Newly announced Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee wants to cut all-but-declared candidate Jeb Bush "some slack" for his shifting answers on the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Huckabee brushes off as "wasted energy" the discussion of whether Jeb Bush would or would not have authorized the invasion given 20-20 hindsight of intelligence failures,
CNN reports.
Bush's initial response that he would have green-lighted the invasion, and then his later
declaration that he would not have,
drew fire from GOP rivals, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
But Huckabee dismissed the "ridiculous frame of questioning."
"Leadership is about making decisions with the information you have, not the information people will have 12 years later," Huckabee said before addressing a meeting of the Republican National Committee, CNN reports.
"I kind of feel sorry for my friend Jeb Bush. I feel like he's been caught in the cross-hairs of an unfortunate game of semantics, and I'm going to cut him some slack on this one."
CNN reports Huckabee was more interested in the Apple Watch that Bush wore to the meeting.
"Did he say whether he liked it, though?" Huckabee asked, CNN reports, before conceding, "I just haven't convinced myself that I need it."
"I'm having enough trouble carrying on a conversation with humans, much less a piece of machinery," he said of the "smart watch," CNN reports.