Former President George W. Bush on Monday called for “answers” regarding Russia’s alleged interference in the Nov. 8 presidential election won by Donald Trump.

“I think we all need answers,” the Republican former president said in an interview with NBC, the first he has granted since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

“I’m not sure the right avenue to take. I am sure, though, that that question needs to be answered,” Bush said, adding that he was not the proper person to ask regarding what specifically should be done in the investigation into the matter.

He said that Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr would be the person to select – if necessary – a special prosecutor to investigate Moscow’s apparent involvement in the election.

In the interview, Bush made no criticism of Trump, despite having clearly distanced himself from the mogul during the campaign, not attending the Republican National Convention and announcing – through a spokesman – that he would not vote either for him or for Hillary Clinton in the election.

Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans believe that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference because he was a key figure in Trump’s campaign and, thus, lacks the independence needed to conduct such a probe.

The White House on Sunday did not rule out removing Sessions from the investigation but added that it was still too early to make a decision on whether or not to appoint a special prosecutor.

On Feb. 17, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the White House and several government agencies requesting that they preserve records of all communications with Russia for the investigation.

After the sending of the letter became public, Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, tried to downplay the matter, telling NBC, “As long as they do their job, and we cooperate with them, they’ll issue a report, and the report will say there’s nothing there.

He categorically denied any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials because, as he said, “top level people” in the U.S. intelligence community had assured him that that did not occur.

In his NBC interview, Bush also defended the press, saying “I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. … I mean, power can be very addictive and … corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”

Bush said that he had urged Russian President Vladimir Putin “to accept the notion of an independent press.”

“It’s kind of hard to, you know, tell others to have an independent free press when we’re not willing to have one ourselves,” he added.

In his first month in office, Trump has repeatedly attacked the press for publishing what he calls “fake news,” going so far as to call the media “the enemy of the people,” and banning certain major media outlets from a press briefing as well as breaking with tradition and announcing that he would not attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. — EFE