Jeb Bush finally admitted he was running for president on Monday, in front of a diverse Miami crowd that was incandescently excited to hear the news.
Twitter, as it always does during these political events, dissected every single moment of the speech (and did not seem as enamored with the remarks as Bush’s live audience).
The moment that perhaps received the most initial attention, before the policy unfurling took place, concerned the former Florida governor’s views on religious freedom.
“Secretary Clinton insists that when the progressive agenda encounters religious beliefs to the contrary those beliefs, quote, “have to be changed.” That’s what she said, and I guess we should at least thank her for the warning.
“The most galling example is the shabby treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor, a Christian charity that dared to voice objections of conscience to Obamacare. The next president needs to make it clear that great charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor need no federal instruction in doing the right thing.
“It comes down to a choice between the Little Sisters and Big Brother, and I’m going with the Sisters.
There was a lot to unpack in there — that Bush sides with businesses who don’t want to pay for contraception, and the sentiment that he showed in his initial praise for Indiana’s religious-freedom law was important enough to mention in his announcement remarks.
Twitter noticed something else revealing and important about this section of Bush’s speech.
Those watching also found it very amusing that Bush expressed a wish to run as a D.C. disrupter. “We don’t need another president who merely holds the top spot among the pampered elites of Washington,” he said. “We need a president willing to challenge and disrupt the whole culture in our nation’s capital.”
Hillary Clinton got a few other mentions in his speech too — by name and by insinuation.
She seemed to respond to Bush’s announcement with a short tweet. Although there was no mention of immigration in his prepared remarks, he acknowledged a few protesters in the crowd while he spoke.
Clinton later tweeted her support for letting DREAMers stay in the U.S., as she announced last month.
Plenty of famous people and fellow candidates stopped in to offer commentary on the speech and the new campaign.
Today also marked the first time that many people on Twitter learned what Jeb means. No, not as a presidential candidate, but what the word Jeb actually stands for.
In case there are still those unconvinced that Bush is running, here is a picture of him running while his mom looks super proud in the background.
