Bush Campaign Admits ‘Mistaken And Conflated’ Claim On Receiving NRA Award
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Jeb Bush’s campaign acknowledged it the candidate has “mistaken and conflated” his story about being awarded the NRA Statesman of the Year award.
The former Florida governor has told the story on several occasions, saying he received a rifle from then-NRA president Charlton Heston and was the recipient of the group’s “statesman of the year” honor in 2003.
While the NRA rates the records of politicians on gun issues, the group does not hand out a statesman of the year award. In 2003, the NRA held its annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, with Bush as the keynote speaker. The NRA’s meeting page from that year makes no mention of Bush receiving any award.
A BuzzFeed News search of various archive search engines like Lexis Nexis for the “statesman of the year” award and Jeb Bush only turned up comments this year made by Bush.
“In recounting the story, Jeb was mistaken and conflated multiple events unintentionally. Heston met with Jeb at that NRA convention and was the head of the NRA at the time, but it was Kayne Robinson who presented Jeb with the rifle for being keynote speaker,” a spokesman told BuzzFeed News.
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