Condoleezza Rice: I Hope My Friend Jeb Bush Runs for President

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush runs for president in 2016.

“I think Jeb would be fantastic,” Rice said. “Jeb hasn’t said whether he’ll run. He’s a friend. I hope he does, frankly,” she said in an interview with OZY.

Rice explained that she also liked Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for his stance on immigration reform.

“What I love about the way Marco Rubio talks about our country, or Jeb Bush for that matter, is that sense that We the People is an inclusive concept. It’s not ‘those people out there’ and ‘We the People in here.'” she explained. “We’ve always been able to continually expand that concept by welcoming the best and the brightest from all over the world to be a part of our great national aspiration.”

Rice said she knew Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi, calling them a “wonderful young couple,” but she said that she didn’t agree with Cruz on all his political views.

“While I don’t agree with Ted Cruz on everything, he’s energetic, he’s working hard, he loves his country, and from time to time, when I disagree, I’ll tell him,” she said. Rice explained that Heidi Cruz worked for her at the National Security Council.

“Our democratic process does not say that you A: You have to be a favorite or B: That you have to be backed by the establishment. That’s nowhere in the Constitution that I’ve read it, and so somebody that goes through the process and gets elected, more power to them,” she said.

When asked if Rice herself would run for president or as a vice presidential candidate, she replied that it was “just not in [her] DNA.”