The war of words continued on Wednesday, with Donald Trump disparaging Jeb Bush on “Good Morning America” while Bush blasted Trump in a mocking quiz online.
“He really had no choice,” Trump told ABC News of Bush’s Tuesday attacks on him. “He is doing very poorly in the polls, he’s a low energy kind of guy, he had to do something, so they’re spending a lot of money on ads.”
Bush let a “which candidate are you?” quiz do all the talking, casting himself as a conservative reformer and Trump as a tax-hiking Democrat. The social-media quiz gets particularly personal when it asks “Would you rather support a candidate who strives to shake every hand everywhere or is a germaphobe when it comes to shaking hands?” mocking Trump’s well-documented aversion to shaking hands, which he’s declared “barbaric.”
Would you rather support a candidate who cut $19 billion in taxes, or supported the largest tax hike in history? http://t.co/hcXfUUyCJy
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 2, 2015It’s the third day of all-out war between the two Republican hopefuls, with each firing off attack videos, tweets, and campaign comments slamming their opponents.
RELATED: Jeb Bush and Donald Trump trade barbs
Trump is working to portray himself as the political outsider intent on shaking up politics, and his attacks portray Bush as the candidate of the establishment.
“He has a lot of money from the hedge fund guys with a special interest from lobbyists. He raised over 100 million dollars – so they control him totally,” Trump told ABC News on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday afternoon, he fired off an Instagram tying Bush to Hillary Clinton and condemning them both as a failed political class.
Bush is working to be the kind of compassionate conservative his brother was lauded for being, so he’s standing up to Trump over his harsh – and at times offensive – views on immigration in hopes of gaining stronger standing in the polls. Once the presumed front-runner, Bush has been trailing Trump in the polls since early summer.
It’s a fact Trump is quick to note: “So far everybody that’s attacked me has gone down so let’s see what happens here,” Trump added on Wednesday morning.
Jane Timm