Jeb Bush On Iraq And Afghanistan Wars: ‘I Won’t Talk About The Past’

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at a Economic Club of Detroit meeting in Detroit Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. The Detroit event is the first in a series of stops that Bush's team is calling his "Right to Rise" tour. ... Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at a Economic Club of Detroit meeting in Detroit Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015. The Detroit event is the first in a series of stops that Bush's team is calling his "Right to Rise" tour. That's also the name of the political action committee he formed in December 2014 to allow him to explore a presidential run. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) isn’t interested in talking about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially as it relates to his brother, former President George W. Bush.

“I won’t talk about the past,” Bush said on Friday when a reporter asked him about an upcoming foreign policy speech in Chicago, according to Bloomberg Politics. “I’ll talk about the future. If I’m in the process of considering the possibility of running, it’s not about re-litigating anything in the past. It’s about trying to create a set of ideas and principles that will help us move forward.”

The former Florida governor said that if he decides to run for president in 2016, his campaign would focus on a positive vision of the future rather than focus on the past.

Bush also refused to answer a question about fighting the Islamic State, only saying that he would get into foreign policy during his speech on Wednesday at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Questions on how the potential 2016 presidential candidate would approach foreign policy has loomed since he began taking steps to run for president. Most recently The Wall Street Journal reported Bush is considering naming Meghan O’Sullivan as his top foreign policy advisor, suggesting that he would align himself more closely with the more pragmatic foreign policy approach of former President George H.W. Bush than the neoconservative line of his brother.

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: