Ellen DeGeneres will not be Twitter-shamed for who she spends time with.
The daytime-talk-show-host-turned-media-mogul used the platform late Monday night to discuss hanging out with former President George W. Bush this weekend at a Dallas Cowboys football game.
There was a bit of an uproar when the pair were spotted — accompanied by Bush’s wife Laura and Degeneres’ wife, actress Portia de Rossi — in a stadium suite enjoying the Cowboys taking on the Green Bay Packers on Sunday (the Cowboys lost, btw) in Dallas.
DeGeneres used her Twitter account to address the controversy, tweeting a video of her almost 4 minute-long monologue talking about it on her show.
Noting that it is normally not unusual for a celeb to attend a sporting event, it was a big deal for her to be seen there because, she joked, “I never leave my house.”
“So Portia and I were invited by Charlotte Jones,” DeGeneres said. “She’s the daughter of Jerry Jones who owns the Dallas Cowboys. And we went because we wanted to keep up with the Joneses.”
She then showed the audience a video she had taken at the game which showed her sitting with President Bush.
DeGeneres then joked about rooting for the Packers since she is friends with their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, and cheering every time they scored “or every time another whistleblower came forward. ”
“The referees, you guys, the referees,” she told her laughing audience.
She the addressed the criticism she faced because of being seen laughing with Bush, saying “People were upset.”
“They thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” DeGeneres asked. ” A lot of people were mad. And they did what people do when they’re mad… they tweet.”
But instead of sharing some of the negative tweets aimed at her, DeGeneres shared one which said “Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again.”
“Exactly. Here’s the thing. I’m friends with George Bush,” she said. “In fact, I’m friends with a lot of people who don’t share the same beliefs that I have.”
DeGeneres said she believes people have forgotten that we are all different and that that’s OK.
The former vegan used the example of how she doesn’t approve of wearing fur, but is still friends with those who do.
“But just because I don’t agree with someone on everything doesn’t mean that I’m not going to be friends with them,” she said. “When I say, ‘be kind to one another,’ I don’t only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone.”
Bush was a guest on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2017.