Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry dismissed fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday as “a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense.”
“I have a message for my fellow Republicans and the independents who will be voting in the primary process: what Mr. Trump is offering is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism – a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense,” Perry said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
Perry said the former reality star’s month-old campaign shows “his fundamental misunderstanding of border security.”
“Rather than thanking Texas for stepping into a gap it shouldn’t have to fill, Mr. Trump has made clear that he believes the states should fend for themselves on border security,” said Perry. “Not only is this wrong, it perpetuates the same failed policies that have left our southern border porous and vulnerable.”
Perry’s statement came a day after Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the former Texas governor “failed at the border.”
“When he was governor of Texas he could have done a lot better in terms of securing the border,” Trump said. “The job he did in terms of border security was absolutely terrible.”
In light of Trump’s anti-Latino rhetoric and harsh criticism of border security policies, Perry warned fellow conservatives of the real estate mogul.
“We need a president who will finally act to secure the border after decades of failed leadership in Washington, D.C. and Mr. Trump has done nothing to prove that he is the President America needs.”
