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Personal Governor of Florida
Presidential campaign | ||
"Please clap" is a phrase used by Jeb Bush on February 2, 2016 while campaigning in New Hampshire during the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. [1]
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Personal Governor of Florida
Presidential campaign | ||
"Please clap" is a phrase used by Jeb Bush on February 2, 2016 while campaigning in New Hampshire during the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. [1]
Republican Jeb Bush, the 43rd Governor of Florida and brother of former president George W. Bush, formally launched his 2016 presidential campaign on June 14, 2015. [2] Bush, seen as a moderate in the Republican Party, struggled to find a distinct message from other Republican candidates. Bush instead emphasized his record as Florida governor but his uninspiring message and the Bush family name led to his campaign being seen as representing the Republican establishment. [3] [4] He was mocked by Donald Trump as being "low energy". [5] Jeb Bush's campaign failed to gain traction, polling at 3% by the end of 2015. [6] Bush had placed sixth in the Iowa caucuses on February 1 with just 2.8% of the vote. [7]
On February 2, 2016, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush was speaking at a townhall at the Hannover Inn hotel in Hanover, New Hampshire. [8] During the townhall, Bush made a contrast with more brash Republican candidates like Donald Trump, stating:
"I will not trash talk. I will not be a divider in chief or an agitator in chief. I won't be out there blowharding, talking a big game without backing it up. I think the next president needs to be a lot quieter but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country — to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world."
[silence]
"Please clap."
After making such a declaration, Bush was met with silence from the crowd rather than the applause he expected. [9] Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell told BuzzFeed News that the media had mischaracterized the event, describing "please clap" as a "charming moment". [10]
"Please clap" was widely ridiculed and seen as emblematic of Bush's floundering presidential campaign. MSNBC wrote that the moment "will be remembered as an unfortunate, and yet quintessential, phrase" around the Bush campaign. [11] The New Republic called it a "succinct encapsulation of a flailing presidential campaign". [12]
After Bush suspended his campaign on February 20, it was included on Vox 's list of "17 saddest moments" from Jeb Bush's campaign. [13]
In December 2016, Inverse included "please clap" in its list of best political memes of 2016. [14] In the following years, it continued to live on as an ironic pro-Bush internet meme alongside referring to Bush as Jeb!, the branding of his ill-fated campaign. Brian Contreras of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the internet memes of the Jeb Bush campaign reflect a mocking of a "softer-spoken, more cautious conservatism" that "has less and less to offer voters in an increasingly polarized America". [15]
In March 2019, Vanity Fair published an article on Jeb Bush encouraging a Republican to challenge incumbent president Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election with the article's headline referencing Bush's "please clap" moment. [16]
Moments when other political candidates failed to garner enthusiasm from a crowd have drawn comparisons to Jeb Bush's "please clap" moment from 2016. On April 22, 2019, CNN hosted a televised townhall with Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar where she spoke about how she had won every congressional district in Minnesota in each of her Senate elections. After the audience didn't react, Klobuchar encouraged a reaction, saying "It's when you guys are supposed to cheer, okay?" [17] On January 21, 2020, Pete Buttigieg was speaking at a campaign event in Iowa, encouraging the unenthusiastic audience to cheer or clap by saying "come on". [18] [19]