Politics

Jeb: O’Malley Shouldn’t Apologize For Saying ‘All Lives Matter’ [VIDEO]

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Thursday that Democratic presidential contender Martin O’Malley should not have apologized for saying “black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter” last weekend at the progressive Netroots Nation.

Asked by a reporter on the campaign trail in New Hampshire if O’Malley should have to say he’s sorry, Bush said “No. For crying out loud, No.”

“I mean, we’re so uptight and so politically correct now we apologize for saying ‘lives matter.'”

O’Malley was shouted down by Black Lives Matter protesters during his Netroots Nation speech. During his apology he avoided saying “white lives matter” and “all lives matter,” referring to them only as “those other two phrases.” (RELATED: O’Malley Apologizes For Saying ‘All Lives Matter’)

“I know in the political context it’s a slogan, I guess,” Bush said Thursday. “And should [O’Malley] apologize? No. If he believes that white lives matter, which I hope he does, then he shouldn’t apologize to a group that seemed to disagree with it.”

The progressive political research group American Bridge, which released video of Bush’s remarks, tried to characterize them as dismissive of the fledgling Black Lives Matter movement.

“Guess Donald Trump isn’t the most tone-deaf person today,” reads an email the group sent to reporters.

Saying “all lives matter” or “white lives matter” has been deemed problematic by progressive activists who claim that it diminishes the plight many blacks face in dealing with police and the criminal justice system.

Hillary Clinton, too, has drawn rebuke for daring to say “all lives matter.”

During a campaign stop last month in Missouri at a church five miles from Ferguson, where Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer, Clinton said: “I asked her, ‘What kept you going?’ Her answer was very simple. Kindness along the way from someone who believed she mattered. All lives matter.”

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