Potential candidates for president today rushed to endorse government-mandated vaccination shots for children after a media dustup over comments in support of parental choice from two other hopefuls.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, both considered players in the Republican field for 2016, made their remarks amid public concern over a measles outbreak in 14 states.

As The Daily Signal sought the stances of other White House hopefuls, three leading Republican rivals —  Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida — delivered especially strong pro-vaccination statements.

>>> Update: Jeb Bush, whose spokeswoman did not respond to The Daily Signal, addressed the flap the next day while taking questions after a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.  “Parents ought to make sure their children are vaccinated,” the former Florida governor said, to applause. Bush added that enunciating conservative principles in such situations makes “heads explode” in the media. “I think it’s best to say, parents have the responsibility to make sure their children are protected —  over and out.”

“Parents ought to make sure their children are vaccinated.”–@JebBush

Speaking with talk show host Laura Ingraham, Paul yesterday said most vaccinations “ought to be voluntary.”

In a later, on-camera interview with CNBC, the Kentucky Republican, while recommending kids get shots immunizing them against measles and other diseases, also said he knew of cases where vaccines caused “mental disorders” in children. He has declined to provide examples.

The issue “is largely silliness stirred up by the media,” Cruz  told reporters today on Capitol Hill.  “Nobody reasonably thinks Chris Christie is opposed to vaccinating kids other than a bunch of reporters who want to write headlines.”

By day’s end, Paul — himself an eye doctor — had gotten a booster shot and tweeted this photo and sentiment:

 Answering questions during a trip to Great Britain about whether Americans should vaccinate their children, Christie said: 

All I can say is that we vaccinated ours. That’s the best expression I can give you of my opinion. It’s much more important, I think, what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. … But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well so that’s the balance that the government has to decide. But I can just tell people from our perspective, Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think it’s an important part of making sure we protect their health and the public health.

Aides to the governor and the senator grimaced as their bosses’ comments soon were being dissected and, in their view, taken out of context in dozens of  media accounts.

Today, the Daily Signal sought out the views of other men and women who are pondering a race for the White House next year, and received responses ranging from silence to terse to expansive.

Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton did not respond,  but earlier the former first lady and secretary of state made her position clear in a relatively rare tweet:

 The Daily Signal’s questions for presidential hopefuls:

Does the government have the authority to overrule individual parents and require that their children be immunized against specific diseases? If yes, how would you provide for exceptions? If no, how would you protect public health?

Rand Paul’s office declined to respond to the request or a follow-up reminder. In his interview with CNBC below, Paul had talked about vaccinations while being aggressively questioned in the first two minutes:

 In an email to The Daily Signal,  a spokesman for Chris Christie reiterated an amplification offered yesterday by the governor’s office:

The governor believes vaccines are an important public health protection and with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated. At the same time different states require different degrees of vaccination, which is why he was calling for balance in which ones government should mandate.

His spokesman, Kevin Roberts, said Christie stands by his “full remarks,” which may be found below.

Here are the answers of other presidential hopefuls — all Republicans — who replied to The Daily Signal before 5 p.m.:

>> Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon:

Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society. Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country, and we should not allow those diseases to return by foregoing safe immunization programs for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them. Obviously, there are exceptional situations to virtually everything and we must have a mechanism whereby those can be heard.

>> Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas:

Vaccines have had tremendous public health benefits in terms of eradicating diseases and limiting the impact of other diseases. Most states include an exception clause for good faith religious convictions, and that’s an appropriate judgment for the states to make. But on the question of whether kids should be vaccinated, the answer is obvious, and there’s widespread agreement: of course they should. We vaccinate both our girls, and encourage all parents to do the same.

“I’m a constitutionalist,” Cruz also told reporters. “This question has historically been decided at the state level. And most states choose to do what the state of Texas does, which is to mandate vaccines for children to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases.”

>> Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard:

Fiorina responded “no” to The Daily Signal’s question of whether government has the authority to overrule individual parents and require their children to be immunized. She added:

But I think that state governments can allow public schools to say that a child who hasn’t been immunized against an infectious disease that poses a public health risk can’t come to school. And of course, there’s some immunizations that don’t have anything to do with public health. Not all immunizations are the same. There’s a big difference between an immunization for measles and HPV [human papillomavirus].

>> Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal:

Jindal put out a statement within three hours of hearing from The Daily Signal. It reads:

I urge all parents to get their kids vaccinated. Vaccinations are required for children to attend public school and pre-K. Just about every private school requires vaccinations.  Here in Louisiana, we actively encourage vaccinations and help low-income families vaccinate their children.

I worked in health care for a long time. I have no reservations about whether or not it is a good idea and desirable for all children to be vaccinated. There is a lot of fear mongering out there on this. I think it is irresponsible for leaders to undermine the public’s confidence in vaccinations that have been tested and proven to protect public health. Science supports them and they keep our children safe from potentially deadly but preventable diseases. Personally, I would not send my kids to a school that did not require vaccinations. Vaccinations are important. I urge every parent to get them. Every one.

>> Ohio Gov. John Kasich:

 “The governor supports vaccinations,” spokesman Rob Nichols told The Daily Signal, leaving it at that.

 >> Rep. Peter King of New York:  

King answered “yes” to the question of government authority to mandate vaccinations.  On how he would provide for exceptions, the New York Republican said:  “Only if the child has a particular health condition which would be adversely affected by the vaccine.”

>> Indiana Gov. Mike Pence:

Pence did not answer The Daily Signal’s question directly, but his press secretary later emailed a statement. It reads:

Indiana law requires all children be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases like the measles by getting vaccinated. Vaccines protect all our children from illnesses, and our administration strongly urges Hoosier families to have their children vaccinated.

>> Rick Perry, former Texas governor:

 “Governor Perry strongly believes in protecting life and has sought to improve the health and well-being of Texans in a variety of ways, including increased immunization rates,” spokesman Travis Considine told The Daily Signal.

 Considine also passed along background material on Perry’s stance.

 >> Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida:

Rubio’s spokesman, Alex Conant, did not respond directly to The Daily Signal’s questions. But the freshman senator, speaking with reporters, enthusiastically backed mandatory childhood vaccinations while allowing for “medical exceptions.” In remarks passed along by Conant, he said:

This is the most advanced country in the world. We have eradicated diseases that in the past killed and permanently disabled people. My own grandfather was disabled by polio as a young child. There is absolutely no medical science or data whatsoever that links those vaccinations to onset of autism or anything of that nature.

 And by the way, if enough people are not vaccinated, you put at risk infants that are three months of age or younger and have not been vaccinated, and you put at risk immune-suppressed children that are not able to get those vaccinations. So absolutely, all children in America should be vaccinated.

>> Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:

A spokesman for Walker,  another GOP contender who has raised his profile dramatically in recent days, replied to The Daily Signal after nearly 24 hours.

“Governor Walker believes vaccinations help prevent serious health problems,” spokesman Tom Evenson said. “That’s why his family is vaccinated and he encourages others to do the same.”

The Daily Signal did not hear back from the likeliest or most talked-about candidates in the Democratic race for president: Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley,  Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest today addressed the “common sense” aspect of the issue with words that many conservatives thought ought to apply to the government mandate that anchors Obamacare:

Not responding on the Republican side were another sitting governor, Susana Martinez of New Mexico, and three former governors — Jeb Bush of Florida, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and George Pataki of New York. Other silent Republicans were Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton. Pataki, making stops in New Hampshire, did address the issue with a quip at one point, NH1 reporter Paul Steinhauser tweeted. “I thought the issue of vaccinations was settled by George Washington … when he vaccinated the troops against smallpox,”  he quoted Pataki as saying.

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Note: This report has been updated to include the views of Walker and Bush.

Here is the full text of the much-simplified media exchange about vaccines with Christie, who was touring a biomedical research facility in Cambridge, England:

Question: Governor you’re here, this company makes vaccines. There’s a debate going on right now in the United States, the measles outbreak that’s been caused in part by people not vaccinating their kids. Do you think Americans should vaccinate their kids? Is the measles vaccine safe?

Christie: All I can say is that we vaccinated ours. That’s the best expression I can give you of my opinion. It’s much more important, I think, what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. And that’s what we do. But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well so that’s the balance that the government has to decide. But I can just tell people from our perspective, Mary Pat and I have had our children vaccinated and we think it’s an important part of making sure we protect their health and the public health.

Question: But you’re leaving people the option of not getting vaccinated and that potentially presents a great public risk.

Christie: Michael, what I said was that there has to be a balance and it depends on what the vaccine is, what the disease type is and all the rest. And so I didn’t say I’m leaving people the option. What I’m saying is that you have to have that balance in considering parental concerns because no parent cares about anything more than they care about protecting their own child’s health and so we have to have that conversation, but that has to move and shift in my view from disease type. Not every vaccine is created equal and not every disease type is as great a public health threat as others. So that’s what I mean by that so that I’m not misunderstood.

Question: Do you think some vaccines are dangerous?

Christie: I didn’t say that. I said different disease types can be more lethal so that the concern would be measuring whatever the perceived danger is by vaccine and we’ve had plenty of that over a period of time versus what the risk to public health is and you have to have that balance and that’s exactly what I mean by what I said.