Bush’s final rally begins with being introduced as ‘George’ and is eventually interrupted by ‘seat fillers’ demanding to be paid
February 2, 2016 in News by RBN
Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines on Feb. 1, 2016. (Photo: Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images)
A little flier showed up early Monday morning on social media.
A handful of Twitter users supporting various Republican presidential candidates tweeted a photo of slip of paper with a headline reading “$$$ Earn fast cash today! $$$” and an offer for $25 an hour to attend Jeb Bush’s final campaign event at the Embassy Suites in downtown Des Moines.
The implication: Bush was so desperate he was paying for faux supporters seven hours before the caucuses.
His campaign quickly shot down the claim, calling it shenanigans on the part of a rival.
(The tweet featuring the ad that gained the most traction came from Jeff Sadosky, a spokesman for a super Pac backing Marco Rubio. In an interview, Sadosky said the group, Conservative Solutions PAC, had nothing to do with it.)
The notion that some kind of gamesmanship was afoot gained legitimacy at the event itself, when moments after Bush began speaking two young men stood up and very conspicuously demanded to be paid for their “seat filling.”
“We’ve been here for over two hours and we haven’t gotten paid for our time,” one man said, unleashing a torrent of boos and jeers from the audience.
“That is such — get out of here, man,” Bush shot back.
Staffers from his campaign approached the men and escorted them out, and Bush continued his speech. As he opened the floor for questions, though, he made sure the plants had all been removed.
“Have the YRs left the room,” Bush asked, referring to Young Republicans, a group long known for its creative political disruptions. “When I was younger, that would always happen. The YR guys would go to other campaigns and play like that.”
