Jeb Bush Tamir Rice Controversy: Presidential Candidate Confuses Chicago, Cleveland, Says 'Process Worked'

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush can’t seem to keep track of the various cases of police violence around the country. The former Florida governor confused Chicago and Cleveland when ABC News asked him Wednesday about the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed by police in Ohio in 2014.

“I think that Chicago’s got a lot of work to do to rebuild trust,” Bush said during the interview at a campaign event in Lexington, South Carolina. “The level of violence is abhorrent.” ABC News reporter Candace Smith interrupted Bush to remind him the police shooting took place in Cleveland.

“Oh I’m sorry. My bad,” Bush replied. He continued, saying that the case of Rice, who was shot and killed by police officer Timothy Loehmann in October 2014 while playing with a toy gun, was an example of the justice system working properly.

“In every community where you have these cases, the elected officials and the police chief need to engage with the community to rebuild trust, but the process worked. If there’s a grand jury that looks at all the facts and doesn't indict, maybe there’s reasons for that,” the Republican said.

A grand jury decided Monday not to indict Loehmann for killing the 12-year-old. The prosecutor, Tim McGinty, said he saw the situation as a “perfect storm of human error, mistakes and miscommunication” and that he could not recommend a trial based on the evidence, Politico reported.

During the interview Wednesday, Bush also criticized what he called the “politicization” of the attorney general’s office.

“There’s been lots of cases where he [President Barack Obama] goes out and calls for an investigation, and it turns out there’s nothing there; not civil rights violations or any of the civil violations that he had jurisdiction over,” he said, ABC News reported. “I think there should be more caution about using the federal government's power and more focus on trying to rebuild trust from the bottom up.”