He’s not yet made it official and neither has she, but Jeb Bush, the likely Republican presidential candidate is showing no hesitation in criticizing likely Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- especially when it comes to foreign policy.
“She can’t do the Heisman on the first four years of the Obama foreign policy,” Bush told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, asked if he’d try to link Clinton to the current chaos in the Middle East.
He suggested Clinton would look to distance herself from the White House and the ongoing turmoil in Yemen, Syria and Iraq: “She’ll try. I mean, she’s going to, look, this is very Clintonian, I think, to figure out a way to get out of a mess,” Bush said.
But he maintained that Clinton was Secretary of State during Obama’s first term “and while some of this disruption and then all the stuff playing out right now didn’t exist in the first four years, its roots were there. The pullback began then. The reset with Russia, the discussions with Syria, the red line, all these things created the beginnings of what we’re now seeing.”
As for revelations that Clinton wiped her email server, Bush said he’d “put my money on Trey Gowdy,” the chairman of the House Select Committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack to get to the bottom of the matter.
“That guy is a superstar. He respects the rule of law,” Bush said. “He’ll be a gentleman about it, but he’s not going to give up on this notion that she needs to come clean with what she knows about that information and other things for sure.”
Democrats blasted back at Bush, noting that he has supported his brother’s decision to invade Iraq. “Under the Obama administration, we restored our standing with our international allies and made America safer and stronger,” said Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Holly Shulman. “One thing is certain: Jeb Bush offers nothing besides the same shoot first, talk later foreign policy that has had disastrous consequences and weakened us at home and abroad.”
On the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, Bush said he believes they should’ve ended “a long time ago,” charging that the Obama administration has “negotiated downward” to the point where Iran now would be allowed to enrich uranium.
“All the while, and this is the part that’s most amazing to me, all the while that the Iranian government, through its resources and its surrogates, is destabilizing the region,” he said. “They have influence or control over four capitals while we’re negotiating with them. This is the part that’s most troubling, is that the President and his administration seems to be more interested in cutting a deal with Iran, who has marches calling for the death of the United States, or the annihilation of Israel, and treats friends in the region, particularly Israel, with incredible disrespect.”