While on the campaign trail in Las Vegas, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush was confronted by vocal activists from the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The former Florida governor said that he and his team met with members from the group, but it appears his campaign team oversold the encounter by a huge amount.
Last Wednesday ( Aug. 12), Bush was at a campaign event in North Las Vegas that was cut short by the activists. There was a contentious moment inside the venue when chants of “Black Lives Matter” rang out and was met with responses of “White Lives Matter” and All Live Matters” from the audience.
Bush was whisked out of the building before he could address the incident but had his campaign team push out a message that he met with BLM leaders before his event. According to the Huffington Post’s follow-up, that wasn’t remotely true.
The Huffington Post reports:
There was a meeting, but no activists from the Black Lives Matter movement participated. Instead, Bush met with a local elected official, a GOP lobbyist and a staffer from an anti-poverty organization.
Kevin Hooks, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Urban League, told HuffPost he set up the meeting at the Bush campaign’s behest. His organization focuses on providing job opportunities for low-income residents. Hooks said that while he respects Bush for reaching out, he would not characterize the people at the meeting as Black Lives Matter activists. “It’s a little disingenuous,” he said.
There were three people at the table with Bush. Hooks confirmed that a member of his staff was one of them. North Las Vegas Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Goynes-Brown was the second, and she said the third attendee was Sean Fellows, a registered lobbyist for a communications firm who once ran as a Republican candidate for state assembly. The Las Vegas Sun once reported that he wore through his New Balances campaigning, and the photo accompanying the article showed him sporting pleated khakis.
The Bush campaign and the attendees have not spoken publicly about the meeting nor have they responded to media inquiries about the matter. To Bush’s credit, Hooks said that his team reached out to leaders but said that nobody took his offer to speak face to face.
Bush fumbled terribly in July after he defended Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley, this after the former Maryland governor responded to chants from the BLM that white lives, Black lives and all lives matter.
Watch video of the Jeb Bush met with the jeers from the #BlackLivesMatter activists in the clip below courtesy of KTNV.
[h/t Crooks and Liars]
—
Photo: KTNV
