Jeb Bush: ‘Does Anybody Actually Blame My Brother For 9/11?’

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday discussed comments GOP rival Donald Trump made about his brother and former President George W. Bush.

And one point in the interview he asked, “Does anybody actually blame my brother for 9/11?”

Trump had implied in an interview Friday that he thought George W. Bush had some responsibility in the terrorist attacks Sept. 11.

“He was President,” Trump said. “Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was President. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”

Bush defended his brother on Twitter:

Bush also responded to the comments on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

“Does anybody actually blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11? If they do they’re totally marginalizing our society,” Bush said. “It’s what he did afterwards that matters. And I’m proud of him and so are a bunch of other people. You don’t have to have your last name be Bush to understand that.”

“Next week Mr. Trump is probably going to say that FDR was around when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,” Bush said.

CNN host Jake Tapper pressed Bush on how he could blame President Obama and former secretary of state and now Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for the attack on the Benghazi compound if he believed his brother was not at all responsible for 9/11.

“Well, I — the question on Benghazi, which we will now finally get the truth to, is was that — the place secure? They had a responsibility at the Department of State to have proper security.”

Trump tweeted about Bush Sunday morning:

Bush continued to criticize Trump’s comments on foreign policy on CNN’s morning news program and mentioned the show Trump previously hosted, “The Apprentice.”

“Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things that as though he’s still on ‘The Apprentice.’ I mean literally talking about Syria saying ISIS should take out Assad then Russia should take out ISIS,” Bush said. “It’s though it was some kind of board game and not a serious approach. This is just another example of the lack of seriousness.”

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire
266
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. Yes! Yes I do!
    Much in the same way your own party blames Clinton for Benghazi.

    He ignored intelligence, did nothing to increase security, etc. the only difference… A lot more people died and He, Cheney and their minions lied us into decades long wars.

  2. The fact is The Bush Administration was warned by Richard Clark that Osama Bin Laden wanted to attack the United States, but they chose to ignore him because they already had made up their mind on invading Iraq, and that was their top priority.

    Could 9/11 been avoided if that had not been the case,we will never know.

  3. One of the follow up questions, besides the fact that GW ignored warnings, is why the need for 8 Benghazi investigations to pin guilt on Hillary.

  4. Avatar for condew condew says:

    Does anybody actually blame my brother for the attacks on 9/11?

    Yes

    It’s what he did afterwards that matters.

    Oh, like declare war on a second country that did not attack us? Like create a right to torture?

  5. Avatar for rondo rondo says:

    Yes

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

260 more replies

Participants

Avatar for overreach_this Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for silas1898 Avatar for pickwick Avatar for clemmers Avatar for enon Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for winstonsmith Avatar for bradbennett Avatar for invitedguest Avatar for orthostice Avatar for mrcomments Avatar for slagathor Avatar for arrendis Avatar for harry_r_sohl Avatar for hobnailed Avatar for serendipitoussomnambulist Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for azjude Avatar for darrtown Avatar for meta Avatar for eatbees Avatar for castorita Avatar for briannaamore

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: