Mitch Perry
In Arizona on Thursday, Jeb Bush attempted to set the record straight once and for all about whether he would have invaded Iraq if he had been president in 2003.
“Knowing what we now know, I would not have engaged,” Bush said at a campaign stop in Tempe. “I would not have gone into Iraq.”
The probable GOP presidential candidate has had a brutal week. He’s been attacked from the left and the right for his initial response to a question posed by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly for an interview taped Saturday and broadcast nationwide Monday night.
“Knowing what we know, would you have authorized the invasion?” Kelly asked.
Bush replied, “I would have and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.”
On Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s syndicated national radio program, Bush said, “I interpreted the question wrong, I guess. I was talking about, given what people knew then, would you have done it, rather than knowing what we know now.”
On Wednesday in Reno, Bush said anyone in hindsight “would have made different decisions,” he said. “There is no denying that. But to delve into that and not focus on the future, I think is where I need to draw the line.”
He also inadvertently said he was actually running for president, before taking it back.
Bush’s fledgling campaign ends the week with him clarifying his response in Tempe.
His critics aren’t giving him a pass, however.
“After four days and four different answers from Jeb Bush on the Iraq War, no one’s buying Jeb’s Iraq War ‘shifts,'” wrote Preston Maddock in an email with the Democratic Super PAC American Bridge. “It’s like he’s not related to the president who made that decision … or hasn’t heard about its disastrous consequences … or hasn’t been thinking about running for president for years. His team wants you to think he’s unprepared, but he’s not: Jeb is unprincipled and no one is buying his Iraq war ‘shifts.'”
