Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, came out swinging against several of the Republican candidates for president in a Thursday breakfast with reporters. The Florida congresswoman reserved most of her fire for her fellow Sunshine Staters, calling Marco Rubio a “chicken” and criticizing Jeb Bush for following the lead of Donald Trump. Wasserman Schultz also said Trump’s “extremism” is “holding a mirror up to the Republican party of today.”
Speaking at the event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Wasserman Schultz claimed that none of the 17 GOP candidates for president would be worse or better to face off against in the general election because “they’re all the same.”
But the DNC chair seemed particularly focused on Bush, who was governor of Florida when Wasserman Schultz served in both the state house and senate. She characterized his recently released tax plan as “right in his ‘take-care-of-the-wealthy’ wheelhouse” and took on the Republican for suggesting “we should spend less on women’s health care.” She made reference to Bush’s use of the term “anchor babies” to refer to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States and granted American citizenship.
“Jeb Bush used a vulgar term that Donald Trump had previously used about immigrants,” Wasserman Schultz said.
She also zeroed in on Rubio’s support for the Gang of Eight immigration proposal in the Senate back in 2013. [He] started out pushing through a comprehensive immigration reform bill through the Senate, and then couldn’t run away from it fast enough,” she said. “That showed what a chicken Marco Rubio is. And I think the last thing the voters are going to want to do is elect a chicken who’s going to stick their finger in the wind and see which way it blows.”
While noting that Trump’s appeal within the Republican primary had something to do with a view that Americans don’t have “confidence” in their current government, Wasserman Schultz blasted the New York businessman.
“Donald Trump has mentioned, when asked questions, some populistic themes, but he has mostly focused on ginning up people’s jingoistic, xenophobic fears,” she said.
