George Bush Calls Michael Phelps After His 8th Medal: Find Out What He Said

Sunday evening in Beijing, about nine hours after Michael Phelps made Olympic history with his 8th Olympic medal at the 2008 Games, he sat down with Lester Holt and Jenna Wolfe of the Today show to discuss his victory. After asking Phelps how "awesome" this all was, to which the swimmer replied "crazy," Lester asked Phelps to describe the phone call he received before coming on the set. Phelps replied:

I just got a call...and was on the phone with President Bush. So uh...it was pretty cool...uh...he actually told me to give my mother a hug and say it was from the president. So, that was pretty cool and we just talked for about five minutes.

Lester then asked him if Bush he asked "any specific questions about any of the races." Phelps responded:

Nothing really, no, he was... I actually met him after the 400IM and he came down onto the pool deck and we got to take some pictures so it was pretty cool.

Here's the account of the phone call from the China Daily:

US President George W. Bush on Sunday telephoned Michael Phelps and told the US Olympics swimming sensation "if you can handle eight gold medals, you can handle anything," the White House said.

"Laura and I are proud of you. Our family is proud of you, but most importantly, America is proud of you," Bush, who was here on his Texas ranch, told Phelps, whose eight gold medals at a single Games are unmatched.

"We're excited for you. You handled yourself with humility. Give your mom a big hug for me. 41 and I were honored to get a picture with her," Bush said, referring to his father, George Bush, the 41st US president.

Bush really refers to his dad as "41"?

Watch the full video of Phelps discussing the phone call here:

Comments

[cmp]

12:50 PM on 08/19/2008

Another one bites the dust ! Bush recruiting another hopeful, repug voter.

[sugarmoes]

04:45 PM on 08/18/2008

what is it with duhbyuh and thehugs all the time. oh wait... i know... he's a compassion­ate conservati­ve. "compassio­nate conservati­ve" must mean "war criminal".

[aaronr2000]

04:40 PM on 08/18/2008

Bush probably told him

"Hey. I know what it feels like to be a winner and have the whole country and the internatio­nal community be very proud of you. Unfortunat­ely it only lasted for a few days after September 11. So my advice to you son. You want to keep this love fest going? Don't betray the people's trust by doing something stupid like, oh I don't know, trashing the constituti­on or turn out to be a fraud. They really hate that stuff."

[gbht12]

04:00 PM on 08/18/2008

I wouldn't have given Bush the time of day. He is a war criminal that deserves NO RESPECT at all. He looked like a drunk fool in the stands

[grumpygranny66]

06:38 PM on 08/20/2008

gbtht12: Even though I am not a fan of the Rethuglica­ns, I must say this was of the time Bush
appears to be human. One thing for sure he was partying like it was 1999..

[ArmyCentrist]

02:42 PM on 08/18/2008

"41 and I"...incre­dibly unneccessa­ry, and if Michael Phelps is anything like his counterpar­ts in his age group, he didn't even know what the hell "43" was talking about...bi­g yawn. I'd like to see our Olympians trained in a little elocution though, you can't respond to everything as "cool" or "awesome".­.."How does it feel to be President? "Oh man, it feels awesome, this is so COOL!"

[MrJoyboy]

04:30 PM on 08/18/2008

"if Michael Phelps is anything like his counterpar­ts in his age group, he didn't even know what the hell "43" was talking about..."

Just like 99% of the rest of humanity.

[tbone99]

01:30 PM on 08/18/2008

Watch Bush drunk at the Olympics

http://www­.fourwinds­10.com/sit­erun_data/­government­/fraud/gw_­bush_ghw_b­ush/news.p­hp?q=12184­79857

[whatajoke914]

01:48 PM on 08/18/2008

Wow, what some people will take as the truth. At what point do you see a drink in his hand? And the scratch on his arm probably came from playing volleyball with May and Walsh, which was on world television­. Conspiracy theorists crack me up. Hey tbone99, let's find a picture of you hugging your mother and then we can say that obviously you have an incestous relationsh­ip.

[dexxjones]

08:06 PM on 08/19/2008

wow!, your job must get harder and harder. up is down. up is DOWN! repeat.

[grumpygranny66]

06:29 PM on 08/20/2008

tbone99: I must say looking at the pictures it a little embarrassi­ng however.
he appears to be having a heck of a time. I loved the pix of him with Mays & Walsh.

Now Walsh can say she got touch on the rear by the Prez. & Mays can say she got
her rear checked out by the same Prez. I just had to say it. the devil in me did it.:-)

[paixa3]

01:23 PM on 08/18/2008

""the boooo$$$$h­"" probably encouraged him to become a bomber pilot or wall street guy.

[Toonadude]

12:49 PM on 08/18/2008

"Heh, heh. I'll tell ya Mikey, my earliest childhood memory, although cloudy, involves courage and swimming. Seems I found myself at the bottom of a lake in a burlap sack. I was miraculous­ly able to cut myself free and swim a mile to shore. Funny thing is, my family never wanted to talk about it when I was growing up. Heh, heh."

[Aabby]

11:34 AM on 08/18/2008

LOL! I can’t believe he refers to his father as 41! What a funny dude.

[Toonadude]

12:19 PM on 08/18/2008

The family refers to W as "73".....u­nfortunate­ly, they're referring to his GPA at Yale.

[jotunloki]

01:43 PM on 08/18/2008

No, IQ.

[dm92]

10:40 AM on 08/18/2008

Bush: "Jeez Mikey, I can't wait to give you a chest bump!"

[RobBob]

10:22 AM on 08/18/2008

Hmm. One of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time, speaking to one of the worst leaders of all time. Must have been one "cool" conversati­on.

[Denemator]

10:13 AM on 08/18/2008

Who cares what he said and this coke sniffing boozing chimpenato­r was spotted drunk in Bejing.

As reported ny Belgian and Dutch newspapers­.

You won't see that on the msm.
http://www­.telegraaf­.nl/buiten­land/17160­95/___Bush­_keek_te_d­iep_in_het­_glaasje__­_.html?p=2­1,1

[1differentdrummer]

09:34 AM on 08/18/2008

How newsy. Yawn.

[JMAX]

08:33 AM on 08/18/2008

Losers always try to get close to the true winners.
W, get your sorry self back to the ranch and stay there

[MyThought]

08:13 AM on 08/18/2008

Okay, it's wonderful that he's broken records, etc......a­re we going to hear about forever, and ever and ever?

[Peddler]

10:00 AM on 08/18/2008

If it generates ratings, which generates revenues, you will be hearing about it.