Jeb Bush Supports Redskins: 'I Don't Find It Offensive'

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, countering  Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid, says the Washington Redskins should keep their nickname.

Speaking on the premiere of “The Arena” radio program, Bush stated, “I don’t think it should change it. But again, I don’t think politicians ought to be having any say about that, to be honest with you. I don’t find it offensive. Native American tribes generally don’t find it offensive.”

Bush cited the 2005 decision by the NCAA to allow Florida State University to retain its Seminoles nickname while Bush served as governor of Florida. He recalled, “We had a similar kind of flap with FSU, if you recall, the Seminoles. And the Seminole tribe itself kind of came to the defense of the university and it subsided. It’s a sport, for crying out loud. It’s a football team. Washington has a huge fan base — I’m missing something here, I guess.”

At the time of the NCAA decision, the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma supported the university keeping its nickname.

In June, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board terminated the Redskins’ trademark registrations, calling them “disparaging to Native Americans at the respective times they were registered.”