Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura said Thursday he is "astounded" that Republican presidential hopeful and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would lie about sending him a box of Cuban cigars.
When the two were still in office, they attended a meeting of governors at the White House, where Ventura complained to then-President Bill Clinton about the "ridiculous" Cuban embargo and how it should be lifted, explains Politico.
Ventura said he told Clinton, "I hate to feel like a criminal every time I go to smoke a Cuban cigar," after which, "Jeb approached me and told me to keep it down."
"Don't bring that up, I don't want that up. I'll send you all the Cuban cigars you need," Bush told his Minnesota counterpart, according to Ventura.
Ventura told Politico he later placed an empty aluminum Romeo y Julieta cigar container in Bush's top pocket and said "there's my brand."
Ten days later, Ventura said, "I got a box of Romeo Julieta Cubans delivered to the Capitol in Minnesota."
Recounting the story Wednesday on his Ora.TV "Off the Grid" show, Ventura said the gift was ironic since Bush supported the embargo.
After McClatchy first reported Ventura's story, the Bush campaign reached out to Politico saying the cigars were actually Dominican.
But Ventura said that's simply not true. "What happened to the truth?" Ventura asked Politico in a phone interview. "They're trying to say that he sent me a box of Dominicans? I'm astounded by that. Why would they send me a box of Dominican cigars when I could go buy them in any cigar shop?"
Ventura told Politico that Bush's gift denial speaks volumes to the problems with his campaign.
"Come on. You're even going to cover this up? You're going to deny a box of cigars, like what: that's going to determine the election? It's a simple and true story," Ventura said. "I guess the point that I'm making is elites live by a different set of rules than all the rest of us because they can get Cuban cigars, clearly, when the rest of us can't."
Politico asked Venutra if it was possible that the cigars were actually from the Dominican Republic.
"No," Ventura said. "The cigar box was sealed and the cigars each came in a silver tube that said 'Cuba' on the side.'"
"How would Jeb be able to get his hands on a box of Cuban illegal cigars?" Ventura asked. "It shows the embargo isn't working."
Ventura, also a former Navy SEAL demolitionist and professional wrestler, told CNN Friday he would gladly be vice president for either GOP candidate Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
"If either one of them truly wanted to grab the independent — and, believe me, I am the voice of the independent voter in this United States of America," Ventura said.
"I think Donald Trump is wonderful, that he's shaking the system and it needs to be shaken to its core. We have a government in Washington that's broken clearly and it needs to be shaken up and Trump is doing that and so is Bernie Sanders," he said. "I look at both their campaigns and I see great parallels to my campaign in Minnesota where the media attacks you at every direction but yet the people stand and support you."
Ventura won the governor's office in 1998 as a member of the Reform Party after beating out his Republican and Democratic rivals, later leaving the party over internal disputes. He has since become one of the most outspoken critics of U.S. government policy and the two-party political system.
