Jeb Bush is considering a run for the White House — no matter what his mother thinks.
With two recent national polls showing Jeb among the top potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders, a local Florida reporter asked the former Sunshine State governor Wednesday about a potential run.
“I’m considering — I’m going to think about it later,” he said. “So I don’t wake up each day saying, ‘oh, what am I going to do today to make this decision. I’m deferring the decision to the right time, which is later this year.”
The son and brother of former presidents continued by laying out his thought process.
“And the decision will be based on, can I do it joyfully? Because I think we need to have candidates lift our spirits,” he said. “It’s a pretty pessimistic country right now. And is it right for my family? I don’t want to even think about that until the right time and that’s later on.”
Jeb also addressed comments by his mother, Barbara Bush, who has spoken out on at least two occasions panning another run by a member of the Bush family.
“I would hope that someone else would run, although there’s no question in my mind that Jeb is the best qualified person to run for president, but I hope he won’t, because I think he’ll get all my enemies, all his brother’s, all — and there are other families,” the former first lady told C-SPAN earlier this month. “I refuse to accept that this great country isn’t raising other wonderful people.”
“Yeah, she promised me she wouldn’t keep saying this, but she’s 89 years old,” Jeb said Wednesday. “And if you have elderly parents or grandparents, you know they speak their mind. There’s not much stopping between thinking and speaking. I love her.”
A PPP poll released Wednesday showed Bush in second place among potential 2016 presidential contenders, behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 14 percentage points.
A Washington Post-ABC poll of potential 2016 presidential contenders released Thursday also found Bush in second place, though this time behind Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan. Huckabee was not included in the poll.