Jeb Bush Suggests ‘Northern Virginia Redskins’ to Mitigate Offense of Team Name

Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, recently forced to jettison a campaign emblem paying homage to the Southeastern Conference logo, jumped into an even more heated debate: the Washington Redskins name.

The Washington Post reported that the former governor of Florida claims Americans harbor sufficient anger toward more important problems not to waste time on something so “politically correct” as changing an NFL football team’s name.

“This is not the time to have people come and feed your angst or feed your anger. There’s a legitimate reason why people are angry. Look at Washington, D.C.,” Bush said referring to a question he was asked on Fox Sports 1 with Clay Travis whether the Washington Redskins should change their name because it is considered offensive by some.

Bush added, “There’s a lot of big pressing problems here; I don’t think we need to be so politically correct, and try to, through government, take the name Redskins off. If that’s what they want, leave them alone, for crying out loud. Let’s worry about the complicated nature of our regulations and taxes and other things.”

One person emailed the beleaguered 2016 presidential contender messaging “Jeb, the term Redskins isn’t the pejorative; it’s Washington that’s the pejorative.” In that case, Bush suggested the team could change the name to the “Northern Virginia Redskins.”

In September Bush expressed the same opinion on Sirius XM’s POTUS Channel and stated, “I don’t think they should change it. 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.”

DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz slammed the former governor shortly after the Sirius XM remarks, claiming that “Redskins” is a “racial slur that perpetuates negative stereotypes of Native American people, and reduces proud cultures to an insulting caricature.”

The Washington Post reports that Redskins owner Daniel Snyder contributed $100,000 to Bush’s Right to Rise USA Super PAC in April. Snyder and the Redskins have donated to politicians from both parties, although they generally give more to Republicans.