Jeb Bush is running for president. Really, he just said so—by mistake.
In a moment of accidental honesty, the former Republican governor of Florida, who has not officially declared his 2016 bid for the White House, told Reno, Nev., NBC News affiliate KRNV News 4, “I’m running for president in 2016.”
It doesn’t get clearer than that!
Catching his gaffe, Bush quickly reversed his candidate status within the same sentence: “I’m running for president in 2016, and the focus is going to be how we—if I run—how we create high, sustained economic growth.”
Of course, everyone knows Bush has his eyes on the Oval Office. It’s in his blood, after all. But this appears to be the first time he’s blatantly said so in public.
Now the hard part begins. According to the Real Clear Politics poll average, Bush leads the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls by just 0.6 percent, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio hot on his tail.
Were Bush to land the Republican nomination, however, he’ll likely face stiff competition from Hillary Clinton, who leads her fellow Democrats by 52 percent and leads Bush 57 percent to 30 percent on prediction market Predictit.
Illustration by Jason Reed
