Jeb Bush Slams Hillary: She's a Focus Group Person
— -- Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is "a focus group person," questioning her foreign policy plans in an exclusive interview today on “This Week.”
Bush told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos it is questionable to trust Clinton, saying she has flip-flopped in her support for a Sunni coalition in the fight to defeat ISIS. Clinton opposed the so-called "surge" in 2007, the U.S. strategy that boosted troop numbers and worked with Sunni tribes to fight al Qaeda in Iraq.
"How can you trust her if she in fact was opposed to the very thing she was supporting?" Bush said.
He went on to call her a "focus group person" who changes positions in response to public sentiment.
When pressed for differences between him and Clinton, Bush doubled down on his attack of Clinton, as well as of President Obama, for refusing to say we are "at war" with "radical Islamic terrorism."
"The simple fact is that the left has a hard time recognizing what this is," Bush said.
Bush also said Obama and Clinton were wrong to ban those on the no-fly list from buying guns. He argued because the list is too broad and sometimes inaccurate, doing so restricts law-abiding citizens from their gun rights.
"If you're tracking someone who you believe may be a terrorist, of course they shouldn't get guns," Bush said. "I think the FBI is aware of -– if they're tracking someone, they have the ability to look and see and then notified when someone tries to purchase a gun."
Bush challenged his Republican opponents as well. Republican senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz has called for "carpet bombing" of ISIS, but Bush said that wouldn’t work.
"We need a strategy," Bush said. "Carpet-bombing is not a strategy."
Monitoring mosques, something other Republican candidates like Donald Trump have suggested, is also not an option, Bush said.
"We don't have to target the religion," he said. "We just have to target those that have co-opted the religion and make sure that we're fully aware of the radicalizations taking place, not just here but all around the world."
Bush also discussed how his team plans to win the Republican nomination despite his fifth-place position in the latest poll. He said his team plans to "outwork and out-organize" in the early states.
"It's working, and it's going to show at the time that it matters, which is February 1," Bush said.
Bush said he stands by his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee -- but he maintained that it will not be Trump.
"He's a gifted politician. He connects with people's angst and their anger. But over the long haul we need to have productive, constructive ideas to lift people up," he said of Trump.
"I know for a fact a conservative is not going to win unless they have a hopeful and optimistic message," he added. "I'm sticking to my guns on that."
