Jeb Bush invited a firestorm on Friday by saying that "stuff happens" in reference to renewed calls for gun control after tragedies like the mass shooting in Oregon.
"I had this challenge as governor because we had — look, stuff happens," he said at a forum in South Carolina. "There's always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it's not necessarily the right thing to do."
The inelegant phrase immediately set off a wave of criticism from observers suggesting he was playing down the scourge of gun violence and the tragedy on Thursday, in which a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon.
Asked afterward about the comments, Bush said, "it wasn't a mistake," and requested that a reporter point out "what I said wrong."
"Things happen all the time," Bush said. "Things. Is that better?"
At a news conference shortly after the remarks, President Barack Obama was asked to respond to Bush's comments after being read a small portion of them.
"I don't even think I have to react to that one," Obama said, adding, "The American people should hear that."