Donald Trump mocked Jeb
Bush on Twitter on Tuesday
morning after the former Florida governor dug himself into a deeper hole
explaining his "anchor babies" comment.
"In a
clumsy move to get out of his 'anchor babies' dilemma, where he signed that he
would not use the term and now uses it, he blamed ASIANS," Trump wrote.
"Asians are
very offended that JEB said that anchor babies applies to them as a way to be
more politically correct to hispanics. A mess!" Trump then wrote, a few
minutes later.
Trump, who spent
much of Monday night blasting away at Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, appeared by
Tuesday morning to have shifted his focus back to Bush. He knocked Bush in a
third morning tweet, saying "Jeb Bush just talked about my border proposal
to build a "fence." It's not a fence, Jeb, it's a WALL, and there's a
BIG difference!"
On Monday, Bush found himself in a new mess when, while trying
to clean-up controversy over his use of the term
"anchor babies," he
said the offensive term was "frankly, more related to Asian people."
Democratic Sen.
Brian Schatz of Hawaii called on the Republican presidential candidate to
"immediately retract his statements and apologize to the Asian community
for his insensitive behavior."
Bush's comments
"regarding the children of Asian immigrants are derogatory and
offensive," Schatz said in a statement.
It all started
when the former Florida governor visited McAllen, Texas, located near the
U.S.-Mexico border on Monday and defended his use of the term "anchor
baby" to describe the children born on U.S. soil to parents who came into
the country illegally. The phrase is considered offensive by many Latinos.
On Monday, Bush
argued that he's been "immersed in the immigrant experience" personally -- his wife is from Mexico
-- and said it's "ludicrous" for Democrats to say he was using the
word in a derogatory fashion.
Further
attempting to clarify his comments, the Republican presidential contender said
he was actually talking about immigrants other than those who cross the
U.S.-Mexico border.
"What I was
talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed where there's
organized efforts and, frankly, it's more related to Asian people coming into
our country, having children in that organized efforts taking advantage of a
noble concept which is birthright citizenship," he said. "I support
the 14th amendment."
Campaign
spokeswoman Kristy Campbell later clarified that he was referring to widely
reported federal investigations into "birth tourism."
In March, for
example, The New York
Times reported that
federal agents raided three businesses in Southern California that arranged for
pregnant Chinese women to come to the United States on a tourist visa, give
birth, then obtain birth certificates and U.S. passports for their newborns.
CNN also reported on the thriving
birth tourism business
in 2013.
"The next president must have a plan to secure our borders
and enforce our immigration laws," Campbell said in a written statement.
"Gov. Bush is the only candidate in the entire presidential field who has
presented a serious, conservative, comprehensive reform agenda to fix our
broken immigration system."
Pro-Hillary
Clinton Democratic groups American Bridge and Correct the Record were quick to
pounce on his word choice of "Asian people," and sought to paint Bush
as insensitive at a time when Republicans are trying to broaden its base and
become more inclusive.
Bush earlier
Monday argued that Democratic attacks against him over semantics amount to
nothing more than political correctness.
"I think we
all need to take a step back and chill out a little bit as it relates to the
political correctness, that somehow you have to be scolded every time you say
something," Bush said.
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