sweet man. And I don’t know that I agree with him on everything."