Jeb Bush breaking his paleo diet was the biggest story at the Iowa State Fair this weekend. That is, until Donald Trump showed up. Arriving via chopper, the business mogul and leading contender in the GOP race to the White House, immediately made headlines by aiming insults at both Jeb and Hillary Clinton.
After declaring that Hillary has 'a lot of problems’ regarding her email scandal, he pivoted to Jeb and attacked the former Florida Governor for his defensive statements regarding the Iraq War.
When Jeb stood on the fair’s famous Soapbox Friday, an attendee challenged him to answer for his brother’s role in the unpopular war. NPR has the transcript of the exchange:
MCCAMMON: A jab, it seemed, at Republican rival Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. They're coming to the fair tomorrow but are not scheduled to attend the Soapbox with its opportunity for questions and heckling. For example, asked about the rise of ISIS, Bush said the Obama administration has no strategy in Iraq. That led to this exchange with a member of the audience who pointed out that his brother, George W. Bush, signed off on the eventual withdrawal of U.S. combat forces in 2011.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BUSH: First of all, the Iraqis want our help. They want to know that we have skin in the game, that we're committed to this. We don't have to...
Today, Trump slammed Jeb for trying to justify what he says is an unjustifiable war:
“He said ‘skin in the game.’ I don’t know if you saw his recent statement…We’ve spent two trillion dollars, thousands of lives lost, wounded warriors who I love all over the place. And he said we have to prove we have skin in the game. I think it may be one of the dumbest statements I ever heard.”
Trump concluded that thought by saying Jeb should apologize to the families affected by the war.
Jeb seemed to be one of Trump’s favorite targets at the fair. The latter also accused him of being a ‘puppet to his donors.’
So much for those butter cow photo ops being the talk of the fair.