George W. Bush Forgives Kanye West [“TODAY Show” VIDEO]

Former President George W. Bush has “absolutely” forgiven Kanye West for calling him a racist five years ago.

“He called me a racist,” Bush told NBC’s Matt Lauer last week. “And I didn’t appreciate it then. I don’t appreciate it now. It’s one thing to say, ‘I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘This man’s a racist.’ I resent it, it’s not true.”

During a live interview with The TODAY Show this morning, the Decision Points author and former Commander-in-Chief said he’s gotten over West’s infamous “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” barb, which occured during a telethon to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina relief. Bush took a vicious public razing when thousands of New Orleans residents (many of them Black) were left trapped in the hurricane-ravaged city — most without food, transportion, and medical aid — after Katrina struck in Aug. 2005.

“I’m not a hater. I didn’t hate Kanye West. I was talking about an environment in which people were syaing things that hurt. Nobody wants to be called racist if in your heart you believe in equality of race,” Bush told Matt.

In the meantime, an apologetic Kanye says he’s no longer fielding questions about the ex-President; or anything else for that matter. The hip-hop star now wants to cut back on the number of interviews he gives because he wants his music to speak for itself.

In a series of updates to his Twitter.com page Tuesday, West wrote: “I’ve decided to fall back a bit on interviews in order to ‘sell my album’. I can’t come up with some magic trick to make people like…No more Bush questions… no more Taylor questions… no more relationship questions…. and the music is unquestionable sooooo…..”