Republican strategist Ron Christie isn't buying Jeb Bush's explanation that he misinterpreted a journalist's question when he appeared to approve of his brother President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.
"He knew exactly what he was doing, the way he answered that question," Christie said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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During an interview on Fox News, anchor Megyn Kelly asked Bush, "On the subject of Iraq, very controversial, knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?"
Bush responded: "I would have, and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody, and so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got."
"You don't think it was a mistake?" Kelly asked him.
"In retrospect, the intelligence that everybody saw, that the world saw, not just the United States, was faulty, and in retrospect, once we, once we invaded and took out Saddam Hussein, we didn't focus on security first," Bush said.
On Tuesday, Bush told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a radio interview: "I interpreted the question wrong, I guess. I was talking about, 'Given what people knew then, would you have done it? . . . Knowing what we know now, clearly there were mistakes as it related to faulty intelligence in the lead-up to the war and the lack of focus on security. My brother's admitted this, and we have to learn from that."
Christie told host Steve Malzberg:
"The answer of that question should've been based on what we know now, the answer should be no. That's it. No.
"You can make a justification as to why President Bush took us to war, and I supported his decision to take us to war, but you can't mumble and say, well, so would Hillary and so would [Vice President Joe] Biden. No. Answer the question."
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