Jeb not sure if he would have invaded Iraq

by Jesse Byrnes - 05/12/15 6:07 PM ET

Jeb Bush on Tuesday shrugged off brewing criticism over his response to an interview aired earlier in the week in which he appeared to still support the controversial 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In an interview with conservative radio host Sean Hannity, Bush suggested that he may have misinterpreted the question during his original interview with Fox News.

“I don’t know what that decision would have been,” Bush said when pressed by Hannity to clarify whether he would have similarly ordered the invasion of Iraq. “That’s a hypothetical.”

{mosads}The former Florida governor acknowledged that “mistakes were made” under his brother’s watch as president during the war, which remains unpopular among the public.

“Knowing what we know now, clearly there were mistakes related to faulty intelligence,” Bush said on Hannity’s radio program, noting former President George W. Bush “has admitted this.”

“We need to learn from the past and make sure we’re strong and secure going forward,” Bush added, also taking a shot at President Obama on foreign policy.

Bush, who is expected to launch a Republican presidential campaign soon, was bashed by conservative pundits and Democrats for the apparent misstep.

Earlier in the day on Tuesday, former Bush aide Ana Navarro sought to explain Bush’s response in the Fox interview, saying on CNN’s “New Day” that he had simply “misheard” the question.

“I emailed him this morning and I said to him, ‘Hey, I’m a little confused by this answer so I’m genuinely wondering did you mishear the question?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I misheard the question,'” said Navarro, who handled immigration policy in his office as governor in Florida.

An email from The Hill to a Bush spokesman requesting clarification had not been returned.

“Knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?” host Megyn Kelly asked Bush during an interview on Fox News’s “The Kelly File” aired Monday night, with an excerpt released over the weekend.

“I would,” responded Bush, adding, “And so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everyone. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got.”

Tags Hillary Clinton