Jeb Bush is looking mediocre.
On Monday, Jeb Bush made a gaff while trying to do damage control on a previous gaff. Attempting to clean-up a controversy over his use of the term “anchor babies,” he said the offensive term was “frankly, more related to Asian people.”
On Tuesday, Bush said he was referring to “a very narrowcasted system of fraud” when he suggested Asian immigrants are most responsible for “anchor babies” and pointed to his multi-cultural family when defending his use of the controversial term.
On Monday, Jeb Bush outraged many Asian Americans after he said the issue of anchor babies is,
“More related to Asian people coming into our country — having children in that organized effort, taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship.”
At a town hall event in Colorado on Tuesday, a voter asked the former Florida governor if he regretted “scapegoating” Asians with the suggestion they are more at fault for entering the country illegally than Hispanics. Jeb Bush answered, but avoided specifically addressing Asian immigrants,
“I was talking about a very narrowcasted system of fraud where people are bringing…pregnant women in to have babies to have birthright citizenship.”
Jeb Bush has continued to dismiss criticism of his using the term “anchor babies.” On Monday, he called it “ludicrous” to think he was insulting immigrants and called on people to “chill out a little bit as it relates to the political correctness.”
On Tuesday he talked about his embrace of the Hispanic culture in an effort to refute suggestions of discrimination. Jeb Bush said,
“My record is pretty clear. I’m married to a Mexican-American United States citizen. I’m immersed in the culture, I’m bilingual. I feel like I’m bicultural. I’m proud of the diversity of my own family. It’s going to be really hard for me to be lectured to about the politics of immigration.”
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 his tweets, Trump wrote:
“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.”
“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,
“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!”
In a statement, Sen. Brian Schatz(D) of Hawaii called on Republican Jeb Bush 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.”
Jeb Bush’s gaffs, and his significant mediocrity, more than counter the huge amount of money he has accumulated in his super PAC.
