Jeb: Putin is why Trump ‘shouldn’t be president’

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is too fierce of an opponent for Donald Trump.

“That’s why Donald Trump should not be president of the United States,” he told host Joe Mathieu on WBZ 1030 News Radio’s “NewsWatch.”

{mosads}”He has no clue what he’s talking about,” Bush said of Trump’s strategy for countering Putin’s influence in Syria.

“We need a serious leader, not someone who gets their intelligence and foreign policy briefings from watching the television shows on Sunday morning.”

Bush said Trump’s calls for letting Putin handle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) would only further destabilize the Middle East.

“Putin is not interested in partnering with us to take out ISIS,” he said.

“He doesn’t strike ISIS to the same extent he strikes the very forces we are supporting. He’s there to prop up the brutal Assad regime.”

Moscow says it is escalating its air strikes against ISIS after the group boasted about bombing a Russian passenger jet in late October. All 224 passengers were killed when the aircraft exploded over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31.

Putin has long been at odds with President Obama over Syria given their difference of opinion of Syrian leader Bashar Assad. Russia supports Assad’s regime, while Obama has publicly declared it illegitimate and sided with Syria’s moderate rebels.

Bush criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the foreign policy challenge.

“They are not on the right track,” he said. “They don’t have a strategy. There’s not a clear strategy. It appears to me this is basically a strategy to run out the clock for the next president to deal with.”

Bush suggested he is a better answer for dealing with Putin than Trump or other Republican White House hopefuls next year.

“People are scared,” he said. “They are scared that this is a national security threat for our homeland [and] they’re correct.

“They’re looking for leadership,” Bush added. “They want someone who has a comprehensive strategy for dealing with it.”