Jeb Bush isn’t worried at all about his poll numbers.
The likely GOP presidential candidate addressed current pre-2016 polling during an exclusive interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly that aired on “The Kelly File” Monday night, urging voters to “take a chill pill” until the election draws nearer.
“The polls are totally irrelevant,” Bush said. “I’m not a candidate yet. So, I think everybody needs to take a chill pill on the polls until it gets closer.”
While Bush saw stronger numbers earlier on, 2016 Republican hopefuls who have already officially announced their candidacy — Like Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio — have since surged beyond the former Florida governor according to some analyses.
During his conversation with Kelly, however, Bush didn’t seem too worried about his ability to win voters over with his “passion” and “heart” for leadership.
He spoke confidently about his opinions on immigration reform and the Common Core education standards, sticking to his past positions despite their unpopularity with some of the GOP base and asserting his aversion to flip flopping as some of his fellow potential candidates have done on various issues.
“Do you want people to just bend with the wind?” Bush asked. “Is that the way that we elect presidents? Running for president is tough. Serving as president, which should be the objective, is a little harder. Dealing with Putin is a heck of a lot harder than going to a town meeting in New Hampshire and explaining your views on immigration.”
Bush also knocked Hillary Clinton during the interview, casting her as an insular candidate who is forging no true connection with voters.
“I go to town hall meetings, don’t screen the questions,” Bush explained of his pre-campaign travels. “Don’t have a protective bubble like Mrs. Clinton does, don’t have town hall meetings or little roundtable discussions where I pick who gets to come and I screen the questions and the press has to behave a certain way.”
The likely GOP candidate also dismissed the idea that he will have trouble couching Clinton as a politician of the past because of his own name recognition, insisting that he’s never been a “part of Washington” like Hillary has.
“I haven’t been in Washington … ever,” said Bush. “I’m not part of Washington. I got to serve as governor of a state — a purple state — and I was the most successful conservative governor probably during the time that I was there.”
“I can tell that story and I can offer ideas that are about the future, not the past,” he said of his potential campaign against Clinton. “And I’m energetic and passionate about the things we need to fix. I don’t feel old, I don’t feel like yesterday’s news, and I’m not.”
