CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Jeb Bush has no qualms saying he won’t vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in November and now he’s suggesting other voters making that same decision would send a clear message.
"Well, if everybody didn’t vote, that would be a pretty powerful political statement, wouldn’t it?" the former GOP presidential candidate told reporters Thursday evening.
Bushdenied a report in the New York Daily News that he seemed to encourage attendees at a private lunch earlier this week in New York City to support Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.
"I haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do — I’m going to vote and I’ve made it clear I’m not going to vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton," Bush told reporters. "I'm not derelict in my civic duties, I’m going to vote, but the presidency is a place where, for whatever reason, I'm not comfortable supporting either party’s nominee."
Bush, speaking with reporters as he concluded his inaugural day as guest lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, also criticized Kathleen Kennedy Townsend for saying that his father, former president George H. W. Bush, would be voting for Hillary Clinton.
"I thought it was a little inappropriate for a person to overhear a frail 92 year old man, in a private setting,” Bush said. "To hear this and immediately go on Facebook and put it on there and then go on national television ... I thought that was inappropriate."
