Jeb Bush says his Republican presidential rival Donald Trump is a “junkyard dog” who is not really a conservative.
“He’s a junkyard dog, that’s for sure,” Bush said in an interview with Newsmax TV. “I seem to be the target of most of his attacks. I don’t know why he’s so worried about me. Maybe he thinks I’m a real threat to him, because I am. I’m the only guy who has taken him on.”
Bush and Trump were once regular sparring partners, but Trump has since shifted his attention on Cruz with less than two weeks until the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. Some polls have Cruz with a narrow lead over Trump in Iowa.
Bush, however, has not let up on Trump, and went after Trump for donating to Democrats and going bankrupt in the Newsmax interview.
“There’s nothing in his record that suggests to me that he’s a conservative. He’s supported more Democrats over his adult life than Republicans. He wasn’t pro-Second Amendment until this year,” the former Florida governor said. “He hasn’t been pro-life consistently. To the contrary, he believes that eminent domain powers should be used for private purposes — his own purposes, of course.”
“He’s gone bankrupt four times, says that’s a victory, when in fact it’s a loss for his own equity investment — but more importantly for all the employees who lost their jobs and the vendors who lost their businesses,” Bush added. “This is a guy who is not a conservative. He’s an incredible personality. He fills the space.”
Trump leads a RealClearPolitics average of polls with 34.8 percentage points. Bush sits in fifth place with 4.8 percent.
