Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush took his campaign to the Florida panhandle today, where he conducted a town hall-style meeting at the Pensacola Bay Center.
“I’m fired up to be in Pensacola, one of the best places in the greatest state,†the former Florida governor told a crowd of several hundred supporters filling a second-floor meeting room.
Flanked by large photographs of himself tending to hurricane-impacted areas during his time as governor, Bush leaned heavily on his role during natural disasters, including, locally, Hurricane Ivan.
“It wasn’t in the playbook when I got elected,†he said, touting his performance during the disasters.
The candidate also used his Pensacola appearance to criticize the lack of “accountability†in Washington D.C., the recent deal with Iran, and the current state of the country’s military. He also urged Republicans to be more welcoming, particularly of Latinos — “with your arms wide open,†he said in Spanish, before translating for himself.
“We should assume they all want to be Republican,†Bush told the meeting’s attendees.
Before opening the floor up to a Q&A session with the audience — where he would dive into such topics as ISIS, abortion, Ferguson, student loan debt, Cuba and gay marriage — Bush noted his party’s tendency to point out aspects of government they are currently unhappy with. The candidate suggested that his compatriots “stop moping around,†and invited them to join him on his “joyous†and “optimistic†bid for the White
House.
“What we have to do is stop saying we’re so angry about it and win the election so we can fix it,†Bush said.
— look for full coverage of Jeb Bush’s visit to Pensacola in the Sept. 2 issue of Inweekly.
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After the town hall meeting, Bush was interviewed by John Roberts of Fox News on the deck of The Fish House:
