Jeb Bush swung hard at Donald Trump Monday morning, attacking the New Hampshire front-runner’s mockery of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his tenure as a prisoner of war.
{mosads}Trump responded by needling his Republican primary rival over his campaign spending and positions on education and illegal immigration.
Bush’s harsh words for the outspoken billionaire come one day before Tuesday’s early voting primary in New Hampshire.
Trump leads the Republican field by 17 points there, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. Bush ranks fourth in the Granite State, trailing second-place contender Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) by about 5 percentage points.
Trump inspired outrage last year by ridiculing McCain’s military service during the Vietnam War at the 2015 Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.
“He was a war hero because he was captured,” Trump sarcastically told host Frank Luntz during the event on July 18, 2015. “I like people who weren’t captured.”
Trump additionally panned McCain’s unsuccessful GOP presidential campaign during the 2008 election cycle.
“He lost and he let us down,” he said, adding that he spent $1 million on the senator’s failed Oval Office bid. “I’ve never liked him as much after that. I don’t like losers.”
McCain earned Trump’s ire by calling the business mogul’s supports the “crazies” of the right-wind movement last summer. Trump’s counterpunch inspired widespread condemnation given McCain spent six years as prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict.