Last week was pretty tough for Jeb Bush, but rather than taking some time to recover, the nearly declared 2016 candidate decided to stir up more controversy. Jeb Bush has said repeatedly that the states should decide whether to allow gay marriage, and lamented that Republicans are seen as “anti-gay.” “I don’t think people need to be discriminated against because they don’t share my belief on this,” he told Charlie Rose in 2012. “And if people love their children with all their heart and soul and that’s what they do and that’s how they organize their life that should be held up as examples for others to follow because we need it.”
However, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Sunday, Bush took a much harsher tone as he explained that same-sex marriage is not a constitutional right. “It’s at the core of the Catholic faith, and to imagine how we are going to succeed in our country unless we have committed family life, a committed child-centered family system, is hard to imagine,” Bush, who is Catholic, told David Brody. “So, irrespective of the Supreme Court ruling — because they are going to decide whatever they decide, I don’t know what they are going to do — we need to be stalwart supporters of traditional marriage.”
Bush said America needs to “restore committed, loving family life with a mom and a dad loving their children with their heart and soul,” and noted that a few years ago, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would have agreed that gay marriage is a matter for the states to decide. “It’s thousands of years of culture and history just being changed at warp speed. It’s hard to fathom why it is this way,” he said.
When Bush initially declared last week that he would have invaded Iraq back in 2003 (before recanting), he added in the same breath, “So would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody.” The “Hillary held the same misguided belief 12 years ago” defense didn’t work last week, so if you’re wondering if Bush learned anything from last week’s Iraq debacle, there’s your answer.
