Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush abruptly ended a town hall meeting Wednesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a Black Lives Matter protester raised a poignant question “about the disproportionate number of minorities killed by police”, according to the Los Angeles Times. Before leaving the venue, he is seen shaking the hand of one of the activists, who the Sun identified as AJ Buhay.
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Bush’s PR team said that he had met with “members of the movement” earlier in the day and had discussed criminal justice reform and “barriers to upward mobility”.
The Republican candidate also turned to his own education record in Florida, where he said he had “a record of empowering people in communities” with minority youth.
“As Governor Bush laid out in his speech to the Urban League, he is committed to campaigning across the nation as he seeks the presidency, talking to everyone and every community about his vision for restoring opportunity for all Americans”, the Bush campaign said.
“Black Lives Matter” activists have begun to turn up the heat on Republican candidates. They have routinely targeted Bernie Sanders, a Democratic candidate for President, even venturing onto his stage at events.
“A child that is educated, that believes that their chances of going to college and living a life of goal and meaning, is important”, Bush said.
Video of Bush taking questions can be seen here. “What about today?” Hall said later. An AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, was the scene of a mass shooting in June in which nine black people died.
Outside of the Black Lives Matter demonstration, Bush’s speech and question-and-answer session closely followed the points he’s made in several previous visits to Las Vegas.
On Tuesday he attacked Democrat Hillary Clinton for her handling of Iraq as secretary of state, saying she must share the blame for the rise of Islamic State militants, in a prelude to a potential general election matchup in 2016.
The activists pushed back at Bush, asking how he personally relates to the issue. “The net result now is, instead of having a fragile but stable Iraq, we now have an Iraq on fire”.
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“It is ironic that Jeb Bush chose to host a town hall at an early vote polling place as he shut down similar locations in Florida”, the statement said.
