But with his folksy touch, the former president unleashed a tough takedown Monday of the billionaire businessman who has upended a Republican Party his family has long led.
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Several also said they weren’t sure the campaign’s now-emphasis of the Bush name in SC was ultimately going to be enough, but they’re not surprised by Bush now embracing his brother and his national security record.
“I understand that Americans are angry and frustrated but we do not need someone in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration”, Bush said. While Trump would not say whether he considered Bush to be a failed president and declined to label him responsible for the 9/11 attacks, the former reality TV star repeatedly noted that “the Word Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush”. But despite months of predicting the brash billionaire would fade, it’s Jeb Bush whose White House hopes are in peril, particularly if he’s unable to pull out a strong showing in Saturday’s SC primary. One glimpse of the stage here at a rally on Monday evening, where Bush embraced his brother former President George W. Bush, encapsulates his fall from the presumed frontrunner for the GOP nomination to his current standing: fighting to stay relevant in the race by calling on his big brother for help. He layered each validation of his younger brother with an implicit critique of Trump.
He met Haley earlier in the day to, as every commentator agreed, seek the endorsement of a governor who is polling 80 per cent in popularity and is on every Republican candidate’s list as vice-presidential candidate. “We need someone who can fix the problems that cause our anger and frustrations, and that’s Jeb Bush”.
After leaving office, the former president has deliberately kept out of politics – perhaps because of a presidency that involved an unprovoked war on Iraq and is still judged harshly by most – but made an exception for his brother. Trump has also repeatedly reminded voters that the September 11, 2001, terror attacks happened on Bush’s watch. “Just to see a president in person – I think it would be nice”.
Clinton’s comments came ahead of Saturday’s Democratic caucuses in Nevada and the Republican primary in SC.
Deep breaths people, because this is only a drop in the bucket of insane that today brought us, courtesy of the Republican party. On the way to Air Force One from that school, Condi [Condoleezza Rice] called me and said a plane had hit the Pentagon. We’re a nation at war.
Trump has been targeting Bush over his brother’s decision to invade Iraq.
“Saddam Hussein was a bad guy”, he said of the former Iraqi president.
“I’m proud of his candidacy”, Bush said about his brother.
The turnout at the rally, experts noted, was larger than anything Jeb Bush, running to be the third Bush in the White House, has attracted on the campaign trail so far. “Jeb needs to come off more confident”, she said. He seemed a little bit rusty at first, you know, maybe some cobwebs. He retreated to his home state of Texas, where he picked up painting and delved into work on his presidential library, public health projects in Africa, and events for wounded military service members.
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On Fox News on Monday, former Vice President Dick Cheney leapt to former President Bush’s defense.
