Donald Trump, Jeb Bush spar over the use of eminent domain
Donald Trump and Jeb Bush on Saturday night argued over the use of eminent domain, the government's right to acquire private property for public use.
At the CBS News GOP presidential debate in Greenville, South Carolina, moderator John Dickerson asked Trump which conservative policy he disagrees with.
"I'm not in love with eminent domain, but eminent domain is something that you need very strongly," Trump said.
Trump rejected previous accusations by Bush that Trump used eminent domain to build a parking lot, arguing that the state of New Jersey wanted to build a tower to employ "thousands of people." Trump then repeated an accusation that the Bush family used eminent domain to build a baseball stadium, which also came up in another recent debate.
George W. Bush was a part owner of the Texas Rangers, and the team did use eminent domain to build a new stadium, which Jeb Bush did not deny.
At Saturday's debate, Bush said he disagreed with his brother, President George W. Bush's use of eminent domain.
"You should not use eminent domain for private purposes, baseball stadium or parking lot," Bush said, adding that it should be used for transmissions lines, bridges, highways and pipelines.
Bush said it should not be used "to take an elderly woman's home to build a parking lot so that high rollers can come from NYC to build casinos in Atlantic City."
According to The Washington Post, a government agency tried to seize an elderly woman's home in 1994 near the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and it wanted to turn the house over to the Trump Organization. Trump was going to build a parking lot at the site with an area for limos.
In 1998, the state's Superior Court said that the government had no legitimate purpose to take the woman's property away from her.