Former President George W. Bush told donors Saturday night he won't be stumping for his brother Jeb's expected presidential campaign,
The Washington Post reports.
Voters don't like dynasties, he said.
The meeting with 800 members of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas was closed to the press and off the record, but some in attendance told the Post what the former president said.
"He said that one of the challenges his brother is going to have is that the country doesn’t like dynasties," David Volosov, of Silver Spring, Maryland said. "People are going to say, 'Oh, here comes another Bush.'"
"He basically said being a Bush is a challenge," former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who also is aboard member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told
The New York Times.
Bush also said presumed Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton faces a similar challenge as she decides whether to distance herself from President Barack Obama's administration, is which she served as secretary of state.
"It’s going to be hard for her to defend or support" Obama's legacy, attendee Harvey Weingarten said.
Jeb Bush told reporters in Miami Beach on Sunday that his brother "overstates this a lot. People respect him enormously."
Still, Jeb Bush admitted, "I’m going to have to show my heart, show my life experience. I can’t be about any kind of dynastic considerations."
Jeb Bush has sought to draw distinctions between his brother and their father, George H.W. Bush, both former presidents.
In early March,
Jeb Bush was questioned by a voter in Nevada about the previous presidents Bush, both of whom were unpopular when they left office.
"Do you have brothers and sisters?" Bush asked the person who asked the question. "Are you exactly the same?"