Jeb Bush: Donald Trump Is ‘A Distraction In And Of Himself’ (VIDEO)

Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush visits a polling place at the Eastlan Baptist Church, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016 in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Former Florida governor and Republican presidential primary candidate Jeb Bush criticized President Donald Trump for “saying things that aren’t true, that are distractions from the task at hand.”

Bush made the criticism during an interview that aired Sunday with WFOR’s Jim DeFede.

“He hasn’t shifted to being President in the way that people are used to, and I think that’s the problem,” Bush said, adding later: “He’s a distraction in and of himself.”

Bush said he admired many of Trump’s picks for top posts in his administration, like Defense Secretary James Mattis, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

All of those picks have connections to the Bush family. DeVos, for example, once served on the board of Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and is a similarly fervent evangelist of charter schools.

But, Bush said, Trump’s habit of making unsubstantiated claims – including that former President Barack Obama had ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower – had distracted from achieving policy priorities, like replacing Obamacare with Republicans’ own health bill or overhauling the tax code.

“The team he needs to have to carry out his agenda hasn’t been filled,” Bush said. “The slowest hiring of people probably in modern times, the best I can tell. So he’s got a lot of work to do. And some of these things, the wiretapping and all that stuff, is a complete distraction that makes it harder to accomplish the things I know he wants to do.”

Watch below via WFOR. DeFede’s interview with Bush begins at 3:00:

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