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Jeb Bush ignites Twitter storm by posting picture of his engraved handgun

18 февраля, 2016     Автор: Ольга Хмельная
Jeb Bush ignites Twitter storm by posting picture of his engraved handgun

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Jeb Bush has provoked a storm on Twitter by posting a picture of a hand gun inscribed with his name.

The black firearm's image was accompanied by the single word “America” and was tweeted as the Republican candidate was engaged in a desperate last-ditch battle to reignite his faltering campaign in South Carolina, which holds the party’s next primary on Saturday.

The tweet may have been calculated to appeal to pro-gun sentiment in a southern state that is home to a large Republican constituency hostile to President Barack Obama’s attempt at imposing stricter gun control following a spate of mass shootings in recent years.

Polls show Mr Bush, the one-time favourite to capture the Republican nomination, trailing in the state to the party frontrunner, Donald Trump, who has been vocal in support of Americans’ rights to own guns.

While voter response to the tweet remains to be seen, online reaction was immediate.
The tweet had been re-tweeted 8,400 times and received 6,900 “likes” within an hour of being posted. Some of the reaction was furiously critical, however, particularly from the UK.

“JebBush the gun pic isn’t very clever. Especially globally you muppet,” wrote Leon Milk from Hammersmith. “The victims of gun violence will find this very disheartening.”
 

Within minutes, the post was retweeted thousands of times and drew all manner of responses:

Another user wrote: “@JebBushYou posted a pic of a gun with your name on it…—Do the bullets have your name on them too? **worried.”

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency employee who leaked documents on America’s domestic surveillance programme, replied to Mr Bush’s tweet by writing: “Delete your account.”
Piers Morgan, the British former CNN chat show, posted a series of tweets in response, showing rising levels of dismay.

The first read: “Are you ****ing kidding me??????” and was followed by another, saying: “Shame on you, @JebBush. I thought you were smart when I interviewed you. I was wrong. You're a gun-slathering fool.”
In a later tweet, Mr Morgan wrote: “How can any decent American not be appalled by that @JebBush gun tweet? Where is your fury? Where is your shame? Where is your conscience?”

Another tweet lampooned Mr Bush’s picture with a photo-shopped image of the gun with the words “Tiny D***” inscribed, accompanied by the comment: “Hey @JebBush, is this your gun.”

The tweet came a day after Mr Bush tried to boost his standing by appearing at a in North Charleston rally alongside his brother, former President George W Bush, who remains hugely popular in South Carolina.
A survey of the 2016 presidential candidates conducted in September by The Telegraph found that Mr Bush was one of just three Republicans out of the 17 then running who did not own a gun.

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