Jeb Bush called Donald Trump’s comments criticizing President George W. Bush over 9/11 “pathetic” in a tweet Friday and praised his brother for keeping the country safe.
How pathetic for @realdonaldtrump to criticize the president for 9/11. We were attacked & my brother kept us safe.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) October 16, 2015Trump’s comments came during an interview Friday with Bloomberg in which he said, “When you talk about George Bush, I mean, say what you want, the World Trade Center came down during his time.”
Challenged during the interview on seeming to blame the 43rd president for the terrorist attack, Trump said, “He was President, OK? Blame him or don’t blame him, but he was president. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”
Trump continued the back and forth late Friday on Twitter.
No @JebBush, you’re pathetic for saying nothing happened during your brother’s term when the World Trade Center was attacked and came down.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 17, 2015Trump added in a subsequent tweet that “our country needs more energy and spirit than (Bush) can provide!”
Earlier Friday, Bush criticized Trump generally for being light on specifics when it comes to his presidential platform.
“I don’t know about Donald Trump’s views of leadership because he talks about himself the whole time, rather than what he would do,” Bush told CBS News.
RELATED: Carson gives Trump the benefit of the doubt
Bush regularly says he’s proud of his brother and appreciates the former president’s help in fundraising during the campaign, but he has also made differentiating himself from both his brother and his father, the nation’s 41st president, a key element of his campaign.
“People know me as George’s boy and George’s brother,” Bush said Friday to CBS. “They don’t know that I was an effective conservative governor that disrupted the old order in Florida.”
On the campaign trail, the former Florida governor says touting his record will prove persuasive to voters, especially, he says, when they think about who should be sitting behind the “big desk” in the Oval Office — dismissing Trump as just “a loud talker” and “a big personality.”
Jordan Frasier