Jeb Bush says it took too long for Obama to visit a mosque as president

(Image credit: Matthew Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

last updated 5 February 2016

President Obama visited a mosque for the first time as president Wednesday, and Jeb Bush reacted by asking what took him so long.

"I'm surprised it took his eighth year to do it," Bush said Thursday. He took a very different stance from his rival Marco Rubio, who said by visiting the Islamic Society of Baltimore, Obama was "basically implying that America is discriminating against Muslims," and the "bigger issue is radical Islam."

Bush said he didn't think it was "divisive" to speak at the mosque, and people can believe that "discrimination in America is bad and the threat of ISIS is real." It was "more than appropriate" for the president to visit, Bush said, but that doesn't change the fact that he's "derelict in his duties" to crush the Islamic State. Bush told employees at Globe Manufacturing in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, he would fight ISIS by establishing a no-fly zone and arming Kurdish forces, ABC News reports.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.