Jeb Bush: ‘Take a chill pill on the polls’

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) says political watchers who are already wrapped up in the horse race aspect of the Republican presidential nomination need to “take a chill pill.”

In a half-hour sit-down interview with Megyn Kelly that aired on Fox News Channel on Monday night, Kelly told Bush that he got off to a fast start but appears to have lost momentum in recent weeks.

{mosads}“The polls are totally irrelevant,” Bush responded. “I’m not a candidate yet. Polls are … I think everybody needs to take a chill pill on the polls until it gets closer.”

Bush is the front-runner nationally, where he holds a narrow lead in the polls over Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

However, he’s buried in a deep pack of candidates in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state, which many view as an early indication of his troubles with the party’s base.

Kelly on Monday also challenged Bush on the fact that he comes from a political dynasty. She asked him if he was “the worst possible candidate to put up against Hillary Clinton” in 2016 because many people in the nation will be looking for a “fresh start.”

“I haven’t been in Washington over the past, ever,” Bush responded. “I haven’t been in Washington. I got to serve as governor of a state and was the most successful conservative governor in the time I was there. … I can tell that story and offer ideas that are about the future and not the past.”

“I’m energetic and passionate about the things we need to fix,” Bush continued. “I don’t feel old. I don’t feel like yesterday’s news, and I’m not.”

Still, Bush admitted he has “enough self-awareness to know it’s a little odd” to be directly related to two former presidents.

“But presidents have to lead, and I’ve led,” Bush said. “Not many people thinking about running have had the experience I’ve had, so if I tell my story … I think I’ll be successful.”

Bush on Monday night waded into a couple of controversial issues.

Last week, police gunned down two men who opened fire on a controversial art exhibit where participants were drawing images of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. 

Bush on Monday said “the First Amendment and freedom of expression trumps everything else” but that it wasn’t “necessarily appropriate” to hold the contest in the first place.

Kelly fired back at Bush on the latter point.

“Why is it inappropriate?” she asked. “Why not stand up to the terrorists and say, ‘We’re going to draw what we want to draw?’ ”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Bush responded. “The bigger problem is that we have homegrown, disaffected people, terrorists in the making that can receive a tweet or email that provokes them to drive 1,000 or 2,000 miles armed with bullet-proof vests to go and kill people.”

Bush said conservative activist Pamela Geller, who arranged the event, wasn’t the hero, but that rather the police officer who killed the two perpetrators is the one who should be celebrated.

“I’d like to see him on your show,” Bush told Kelly. “That’s the guy we should admire, because imagine what would have happened if he had not done his job.”

Bush also addressed the riots that broke out in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who died while in police custody. The city has ruled the death a homicide and brought charges against six police officers.

Bush said there was no “systemic problem” with police in the city. He blamed “generational poverty” and the liberal policies that, he said, creates that environment for the unrest.

“Baltimore, Md., has a completely racially diverse police department with ample resources to get this right,” Bush said. “There’s a proceeding underway, and these officers are innocent until proven guilty. I don’t think it’s a systemic problem. It’s poverty and generational poverty, which is really the great challenge. That is the problem and the welfare liberal-progressive state that has failed.”