Former President George H.W. Bush plans to endorse John McCain in Houston, Texas, on Monday, FOX News has confirmed.
The former president is the latest high-powered Republican to step in line behind McCain, as he’s steadily built his aura of inevitability coming out of the nearly two-dozen primaries on Feb. 5.
Mitt Romney endorsed McCain Thursday after bowing out of the race last week, and former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who previously had backed Romney, told FOX News he will now support McCain. He said the Arizona senator will likely be the party’s nominee.
The endorsement of the former president and patriarch of the Bush family also could help with party stalwarts.
Asked Friday in Wisconsin if Bush’s company meant the GOP establishment was behind him, McCain said: “
I hope so because President Bush is one of the … most respected
people in our party. He is certainly maybe the finest gentleman in our party in
the view of one and all. He is a great man, a great American hero, going all the
way back to World War II, so I would be honored to be in his company at any
time.”
His son, the current President Bush, has not yet formally endorsed McCain because former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in still in the race, but he strongly signaled his support last weekend in a cable television interview.
The president told “Fox News Sunday” that McCain is a “true conservative” but may have to work harder to convince other conservatives that he is one of their own.
McCain “is very strong on national defense,” Bush said in the television interview. “He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I’m concerned.”
When asked about criticism of McCain by conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, the president said, “I think that if John is the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative and I’ll be glad to help him if he is the nominee.”
Bush said some of the criticism of McCain was the result of “probably, some personal animosity toward me. You can’t please all the people all the time.”
FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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