Jeb Bush’s Former Classmates Say He Was A Hash-Smoking Bully

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2014 file photo, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush listens before speaking in Washington. More than a dozen potential Republican candidates are contemplating White House bids in 2016 in what’s sh... FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2014 file photo, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush listens before speaking in Washington. More than a dozen potential Republican candidates are contemplating White House bids in 2016 in what’s shaping up as a crowded and diverse field. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Thanks to the Boston Globe, we know what it’s like to get high with Jeb Bush.

In a profile published Friday, the newspaper spoke with several of Bush’s former classmates from the elite Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., who portrayed the former Florida governor as a stoner and a bit of a bully.

Former classmate Peter Tibbetts told the Globe that he smoked marijuana for the first time with Bush and other classmates in the woods outside their dorm building. He recalled another time when he smoked hashish, or cannabis resin, in Bush’s dorm room to the tune of Steppenwolf’s 1968 hit “Magic Carpet Ride.”

“The first time I really got stoned was in Jeb’s room,” Tibbetts said. “He had a portable stereo with removable speakers. He put on Steppenwolf for me.”

Other former classmates described Bush as “physically imposing” and said he sometimes bullied smaller students. Tibbetts told the Globe that he regretted a bullying incident where he and Bush sewed a short classmate’s pajama bottoms shut.

The potential Republican presidential candidate has previously copped to youthful marijuana use and since opposed pot legalization efforts.

“I drank alcohol and I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover,” Bush told the Globe. “It was pretty common.”

As for the Mitt Romney-style alleged bullying?

“I don’t believe that is true,” he told the Globe. “It was 44 years ago and it is not possible for me to remember.”

Read the whole thing here.

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: