Jeb Bush had more fighting words for his Republican presidential rival Donald Trump in a conversation with NPR’s Steve Inskeep Thursday morning. Referencing the businessman’s potential to divide large swaths of the country, Bush argued a Trump White House would be no different than the current occupant.
“I would argue that Donald Trump is, in effect, a creature of Barack Obama,” Bush said.
“We’re living in a divided country right now. We need political leaders rather than continuing to divide us as both President Obama and Donald Trump do, to unite us.”
The Trump v. Bush drama has been an ongoing subplot in the 2016 race for the past several weeks. Their war of words seem to reach the loudest decibel during the debates. Trump has mocked Bush for his “low energy” and sarcastically called him a "tough guy." In an interview following their last debate, Trump even told the media Bush was an "embarrassment" to his family. Meanwhile, Bush has called Trump the “chaos candidate” and insisted he couldn’t “insult his way to the presidency.”
Bush’s condemnation of Trump’s insults, however, has not really given him much of a bump in the polls. Voters seem to be drawn to the business mogul’s anti-Washington behavior and blunt remarks.
Will Bush’s new tactic of linking Trump to Obama be a winning one?
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