Former Florida governor and potential 2016 candidate Jeb Bush admitted that his brother, former President George W. Bush, gives him advice on foreign policy, reported The Washington Post.
Jeb has been grilled before about what kind of president he would be and whether or not he would be just another Bush legacy president. Jeb has been quoted as saying “I’m my own man.” However, there were some questions about his stance on matters concerning the Middle East. We now have a clear answer.
Jeb made the admission while speaking to a group of over 50 New York financiers.
“If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him [George],” said Jeb to the Metropolitan Club.
The event where Jeb spoke was a secret, closed-door event allegedly organized by hedge fund manager and GOP donor Paul Singer.
Jeb is rumored to announce his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race and has gone great lengths to make himself appear different from his father and brother. However, we now know he’s no different when it comes to the one issue that made the previous Bush presidents failures: foreign policy.
However, those in Jeb’s camp tried to downplay the severity of having George W. as a foreign policy advisor.
“Governor Bush has said before that his brother is the greatest ally to Israel in presidential history, he admires his stalwart support of our ally, and this is in line with his commitment to standing with Israel in the face of great threats to the security and our own,” said Jeb spokesman Tim Miller.
This basically means that Jeb is just like George, but they don’t want everyone to associate the two. One attendee of the event was surprised to hear Jeb say that George was his advisor.
“I started looking around and wondering if people were recording it,” said the anonymous attendee. “It was jarring. If video of it got out, it’d be devastating.”
Hard video evidence of such a statement would be pretty bad. It would only reinforce the fact that Jeb was also part of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC). PNAC’s mission was to promote a Reagan-style policy of “military strength and moral charity.” In short, the group wanted to “spread democracy” across the world. We saw what that got us.
It’s remarkable how people keep missing the similarities between all the Bushes. President Jeb would be more of the same.