Bush Hits Trump Early: He'd Be 'Chaos President'

He criticizes rival's plan to ban all Muslims from the country
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 15, 2015 8:31 PM CST
Bush Hits Trump Early: He'd Be 'Chaos President'
Donald Trump makes a point during the CNN debate.   (AP Photo/John Locher)

Sparks were flying right off the bat at Tuesday night's Republican debate, with the first question not surprisingly revolving around Donald Trump's proposal to ban all Muslims from the country. After Trump defended it as a matter of national security—"we're not talking about religion, we're talking about security"—Jeb Bush derided the idea as "not a serious proposal," reports the Washington Post. He argued that it would push Muslims away from the US at the very time the nation needs to work with Muslim nations to defeat the Islamic State. He then called Trump a "chaos candidate" and predicted he would be a "chaos president." After which, Trump called Bush's campaign a "total disaster," said "nobody cares," and added that Bush himself doesn't believe what he's saying.

"Jeb doesn’t really believe I’m unhinged," Trump said, per Politico. "He said that very simply because he has failed in his campaign." Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz also weighed in on the Trump plan, but neither went after Trump as Bush did. Rubio focused his criticism more on President Obama for what he perceived as weak policies that led to Trump's proposal. When pressed, Cruz called Trump's proposal too broad, pointing out that millions of "peaceful Muslims" all over the world, in nations such as India, would be unfairly penalized. Instead, he pushed a three-year moratorium on refugees from trouble spots such as Syria. (More Jeb Bush 2016 stories.)

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