Interview · moment 5 of 14
The JFK Memo: Bush Calls the FBI
from Live From The NY Comedy Festival (with Russ Baker) · #80
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
5 minGuest
Russ recounts discovering that George H.W. Bush couldn't remember where he was during the JFK assassination, then reveals the FBI memo showing Bush called in a tip about a possible shooter and the Hoover memo confirming a 'Mr. George Bush of the CIA' was briefed the day after.
- 16:15Tim reads about George H.W. Bush being asked on foreign TV where he was when JFK was shot, and Bush claiming he couldn't remember despite being 45 and a Texan in Dallas at the time.
- 17:10Tim describes asking audiences at his talks whether anyone over five years old in 1963 could remember where they were during the Kennedy assassination.
- 17:59Tim found a memo: a phone call to the FBI from George H.W. Bush on November 22, 1963, the day Kennedy was killed, saying he might know who shot the president.
- 19:04J. Edgar Hoover ran the FBI for roughly half a century from the 1920s until his death in the 1970s, wielding power no intelligence agency like the KGB ever matched.
- 19:30A second memo from Hoover dated November 23 mentions debriefing two people about the Kennedy assassination: Bob Smith of Naval Intelligence and George Bush of the CIA.
- 20:01When the CIA faced pressure about whether Bush worked for them, they denied it was the same George Bush and claimed it was another man, but a journalist quickly found and interviewed the other alleged operative.
- 20:29The other man said he was recruited to the CIA in November 1963 without knowing why and was let go shortly after, working as a file clerk with no significant duties.