Jeb Bush says with current information, he would not have invaded Iraq

TEMPE, Ariz. — Republican Jeb Bush, seeking to end a controversy related to his brother’s legacy, said on Thursday that based on information known now, he would not have launched an invasion into Iraq.

“Knowing what we know now, I would have not engaged, I would have not gone into Iraq,” the likely 2016 presidential candidate said at a town hall event.

The former Florida governor, who is expected to run for the Republican nomination, had told Fox News in an interview broadcast earlier in the week that “I would have” authorized the invasion that his brother, former President George W. Bush, carried out in 2003.

The comment fed a narrative pushed by Democrats that Jeb Bush is little different from his brother, who left office in early 2009 with his popularity weakened by the Iraq war and a faltering U.S. economy. Jeb Bush later said he misinterpreted the question.

Jeb Bush was in Nevada on Wednesday. He spoke at a town hall Wednesday morning in Reno and was the headliner at the Clark County GOP Lincoln Day dinner Wednesday night at the Orleans in Las Vegas.