While addressing the Oregon Massacre, Jeb Bush spoke out against more gun control on Friday in South Carolina. His words were taken out of context to sound like he was being flippant about the tragedy by Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, who tweeted:
In Greenville, South Carolina, Jeb Bush, arguing against calls for gun control after major tragedy, says, “stuff happens.”— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 2, 2015
The full context of Bush’s remark makes it clear that the former Florida Governor was not shrugging off the tragedy. Nevertheless Lizza’s tweet was retweeted over 1,000 times within an hour and cited in several articles, including one from The Daily Beast, which features a video of Jeb defending his comment. Bush’s full remarks are in the video below: As other political reporters have since pointed out, Lizza took Bush’s words wildly out of context:
This is the full “stuff happens” quote from Jeb pic.twitter.com/0CAOnNBf4f— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 2, 2015
The context makes pretty clear that Jeb wasn’t shrugging about the Oregon shooting. He was making a point that crises arise in the country.— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) October 2, 2015
After getting heat for his deceptively edited tweet, Lizza released what he deemed as the “full” quote.
Full “stuff happens” quote: pic.twitter.com/ay2dbLd0Lw
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 2, 2015
He later released more of the context, despite his claims that he had already tweeted the full quote.
Judge for yourself what Jeb was trying to say. Context is warning about passing gun laws in the wake of a tragedy. pic.twitter.com/0k8yxuEDF8
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) October 2, 2015
Lizza’s slow release of the full statement was not lost on others, who called him out for trying to cover up his attempt at misquoting Bush.
.@RyanLizza I don’t understand. You said you posted the full quote already.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 2, 2015
As it turns out, Bush isn’t the only one to have used the words “stuff happens” in response to a tragedy. President Obama used the phrase in a White House press release in response to Syrian conflict in 2013.
That time Obama said “stuff happens” in response to children being gassed in Syria https://t.co/nckR6ma4ZK pic.twitter.com/3UosjvSXdV
— Morgen (@morgenr) October 2, 2015
And again in response to the Charleston Massacre.
And Charleston: “This stuff happens way too often.” http://t.co/MdCVhRjySx https://t.co/ZD3JXibb1D
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) October 2, 2015
Bush pointed out that tragedy indeed occurs all the time, but jumping to action isn’t always the best solution. Maybe Lizza should learn from Bush and think before he has the impulse to tweet, because it’s not always the right thing to do.
