Jeb Bush told MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart that he was “herido,” Spanish for “hurt,” by Donald Trump’s comments about undocumented Mexican immigrants during an interview conducted entirely in Spanish on Monday.
“I was hurt hearing somebody speaking in such a vulgar fashion. This makes solving this problem much more difficult,” Bush said, according to a translator. “When we have politicians like that we cannot progress.”
“In a political sense it was bad, and it creates an environment that is worse,” he added.
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The Republican presidential candidate also said GOP rival Mike Huckabee’s Holocaust reference when slamming the Iran nuclear deal “doesn’t help.”
“We must have a more civil policy in this country,” Bush said.
The former Florida governor, whose wife is from Mexico, also reiterated his belief that Puerto Rico should be able to file for bankruptcy, just like the city of Detroit has done, and critiqued the Obama administration for restoring the U.S. relationship with Cuba.
“Dictators are not going to leave quietly at night, they don’t leave. We must be vigilant and this president does not recognize that,” he said.
Andrew Rafferty