Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) admitted things got a little bumpy over whether he would have authorized an invasion of Iraq given 20/20 hindsight but he added that that “ship is stable” now.
“I actually gave a pretty good answer to the question but it was not the question she asked,” Bush said of his initial comments, which came in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “And then it got bumpy —it got a little bumpy. But all is well now. The ship is stable.”
Bush’s comments follow a week when national attention fell on him after he initially said he would have authorized invading Iraq given the information available today. He later backtracked and said he misheard the question and didn’t know what he would do. Bush then reversed again and said he would not have invaded Iraq with the information available today.
Bush went on to say that a more important question is whether President Barack Obama should have kept 10,000 troops in Iraq.
“The world is radically different and so the focus ought to be on knowing what you know now, Mr. President, should you have kept 10,000 troops in Iraq? 15,000? or 4,000? That’s the better answer because as of yesterday, Ramadi has now been taken over by ISIS. ISIS didn’t exist when my brother was president. Al Qaeda in Iraq was wiped out when my brother was president.”
Bush added that “there were mistakes made for sure, but the surge created a fragile but stable Iraq…”
Watch Bush below:
