Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) answer on Tuesday about whether he would have invaded Iraq given the information available today wasn’t sufficient for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).
Christie, speaking to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday, said Bush should have answered the question directly.
Bush, Tuesday afternoon, went on Sean Hannity’s radio show to clarify whether he would have ordered an invasion of Iraq or not given the information available today. Bush said “I don’t know what that decision would’ve been.”
Christie said Bush should have answered the question directly.
“I just think you need to answer simply and directly on this stuff. I remember that time very well, Laura, as you do too. And I think that President Bush made the best decision he could make based off the intelligence he was given,” Christie said. “But that wasn’t the question. The question was ‘knowing what we know today, would you do it?’ And I think the only common sense answer to give and the only honest answer to give is if we knew then that there was no weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq that would threaten the United States’ national security, that we would not have put American men and women in harm’s way in Iraq.”
A day earlier Christie, speaking to CNN, said that he would not have ordered an invasion of Iraq. In the Wednesday interview with Ingraham, the New Jersey governor said the question was too important to try and get around.
“I understand that in politics sometimes there are certain questions you just don’t want to answer, but I think you have to answer questions like this,” Christie continued. “These are questions of extraordinary importance for the country and if you’re considering running for president, you need to answer the question.”
Christie wasn’t the only one to pounce on Bush’s remarks. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who’s running for president, said he would not have ordered an invasion either.
Both Bush and Christie have strongly signaled plans to jump into the 2016 Republican presidential primary soon.
When did Christie become Bush’s spokesperson? Besides, I’ve seen it…he answered simply and directly and without hesitation.
Bush does not know because there are known knowns, and these are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.
Got it now?
Yes he did. He even went on in such a way that made it perfectly clear he understood the question was based upon “what we know now” and not “what we knew then”.
If a glance at his foreign advisers wasn’t enough of an answer, this little piece should remove any doubt in anyone’s head, Dem or republican, that a JEB White House would be dominated by PNAC and continue to further their agenda just like W’s.