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Tag: Jeb Bush

  • Donald Trump Disowned by GOP, Laughed Out by News Agencies

    Donald Trump got the fighting side of Meghan McCain yesterday when he spoke ill of her daddy, Senator John McCain. On stage at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Donald Trump said of John McCain:

    “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

    Trump was promptly booed by some, but was given a standing ovation as he left the stage. When pressed by reporters, Trump made a half-effort to walk back his remarks about McCain, without actually apologizing.

    “I’m with the veterans all the time,” he said. “I consider them heroes. If somebody’s a prisoner, I consider them a war hero.”

    But he took the opportunity to swipe at John McCain yet again.

    “I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans. I’m very disappointed in John McCain.”

    He then called McCain “yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job.”

    Meghan McCain responded via Twitter:

    “I have a brother that just returned from Afghanistan a month ago, glad he can come home to this being said about his father and his service.”

    Trump’s would-be opponents in the GOP primary took turns distancing themselves from him and outright disowning him.

    “Donald Trump owes every American veteran and in particular John McCain an apology,” said Rick Perry, right after Trump left the stage.

    “Here’s what I think they’re going to say: ‘Donald Trump, you’re fired,’” Senator Lindsey Graham said. Graham is good friends with Meghan McCain’s dad.

    “I unequivocally denounce him,” Scott Walker said of Trump.

    “Enough with the slanderous attacks,” Jeb Bush tweeted. “@SenJohnMcCain and all our veterans – particularly POWs have earned our respect and admiration.”

    Bobby Jindal tweeted: “John McCain is an American hero. I have nothing but respect for his service to our country. After Donald Trump spends six years in a POW camp, he can weigh in on John McCain’s service.”

    Ted Cruz was not as clear, seeming to have a hard time positioning himself. He called McCain “an American hero,” but would not “say something bad about Donald Trump.”

    Marco Rubio did not have the same problem Cruz has, whatever that may be. He said, in no uncertain terms, “This is an insult to all POWs, all men and women who have served us in uniform and have been captured.”

    “This is a man who spent his whole life saying outrageous things,” Rubio said. “So, early in this campaign when he said something outrageous, people kind of said ‘Just ignore it and move on. This is what he does.’ But I think now as things have gone forward and he’s become more of a covered candidate and people have paid more attention to him, it requires people to be more forceful about some of these offensive things that he is saying.”

    “It’s not just absurd, it’s offensive,” Rubio continued. “It’s ridiculous. And I do think it is a disqualifier as commander in chief.”

    The bigwigs at Huffington Post have had enough of Donald Trump’s posturing and play. They see his “candidacy” as such a joke that they announced they will no longer report on it alongside other candidates.

    “After watching and listening to Donald Trump since he announced his candidacy for president, we have decided we won’t report on Trump’s campaign as part of The Huffington Post’s political coverage. Instead, we will cover his campaign as part of our Entertainment section. Our reason is simple: Trump’s campaign is a sideshow. We won’t take the bait. If you are interested in what The Donald has to say, you’ll find it next to our stories on the Kardashians and The Bachelorette.”

  • Donald Trump Regrets Bashing Jeb Bush In Campaign Announcement

    Donald Trump, along with many of his fellow Republican candidates, said some pretty harsh things about Jeb Bush.

    In fact, in his big campaign announcement speech on Tuesday Donald Trump was a bit harsher than the rest, saying, “I don’t see how he can get the nomination. He’s weak on immigration and he supports Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy?”

    While bluntness and swagger are just part of Donald Trump’s style, he admitted to CNN‘s Jake Tapper that he regrets being so harsh.

    In an interview set to air Sunday during CNN’s State of the Union, Donald Trump said, “I think he’s a nice person. I actually felt bad because I hit him very hard one day like two days ago, three days ago, and I said, why am I hitting him so hard?”

    Donald Trump added, “I actually saw myself a couple of days ago and I said ‘…that’s, that’s too rough. Because I really think he’s a nice man, I think he’s a wonderful man.’ I don’t know if I want him negotiating with ISIS.”

    Do we really need another Bush in the White House— we have had enough of them.

    A photo posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on

    I am officially running for President of the United States. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

    A photo posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on

    Of course in true Donald Trump style, he added, “I think Trump will do a lot better. You think so too, but you’re not going to say it.”

    During Donald Trump’s announcement, he didn’t just bash his counterparts, he also made some pretty hefty promises.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_q61B-DyPk

    For example, Donald Trump said, “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I tell you that. I’ll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I’ll bring back our jobs, and I’ll bring back our money.”

    In one hour I will be making a major announcement from Trump Tower. Watch it live on Periscope!

    A photo posted by Donald J. Trump (@realdonaldtrump) on

    He also promised, “…I would do various things very quickly. I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare.” and, “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”

    What do you think about Donald Trump’s run for President?

  • Columba Bush: Will Her Expensive Tastes Damage Jeb’s Presidential Campaign

    Columba Bush, though notoriously private, has come under the microscope recently for her decadent spending habits.

    Columba Bush reportedly tried to mislead customs officials about how much her haul was worth when returning from a five-day Paris shopping trip.

    She was then detained and fined. When Columba Bush‘s crime made it to the press, she said that she tried to mislead the customs agents because she didn’t want Jeb to know that she had spent $19,000 on the trip.

    That makes Columba Bush sound pretty normal! However, this wasn’t just an isolated incident.

    Columba Bush later said of the incident, “The embarrassment I felt made me ashamed to face my family and friends. It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”

    The embarrassment, however, didn’t stop Columba Bush from taking out a loan less than a year later to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day, according to records filed with the state of Florida by Mayors Jewelers.

    This was a pattern that continued throughout a 14-year period, costing Columba Bush a total of around $90,000.

    Backers and supporters of Jeb Bush‘s possible 2016 presidential campaign have been worried that Columba Bush’s spending habits might harm his run.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8mzOPMfXjs

    However, Bush family spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said by e-mail, “Mrs. Bush bought jewelry from time to time from Mayors Jewelers over the years. Though not required to be reported, these purchases in 2000 were included as accounts payable on Governor Bush’s financial disclosure that year, and paid off the next.”

    Sounds reasonable. Obviously, these purchases are well within the Bush’s means.

    But, it seems Columba may have, at other times, went to great lengths to keep her purchases secret from her husband.

    For instance, Columba Bush took out five different loans to pay for purchases at Mayors Jewelers. On at least one occasion, she listed the address at the governor’s mansion.

    But, on at least one other occasion, she had the paperwork sent to a P.O. Box. In another instance, the address was a UPS Store that used to be a Mailboxes, Etc.

    The big question is this. Will Columba Bush’s extravagent lifestyle make Jeb Bush seem isolated from the life of the common voter?

    What do you think?

  • Jeb Bush Fixes Social Security Number Leak, but People’s Email Addresses and Names Are Still Out in the Open

    Earlier this week, The eGovernor (as the public apparently called him at some point) Jeb Bush released hundreds of thousands of emails from his tenure as governor of Florida. It was a move in the name of transparency – Jeb Bush’s transparency. But the Bush team didn’t quite think everything through, and they didn’t double-check everything before making it all public. Most importantly, the team didn’t think about how transparent thousands of Floridans wanted to be – or more aptly put, how un-transparent they wanted to be.

    So when the big email dump went live, there was no redaction. Not a single bit. People’s email address, names, and in some case home addresses and telephone numbers were made public, along with the content of whatever email correspondence they had with the governor.

    But that wasn’t all. The Bush email dump also exposed around 13,000 social security numbers – most of which were hidden in a spreadsheet on a PowerPoint slide attached to a 2003 email.

    In his attempt to promote transparency, Jeb Bush had pretty much doxxed a good chunk of Florida.

    Now, it turns out, Jeb Bush and crew have fixed the most egregious error in the email project. According to the Guardian, the team has successfully redacted the tens of thousands of exposed social security numbers – per a Bush spokeswoman.

    But that’s it. All of the rest of it still remains – the email addresses, the names, the home addresses, the telephone numbers. None of this has been redacted.

    I’m not sure what kind of expectation of privacy these Floridians had when emailing a public figure – especially when it’s the governor. But it doesn’t take a huge leap to see how this could be problematic. Maybe May Whitfield of Boca Raton isn’t too thrilled that everyone can now see how much she didn’t want that Islamic center built in her neighborhood. Also, if you want to tell Mrs. Whitfield just how racist she is, well look – there’s her email!

    Redacting the social security numbers is a no-brainer, as revealing those likely violated state privacy laws. But think about the implications of the rest of the now publicly-available information. Shouldn’t Jeb Bush and company redact the names and email addresses of the 300,000+ emails in the archive?

  • Jeb Bush Just Released Years of Emails – Complete with the Names and Email Addresses of All Who Wrote Him

    In the name of transparency, former Florida Governor and likely 2016 Presidential candidate Jeb Bush just published all of his email correspondence from his tenure running the state.

    “In the spirit of transparency, I am posting the emails of my governorship here. Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration. But they’re all here so you can read them and make up your own mind,” says Bush on the new site, jebemails.com. The site contains a searchable database, filterable by time period. Bush has also made the emails available as original outlook files and has even published the emails as an e-book.

    You can check that out here.

    It’s clear that Jeb Bush sent a lot of emails during his time as the Governor of Florida.

    “Now that the campaign was over, how could I keep track of what Floridians were thinking? I needed their energy and passion and wisdom. Email. Everyone could email me. So they did,” he reminisces in the new e-book preface. “Millions of emails came in through our website, but it was when I made my personal email – jeb@jeb.org – public that I earned the nickname ‘The eGovernor.’”

    According to Bush, he spent 30 hours a week emailing citizens. And he may have just pissed off a good swath of them.

    Go take a look at the email database. You’ll see emails spanning nearly a decade, dozens every single day. What you won’t see are any redactions. Not a single one.

    Every email has been published as is, including the full names and email addresses of the Floridians who emailed Bush from 1999 to 2007.

    Now, it’s unclear whether or not these people had any expectation of privacy when emailing a public figure – especially one in the state government. Especially when it’s the Governor himself. But if I had to guess, I’d say plenty did.

    I’m sure it would only take a few minutes to find handfuls of emails that contain some sensitive content – controversial opinions perhaps. Now those opinions are public, and tied to people’s names and email addresses.

    It just makes you wonder why the Jeb Bush staff didn’t employ some black bars. Someone should’ve seen how this could be an issue.

  • Jeb Bush Joins Instagram, Announces PAC

    Jeb Bush Joins Instagram, Announces PAC

    Today, former Florida governor Jeb Bush announced the formation of a new political action committee, a move that people are calling his “most direct step yet toward a 2016 presidential bid”.

    And he made the announcement on social media – both Facebook and, for the first time, Instagram.

    “Today we’re launching the #RighttoRise PAC to support candidates who agree with me that #conservative values are exactly what this country needs,” the presumed 2016 candidate posted on Instagram.

    Bush’s new Instagram account isn’t yet verified, and still hasn’t cracked 1,000 followers.

    He posted the same message in Spanish:

    “We will celebrate success and risk taking, protect liberty, cherish free enterprise, strengthen our national defense, embrace the energy revolution, fix our broken and obsolete immigration system, and give all children a better future by transforming our education system through choice, high standards and accountability,” a Bush source told Fox News of the Right to Rise PAC.

    Bush already has a decent presence on Facebook (about 132,000 likes) and Twitter (146,000 followers). With every presidential election, social media will continue to become more and more important. He’ll need to grow that following by a great deal if he does decide to run in 2016.

    Image via Jeb Bush, Facebook

  • Marijuana Legalization: Jeb Bush Just Says No in Florida

    Come November, when Floridians go to the ballot box, they will have the opportunity to vote on a ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Florida. The initiative is extremely popular in the Sunshine State, with 88 percent support among residents.

    Florida’s voters have had the opportunity to see how legalization in varying degrees has panned out in other states. Perhaps they have heard that traffic fatalities are actually down in Denver. Or perhaps they now know that the dire predictions of rampant underage marijuana use have never come to pass. In fact, underage use is down, thanks to growers and sellers who will do whatever it takes to keep kids from buying. Whatever has done the trick, the pleas of legalization opponents is finding no purchase in voters who respond to polling.

    Now former Florida governor and heir to the Bush family political dynasty, Jeb Bush, is coming out to make his opinion known. Jeb Bush says Florida should Just Say No to medical marijuana because is makes the state look bad.

    “Florida leaders and citizens have worked for years to make the Sunshine State a world-class location to start or run a business, a family-friendly destination for tourism and a desirable place to raise a family or retire,” Bush said.

    “Allowing large-scale, marijuana operations to take root across Florida, under the guise of using it for medicinal purposes, runs counter to all of these efforts. I strongly urge Floridians to vote against Amendment 2 this November,” he said.

    When an initiative is as strongly supported as this one is in Florida, it doesn’t much matter where any one politician lands on it. It is going to pass anyway. Perhaps Bush is laying groundwork for his future presidential run plans by staking out his position on this topic now for his base of conservative voters. Then, once the initiative passes anyway, he can always say he opposed it, with no consequence.

    In any case, Florida voters are overwhelmingly turning pro-pot. Not only is the medical marijuana initiative receiving strong support, as noted, but even the notion of legalizing recreational use makes a strong showing. Fifty-five percent of Floridians are supportive of legalizing adult recreational use of marijuana, and only 41 percent oppose it.

    Image via YouTube

  • Jeb Bush: Should He Run For President Or VP?

    Jeb Bush is famously silent on his intent to run for President. It is rumored that even his brother, George W. Bush, doesn’t know his leanings on the subject yet.

    But, while many have said that Jeb Bush would make a great Republican nominee, some say that he would make an even better candidate for Veep.

    Jeb Bush’s stance on immigration reform and education make him swing a little more moderate than some on the far right and Tea Partiers would like. However, should an extreme conservative (see Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, etc) gain the nominee, many think that Jeb Bush would be a great way to find balance and draw in more moderate Republican voters who otherwise wouldn’t touch a double Tea Party ticket.

    A prominent Republican consultant is quoted as saying,

    “Jeb would be perfectly acceptable to the base if the nominee is a proven conservative. If it’s [New Jersey Governor Chris] Christie or some moderate, Jeb would be a no go. On the other hand, if a right-wing nominee wanted to make a bow towards the middle and add some Hispanic vote appeal, Jeb would be a good choice.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iq98FwIiMI

    There is rampant speculation as election talk begins to fly, of course, but many maintain that Hillary Clinton could be the Democratic nominee. So, how would a Jeb Bush/Hillary Clinton face off go? Not that well, says a reporter from the National Journal.

    “Clinton’s challenge will be to maintain her above-water favorability ratings, despite being closely tied to an unpopular administration…. Many of these voters have become disillusioned under the Obama administration and have been trending away from the Democratic Party. The good news for Clinton is that they’re receptive to her candidacy. The bad news is that once she announces as a candidate, there’s a risk that her appeal fades away with these groups as Republican attacks begin…. As accomplished as Jeb Bush is, the notion that he’d be the party’s strongest contender against Clinton is fanciful—and that’s if he could even manage to get out of a primary. He hasn’t won an election since 2002, he’s proven slow to adapt to the new media landscape and navigating the waters between establishment leadership and the tea-party grassroots. Most importantly, his last name carries significant baggage.”

    It is rumored that Jeb’s wife, Columba doesn’t want him running for president because of the time and incredible stress involved. But, Jeb Bush’s mama thinks he’d be great in office.

    “I just don’t understand it. And maybe Jeb’s given all he should give, because he’s worked awfully hard for a long time. But he is the best qualified person in the country, there’s no question about it.”

    Could a run for VP make the most sense to satisfy Jeb Bush’s diligent commitment to serving his country as well as his wife’s wishes that he not go overboard and become a slave to his campaign?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Jeb Bush Earns Praise At New York City Event

    During an appearance at a Manhattan Institute dinner, Jeb Bush garnered praise from members of the audience, which included political donors from the Big Apple, conservatives, and even Chris Christie supporter former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. A possible presidential candidate for 2016, Bush delivered an emphatic speech at the event that focused on the decline of the US economy due to immigration issues and the quality of public education.

    The former governor of Florida and fellow Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin were honorees at the annual affair hosted by conservative free market think tank Manhattan Institute, which is led by businessman and major donor Paul E. Singer. Bush and Ryan both placed emphasis on reducing poverty in the US by improving the poor’s quality of life. Ryan, who is also believed to be running for president in 2016, did not get as much attention as Bush did at the event.

    Bush started off his speech with a cautionary message – one that warns the audience of a declining US economy. The ‘American Dream’, as he called it, is being replaced by a widening disparity between the two extreme economic and social classes – the extremely wealthy and the poor. The middle class, Bush stated, is “shrinking” and experiencing the most pressure to improve their living conditions. He added that a “majority of Americans” think that future generations will have fewer opportunities than what they had.

    Better education, lower taxes, and more support for American families were some of the solutions that Bush suggested in his speech.

    Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who gave Bush’s introduction, stated that the Texas-born Republican got elected in Florida with more than 60 percent of the Hispanic demographic. Coincidentally, Bush earned a degree in Latin American Affairs from the University of Texas. He is also the first and only Republican governor to have served two full terms in Florida.

    Will Jeb Bush Run For President?

     Image via YouTube

  • George P. Bush Files To Run For Office In Texas

    It looks like there will be a Bush on the ballot in Texas again.

    George Prescott Bush, grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, nephew of former President George W. Bush, and son of former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, has filed to run for Texas Land Commissioner for the Republican Party.

    Politics obviously run in the family.

    The 37-year-old Bush even took to Instagram and Twitter to let everyone know he had officially filed the paper work to run for office. The following photo was captioned, “It’s official! I filed my paperwork this afternoon to be your Republican candidate for Texas Land Commissioner–lots of work ahead and excited to potentially serve this Great State! #txlandcomm”

    The move into politics for this Fort Worth lawyer comes at a time when the Republican Party is looking for the Hispanic vote. Bush is the perfect face to woo the hispanic vote, being that he himself is Hispanic and can speak Spanish. Bush’s mother, Columba Garnica Gallo (Bush) was born in León, Guanajuato, Mexico. He was even the chairman of the Hispanic Republicans of Texas.

    Bush is only the second Republican to file for the office according to Spencer Yeldell, the Republican party’s communications director. Right now he will be up against Republican David Watts, an East Texas businessman, and Democrat John Cook, former mayor of El Paso.

    The younger Bush had already raised $3.3 million by mid-summer for his land commissioner campaign, at a time when there wasn’t even a democrat in the race.

    Last year, Bush announced his intent to run for a statewide office when he filed paperwork with the Texas Ethics Commission. This led many to speculate which office Bush would be running for, but once he filed paperwork to get a campaign treasurer in March, people knew he was planning to run for Texas Land Commissioner.

    Current Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is trying to become the Republican party’s nominee for lieutenant governor.

    One person on Twitter sees this as a stepping stone for Bush which could one day lead to the presidency.

    Although, another person on Twitter hopes Bush doesn’t win this race and puts a halt to his political career.

    [Image via Instagram.]