George W. Bush publicly reveals his immediate reaction to the news of Osama bin Laden’s death

Former President George W. Bush revealed his immediate reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden during a convention for hedge fund managers in Las Vegas, Nevada’s Bellagio hotel on Wednesday.

Bush said that he was eating soufflé at Rise Restaurant in Dallas with his wife and two friends when he received a phone call from President Barack Obama.

“I excused myself and went home to take the call,” he recounted, according to ABC News. “Obama simply said, ‘Osama bin Laden is dead.’”

After Obama described his administration’s thought process behind the decision to conduct a secret mission to raid bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Bush replied by saying, “Good call.”

Bush has turned down interview requests and opted not to accept Obama’s invitation to appear at the World Trade Center four days after the mission was carried out. But he openly addressed the topic before a crowd of roughly 1,800 spectators during a conference moderated by CNBC’s Melissa Lee.

The 43rd U.S. president admitted he was “not overjoyed” by the news because the mission of finding the Al Qaeda leader was not done “out of hatred but to exact judgment.”

“The guy is dead. That is good,” he said, according to Politico. “Osama’s death is a great victory in the war on terror. He was held up as a leader.”

Refusing to take credit for spearheading the effort, Bush added, “The intelligence services deserve a lot of credit. They built a mosaic of information, piece by piece.”