Jeb Bush Talking Tough on Putin.
COSTELLO: Oh, boy. You're looking at live pictures of a bus crash on the Manhattan side of the Lincoln Tunnel. This is according to CNN affiliate, WABC. At least 18 people are injured after those two buses collided inside the Lincoln Tunnel. If you're on the road or heading that way to visit New York City and see the Statue of Liberty, expect major delays. You know, the Lincoln Tunnel is hell on a good day so I'm praying for you all. 18 people injured after that bus crash. All right in other news this morning. Just days ahead of and expected launch of launch of his presidential campaign Jeb Bush is talking tough on Vladimir Putin. Bush is on a three-country European tour designed to shore up his foreign policy skills. At the top of the agenda, Russia, and the need to keep that nation's aggressions in check.</s>JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: He's all powerful in Russia but I guess my point was that we don't want to make it sound like we're against Russia. Ultimately Russia needs to be a European country and ultimately I think the deal with Putin you need to deal from strength. He's a bully. And bullies don't, you know, you enable bad behavior when you're nuanced with a guy like that. And I think just being clear I'm not talking about being bellicose, but saying here are the consequences of your actions. And that would deter the kind of bad outcome that we don't want to see.</s>COSTELLO: But while Bush is looking ahead to his political future, a controversy from his past as Florida governor is coming to light. It centers around what Bush said was a need for -- his words now -- quote, "the restoration of shame for mothers of children born out of wedlock", an idea Bush first reference in his 1995 book "Profiles in Character". Here to discuss that and more CNN political reporter Sara Murray and Republican consultant Cherie Jacobus. Sara I want to start with you. Should we expect Russia to be a centerpiece of Bush's foreign policy strategy. And then we'll talk about the book.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I absolutely think that he has made Russia into -- it's a very safe argument for him to say, look, I'm going to be tougher on Russia. It gives him a way to sort of contrast himself with President Obama and make it seem like he would take a tougher approach to foreign policy at a time when a lot of people are worried about sort of America's standing in the world. So I do think we'll hear much more about this. I also think -- like I said, it's a really safe base for Bush to be talking in when he's so close to his presidential announcement. A lot of this trip is about appearing presidential and avoiding making any kind of unforced errors.</s>COSTELLO: All right. So let's now talk about Jeb Bush's book from 1995. In an excerpt Bush wrote, quote, "One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there's no longer a stigma attached to this behavior. No reason to feel shame. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out-of-wedlock birth and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful." So Cherie do you think this will haunt Bush or will some people agree with him?</s>CHERIE JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Look, his heart was in the right place. He's talking about solving the problem of unwed motherhood, children being born into their families -- our latest census data shows that of the bottom fifth of earners in this country, 83 percent are comprised of single-parent households, unwed mothers. You have children being born and raised into poverty. What he should have focused done probably is focus more on the fathers walking away. And there should be a stigma. There should be shame attached when you're letting these children grow up in poverty, having the mother's family, having to support them and in many cases, of course, taxpayers supporting them. So he was making an effort. The left of course, is trying to make a big deal of this, maybe to take focus away from a Republican candidate's trip overseas. But I got to tell you the person who is the most unhappy about this even though the left is trying to do her a favor, it's Hillary Clinton. You are reaching back 20 years for old quotes in something that Jeb Bush wrote. And so now that you've open up that Pandora's box, we have Hillary Clinton 20 years ago in the White House and she's been trying to say ancient history, off limits, can't do that anymore.</s>COSTELLO: Ok. So Jeb Bush may be able to say that but Sara this isn't just about the book. There was also this 2001 Florida law enacted while Bush was governor. It was called the Scarlet Letter Law. Tell us about that.</s>MURRAY: Yes, I actually think this is more jarring than the book because this is a law that had a profound impact on women's lives. What this did in Florida was if you were a woman who became pregnant and you wanted to give your child up for adoption but you didn't know who the father was, you had to publish your name, your physical description -- a description of people you thought the father might be in the newspaper to give the potential father's a chance to sort of claim their child before you give it up for adoption. The interesting thing about this is it was pretty clear Jeb Bush knew there was a problem with this law at the time when he was governor. He didn't sign it, he didn't veto it. He sort of let it pass with the understanding that they were going to make a fix to this disclosure rules. Well, at times that is just two years to make that sick and in the meantime a court struck it down. It even violated the privacy rights of women and by the time that Jeb Bush signed a repeal of it in 2003, the court had already invalidated this law. And by the way, the really interesting thing about this is Marco Rubio also voted for this law. So it's difficult to see where their heads were at this time and what they're thinking in agreeing to go along with it.</s>COSTELLO: And Cherie I just want you to respond to that. Public shaming in that way --</s>JACOBUS: Well, I don't think you should be calling it public shaming -- the effort of this was not --</s>COSTELLO: To write about who you think --</s>JACOBUS: The effort was designed and of course they knew it was flawed and they fixed but you have to support the efforts and trying to make sure that this poor child the split up for adoption --</s>COSTELLO: They knew it was flawed and they fixed it.</s>JACOBUS: You can find -- you can find the father so that the biological family has every opportunity to nurture, love, and raise that child. Was it an inelegant way to do it. Yes, but this effort and the felling and the emphasis behind it is correct. If they get it right absolutely not. But it was not meant to shame the parent, the mother. It was meant to do everything they could to find --</s>COSTELLO: She was footing. They were putting their child up for adoption.</s>JACOBUS: Right. And they're trying to at least let the father's family have some say in that. That was the effort it was not designed to shame the mother if that was the result that's why it didn't work. But that was not their intent. But it was not the perfect law but the intent behind that was definitely to help the child, putting the child first and I think that part's not support that --</s>COSTELLO: All right. Cherie Jacobus, Sara Murray -- thanks to both of you. I'll be right back.</s>JACOBUS: Thank you.