DERRY, N.H. (AP) — Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump dismissed establishment favorite Jeb Bush as unelectable and “low energy” Wednesday, while the former governor labeled his rival a tax-hiking Democrat in a war of words played out at dueling town halls.
In Derry, Trump drew a capacity crowd to a high school auditorium, and filled a few overflow rooms. He started his criticism of Bush in a briefing with reporters and continued in the town hall.
“I don’t see how he’s electable,” Trump told reporters, later describing Bush as a “low-energy person” who has trouble getting things done.
“Right down the road, we have Jeb,” Trump said early in the town hall, drawing boos. Trump mocked Bush for going “down like a rock” in early polls in the state and failing to excite his supporters.
“You know what’s happening to Jeb’s crowd?” he asked. “They’re sleeping.”
In nearby Merrimack, Bush, who had once been reluctant to go after his opponents, portrayed the billionaire businessman as a tax hike-promoting Democrat whom voters would eventually tire of.
“I think what people are eventually going to vote for is a proven conservative leader that’s done it,” Bush said in a video of the event released by his campaign.
He went on to criticize Trump for his past contributions to Democrats, as well as his changing positions on tax issues and his previous support for a single-payer health care system.
“He’s won over a lot of people. People are very angry about how Washington’s not working. He’s tapped into that,” said Bush. “But when people look at his record, it is not a conservative record.”
Trump, who has moved to the top of summer polls, and Bush, who remains the favorite of establishment donors, have been clashing frequently in recent weeks over a number of issues — especially immigration.
Bush’s wife was born in Mexico, and he has said that people entering the country illegally do so as an “act of love” for their families.
Trump, who is calling for the mass deportation of people who have entered the country illegally and the building of a giant wall on the border, mocked such rhetoric. Trump also defended the use of the term “anchor babies” and bragged about the wall he plans to build along the Mexican border, saying it would look good as well as keep people out.
Bush on Wednesday criticized Trump’s immigration platform, arguing that it’s “not a conservative plan” because it would cost tens of billions of dollars to carry out.
Trump told reporters before the town hall meeting that his plan would likely pay for itself in a year because of all the money the government would save.
Trump, who has been criticized for a lack of specific policy plans, skipped an all-day education forum attended by half a dozen of his competitors, including Bush.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
It was very interesting to watch Donald effortlessly roll with the mob last evening and empower it as an almost equal partner…Not only does this have the potential to bite each and every one of us on the ass but the potential to consume the Donald himself.
“He’s won over a lot of people. People are very angry about how Washington’s not working. He’s tapped into that,” said Bush. “But when people look at his record, it is not a conservative record.”
There’s your problem Jeb. Conservatives aren’t really conservative. They don’t want preachers determining policy’s, they like tax subsidies to buy health care insurance. They use birth control pills, they are against free trade agreements. It looks like Trump is sabotaging the corporate Republican talking points. I can’t believe he came out agianst outsourcing US jobs. Thats something that is not being discussed on purpose.
Krugman has this neat little “trump in a box” diagram in his blog yesterday.
The gist is that Trump fills a gap that has been vacant since the 50s and 60s: white, welfare state/new deal supporting “dixiecrat types” who are invested in “Jim Crow”. I’ll let Krugman hypothesize further:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/19/trump-in-a-box/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body
Bush is his wife’s anchor husband…in more ways than one!
Feel free to use that one Donald.
Occasionally the Donald is right. Bush is boring as hell, has the charisma of a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal and seems to be a worse politician then GeeDubya. Can you image that?