The Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett asked Jeb! Bush whether he thought Dylann Storm Roof’s murder of nine innocent black people at AME church was racially motivated. This was his response: “I don’t know.”
She followed up with him, and he clarified his position by retracting and then immediately restating it:
Bush also said “looks to me like it was” racially motivated, but said he still doesn’t know.
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) June 19, 2015
One person who knows precisely that the murders were racially motivated is the murderer, Dylann Storm Roof, who wasn’t vague about his intentions. Nor does the the question vex his friends, who claim he wanted to start a civil war. Another person who knows these murders were about race is EVERY PERSON. And people say Dubya’s the dumb one.
In an attempt to explain his confusion, Jeb! went on to say: “I don’t know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes.” Jeb!’s publicist, Tim Miller, quickly stepped in and said “of course,” the actual front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination knows that the attack was racially motivated. What he failed to add was, “Buuuuuut…we don’t want to alienate any white supremacist swing voters.”
Jeb!’s equivocation is a calculated wink to racist America that he has their backs.
