Former US president George W. Bush told a group of his White House aides at a breakfast Friday that he is “trying to regain a sense of anonymity,” an event attendee confirmed to AFP.

Bush also told the group that he was pleased former vice president Dick Cheney had taken a lead role in defending their national security policies, declaring: “I’m glad Cheney is out there.”

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The former president, who also touted his administration’s domestic agenda, said he was resolved to keep a low profile and indicated he did not want to be a thorn in the side of President Barack Obama.

“I have no desire to see myself on television. I don’t want to be on a panel of formers instructing the currents on what to do. I’m trying to regain a sense of anonymity,” Bush said.

“I didn’t like it when a certain former president — and it wasn’t 41 or 42 — made my life miserable,” he said in a reference to Jimmy Carter, who infuriated the Bush White House in 2007 when he accused the administration of allowing the use of torture on terror suspects.

The online political publication Politico first reported the remarks at the breakfast, which was closed to the media.