Bush: O’Malley shouldn’t apologize for saying ‘all lives matter’

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Thursday that Democratic contender Martin O’Malley shouldn’t have apologized for telling a group of Black Lives Matter protesters that “all lives matter.”

Speaking to reporters at an event in New Hampshire, the former Florida governor dismissed the notion that O’Malley had said something that required an apology.

“No, for crying out loud, no he shouldn’t,” Bush said, according to video provided by the liberal opposition research firm American Bridge. “I mean, we’re so up tight and politically correct now that we apologize for saying lives matter? Life is precious. It’s a gift from God. I frankly think that it’s one of the most important values that we have.”

{mosads}On Saturday, protesters disrupted speeches by O’Malley, former governor of Maryland, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) at the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of liberals held this year in Phoenix.

The protesters shouted down O’Malley and Sanders with chants of “black lives matter!”

“Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter,” O’Malley responded.

The remark incensed some liberal activists, who said it was evidence he didn’t take their cause seriously. 

“I meant no disrespect,” O’Malley said later in an interview with the online show “This Week in Blackness.”

“That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect,” he added. “I did not mean to be insensitive in any way or communicate that I did not understand the tremendous passion, commitment and feeling and depth of feeling that all of us should be attaching to this issue.”

Bush on Thursday said that O’Malley should have stuck by his initial response.

“I know in the political context it’s a slogan, I guess,” Bush said. “But should he apologize? No. If he believes that white lives matter, which I hope he does, then he shouldn’t apologize to a group that seemed to disagree with him.”

The Black Lives Matter movement was sparked by a number of high-profile incidents where black men were killed in encounters with police.

Supporters of the movement argue that saying “all lives matter” ignores the specific discrimination faced by African Americans in the judicial system.