Jeb Bush paints Ted Cruz as two-faced
HOUSTON -- Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush went after 2016 rival Ted Cruz over the weekend at a campaign stop in Charleston, South Carolina, by portraying the Texan as hypocritical and two-faced.
"The guy (Cruz) that made this comment was supportive of the guy (John Roberts) he was critical of," Bush told Rep. Tim Gowdy and the audience at Bishop England High School. He was referring to the moment in the second Republican presidential debate in Californiawhen Cruz said, "Yes, it was a mistake" for President George W. Bush to have nominated Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. Cruz had weighed in after Bush was asked to account for his brother's nomination of Roberts who some conservatives have derided for upholding Obamacare.
Without ever mentioning Cruz's name -- possibly a sign of tact, dislike, or both -- Bush explained with some sarcasm, "He literally supported John Roberts and then after the fact, with the power of hindsight, this amazing power that only people in Washington have, the rest of us apparently don't have this skill.
"He can opine the way he wants," Bush went on. "Anyway," he paused, "that's what I think about that."
The Texas Senator served in the George W. Bush administration in the Justice Department and worked as a Bush domestic policy adviser during the 2000 campaign. Years before the debate the Texas Senator spoke glowingly of Chief Justice Roberts. In an op-ed titled, "The Right Stuff" in the conservative magazine the National Review, Cruz described Roberts as "brilliant," a "lawyer's lawyer" and called for his swift confirmation.
It was revealing moment because questions about Cruz rarely come up on the campaign trail with the former Florida governor. Bush's riff was prompted by former prosecutor Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the Benghazi committee, who asked about Bush's philosophy on judicial nominations and expressed some incredulity that over attacks against Roberts saying, "If we've gotten to the point in our judicial politics where if you're wrong on one third of one opinion, we no longer want you as a judge. I can just tell you good luck finding a perfect judge."
Explaining his own philosophy on judicial nominations, Bush said he would favor fighting for conservative nominees with "proven" records as opposed to those without records, despite the possibility those records may be attacked. Like other Republican candidates, he called for a "humble" judiciary that is deferential to Congress.
According to a Politico report, former President George W. Bush reportedly told donors at a recent fundraiser for his brother in Denver, Colorado that he just didn't like Cruz and viewed him as "opportunistic." Bush reportedly mentioned Cruz as perhaps the most "serious rival" to his brother's candidacy.
Freddy Ford, a spokesman for the former president told CBS News that Bush "does not view Senator Cruz as a 'serious rival' to Governor Bush's candidacy," but did not push back on the report that Bush disliked Cruz.
In the latest CBS News battleground poll, Bush is ahead of Cruz in New Hampshire while the Texas Senator is ahead of Bush in Iowa and South Carolina. Both candidates trail outsider candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson.