Live Republican debate updates: Trump gets booed again in familiar clash with Bush:
Seema Mehta reporting:
Donald Trump and Jeb Bush got into a blistering exchange over the legacy of President George W. Bush during Saturday night’s GOP debate, the latest in their running battle throughout the presidential campaign.
Trump called the Iraq war “a big fat mistake,” and mocked Jeb Bush for being unable, earlier in the campaign, to answer a question about whether he would have gone to war knowing what we know now – that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction.
“It took him five days before his people told him what to say,” Trump said, before turning to Bush.
“George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty,” he said, prompting boos from the audience. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction…. And they knew there weren’t.”
Bush responded by saying that he “could care less” about Trump’s insults, but “I am sick and tired of him going after my family. My dad is the greatest man alive, in my mind,” he said, as the audience applauded. “When Donald Trump was building a reality TV show, my brother was building a security apparatus to keep us safe. And I’m proud of what he did.”
Trump interjected that the World Trade Center fell during President Bush’s watch, prompting more boos from the audience. “That’s not keeping us safe,” he said.
