Former Obama fundraiser Don Peebles doesn’t appear to be betting on Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The real estate entrepreneur, who served on Obama’s national finance committee, oddly expressed interest in Republican candidates — and especially Jeb Bush — during an interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto Monday.
“My role is definitely not right now to raise money for Hillary Clinton,” Peebles confessed to Cavuto, going on to compliment Bush on the “great job” he did as governor of Florida.
He also insisted that Bush is “head and shoulders” above all of his Republican foes in terms of accomplishments in both the private and public sector.
“Marco Rubio has an amazing personal story, but we don’t need anymore good personal stories to run the country,” Peebles said, taking what could be perceived as a veiled jab against President Obama. “We need well-qualified people.”
When pressed on his apparent enthusiasm for Bush, Peebles, who supported Jeb in his runs for governor, explained that he “could” make the leap from supporting Obama in 2012 to backing Bush in 2016.
“Look, I’ve been a lifelong Democrat, partially of course because, like many others, my parents were Democrats and so consequently I became a Democrat very early on,” detailed Peebles. “However, the Democratic Party that I remember was a party of opportunity. Today’s Democratic Party is not a party of opportunity anymore.”
“If you look on the Republican side, you’ve got nearly a dozen candidates running for president,” the millionaire business mogul continued. “On the Democratic side, we have one candidate essentially dominating the airspace and they’ve been in politics for 24 years, so that’s not an environment of opportunity.”
While Peebles refused to confirm outright that he wouldn’t be aiding the Clinton money machine, he did describe himself as “frustrated” with Democrats because of their hypocritical critique of affluent individuals in the business world.
Hillary herself has, of course, hypocritically knocked CEO pay even when she herself has generated millions just for delivering paid speeches.
Ironically, Peebles spoke rather enthusiastically about the monetary strength of Clinton’s nascent presidential campaign during an interview with The Hill back in January.
“The floodgates are going to open immediately, and there’s going to be a rush to get on the team,” Peebles anticipated of Clinton’s fundraising. “There’s nobody in the Democratic Party who can match her. Not even close.”
Alas, it appears Peebles will not be one of the individuals playing on Clinton’s “team.”
