“Donald is upset that Jeb got the best of him on Tuesday night at the debate and has been the one person to stand-up to his un-American praise of Vladimir Putin”, Bush communications director Tim Miller said in response to Trump’s Twitter tirade.
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But Bush wasn’t finished with his attacks on Trump, repeating a debate-night argument that “you can not insult your way to the presidency”.
The two candidates have been sparring all week after Bush started executing a new strategy of directly confronting Trump at the CNN debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
It’s a welcome approach to some New Hampshire voters.
Trump took on widespread criticism when he appeared to mock a New York Times reporter with a disability last month, though Trump denied he was doing so.
As Bush’s campaign has languished, Trump has repeatedly said that he is exhausted of talking about him, preferring to criticize other candidates who pose more immediate threats to his campaign. Trump’s lead in the Republican primary is only getting wider, though, with a recent 39% poll return more than 10 times greater than Bush’s waning share. And the idea that he’s actually running for president and insulting people is deeply discouraging, to be honest with you, and I think we should reject that out of hand. But, a guy like that should not be the front-running candidate of our great party. “That is not how we win”, Bush said. I gave myself therapy there. He is followed by Cruz with 18%, Rubio (13%) and Jeb Bush 7%. “That wouldn’t be one of those things that naturally comes to him”, Bush said. I believe we stand together to address the real issues facing this country, not allow them to divide us by race or where we come from. Bernie Sanders raised a particularly interesting point about Trump’s aggressive immigration policy when he said it perpetuates United States income inequality. A voter asked Bush if he could show in the rest of his campaign the same passion he shows in town halls, a worry perhaps stemming from Trump’s early branding of Bush as “low energy”.
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Some expected Bruce not to endorse before the New Hampshire primary after the letdown of Romney’s general election loss.
