Republican presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush and Donald Trump are duking it out — online and on the campaign trail.
The pair threw jabs at each other in a social media-fueled war of short videos and accusations of not being conservative enough. Trump rebuffed Bush’s latest criticism in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.
Yet another weak hit by a candidate with a failing campaign. Will Jeb sink as low in the polls as the others who have gone after me?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2015At a town hall in Miami the same day, Bush spoke out against Trump.
“While I was campaigning for Republicans in this state, conservative, reform-minded candidates, he was supporting Hillary Clinton and thinks Hillary Clinton would be a good negotiator as it relates to dealing with Iran,” Bush told reporters. “If you look at his record and what he believes, he supports Democrats.”
Hours earlier, Bush had fired off a video highlighting Trump’s more moderate views years ago.
Bush posted a video on Twitter Tuesday morning slamming Trump, the GOP presidential candidate and current front-runner, for identifying himself as a Democrat and supporting liberal views years ago. The video, featuring clips from as far back as the ’90s, was released a day after Trump attacked Bush in a similar video for being more moderate on immigration.
.@realDonaldTrump in his own words
https://t.co/FM0tF1mNTB
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 1, 2015“I lived in NYC and Manhattan all my life, so my views are a little different than if I lived in Iowa,” Trump says in a 1999 clip.
“I’m pro-choice in every respect as far as it goes,” Trump says in another dated clip, later saying he identified as a Democrat on a number of issues.
Trump’s Monday Instagram video painted Bush as sympathetic to undocumented immigrants and said it was time to “get tough” on immigration.
The pair of videos mark the latest shots fired in the feud that’s been brewing for months between the two, staking out polar opposite territory in the Republican primary.
Trump is working to portray himself as the political outsider intent on shaking up politics, casting Bush as the candidate of the establishment, while Bush is working to appeal to minorities and standing up to Trump over his harsh – and at times offensive – views on undocumented immigrants. Bush, once a presumed front-runner in the GOP race, has been trailing Trump in the polls since early summer.
Jane Timm