Trump’s Willie Horton-style attack ad: The Donald hits Jeb over his "act of love" immigration quote.
Donald Trump greets supporters after his rally at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on August 21, 2015 in Mobile, Alabama
Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images
Donald Trump and Jeb Bush's ongoing feud reached a new low
on Monday with the two Republican hopefuls exchanging their latest round
of attacks on social media. As shouldn’t surprise anyone by now, Jeb’s
counter-punch looked downright civil compared to The Donald’s nasty
haymaker.
Trump swung first and hardest on Instagram, opting for some old-fashioned fear mongering that was reminiscent of the infamous “Willie Horton” attack ad that George H.W. Bush backers used to help Jeb’s father defeat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 general election:
If you listen to the full Jeb quote that Trump cherrypicks,
it’s clear that Bush wasn't talking about alleged murders (obviously)
but instead immigrants who come to this country illegally for the sake
of their families—though the reality of attack ads is that the audience
rarely learns the full quote. “I honestly think that that is a different
kind of crime that there should be a price paid, but it shouldn’t rile
people up that people are actually coming to this country to provide for
their families,” Bush said last year.
Of course, even that moderate position looks incredibly out
of place in the current immigration conversation being had by GOP
hopefuls, which now includes talk of building a wall on both of our borders and tracking foreigners like they’re a FedEx package.
Bush, likewise, sounds a whole lot less compassionate than he did a
year ago now that he's trying to win over immigration hardliners by insulting Hispanics and Asians.
Shortly after Trump posted his 15-second video, Jeb responded with his latest RINO-themed dig at Trump, which likewise stoked unfoundedsanctuary-city fears in the process:
In a different time, successfully linking your rival to
Nancy Pelosi would be a small but significant political win for a
conservative White House hopeful. In the summer of Trump, though? Not so
much.
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