When Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump referred to the invasion of Iraq as “a big fat mistake” during the February 13 CBS News GOP Debate, fellow presidential hopeful Jeb Bush took umbrage, saying, “While Donald Trump was building a reality TV show my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe and I’m proud of what he did.”
Yet on May 14, 2015–months before Trump’s comments at the most recent debate–the Daily Mail reports Jeb Bush said: “I would not have engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.”
The difference between February 2016 and May 2015 could very well boil down to the fact that Jeb Bush was trying to distance himself from the shadow of his family in early 2015–he was trying to show he could be his own man. But even in doing that, he made clear that he would not go beyond the raw admission that he “would not have gone into Iraq.”
Fast forward to February 2016 and George W. Bush is campaigning for Jeb Bush in South Carolina, making this a better time for Jeb Bush to attack Trump for criticizing the invasion of Iraq rather than admit again that he would not have invaded Iraq either.
It is interesting to note that Jeb Bush’s May 14, 2015 admission that he would not have invaded Iraq came only three days after Politico reported that he suggested he would have invaded Iraq.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.