Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Saturday slammed fellow challengers Sen. Marco Rubio and former Gov. Jeb Bush for their attacks on his statements about illegal immigration — charging that both Florida politicians are soft on the issue.
"I am very proud to be fighting for a strong and secure border," the billionaire businessman told Newsmax in a statement. "This is a very important issue, which all the other candidates would have ignored had I not started this important discussion.
"I will fix the border. No one else knows where to begin," Trump said.
In New Hampshire, Bush said that he was "absolutely" offended personally by Trump's comments in his June 16 campaign announcement. Bush's wife, Columba, is from Mexico.
"I don’t think he represents the Republican Party, and his views are way out of the mainstream of what Republicans think," Bush after attending to Independence Day parades in the state, The Washington Post reports. "No one suggests that we shouldn’t control our borders — everybody has a belief that we should control our borders.
"But to make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican Party. Trump is wrong on this.
"He’s doing this to inflame and to incite and to get to draw attention, which just seems to be the organization principle of his campaign," Bush added. "It doesn’t represent the Republican Party or its values."
Trump snapped back Saturday, saying that "Jeb Bush once again proves that he is out of touch with the American people.
"Just like the simple question asked of Jeb on Iraq, where it took him five days and multiple answers to get it right, he doesn’t understand anything about the border or border security.
"In fact, Jeb believes illegal immigrants who break our laws when they cross our border come 'out of love,'" Trump said.
He was referring to Bush's waffling in March over whether he would not have ordered the Baghdad invasion in 2003 — after days of avoiding the question and being attacked by rivals — and his comments in an interview the month before on immigration.
Trump, too, accused Bush of trying to inflame tensions among Hispanics.
"As everybody knows, I never said that all Mexicans crossing the border are rapists. Jeb is mischaracterizing my statements only to inflame."
The developer referenced Wednesday's shooting of a 23-year-old San Francisco woman by an illegal immigrant, Francisco Sanchez, 45, who has seven felony convictions and has been deported five times.
"As seen with the tragic and unnecessary death of Kathryn Steinle this past week in San Francisco at the hands of an illegal immigrant who was previously deported five times, our unsecured border is a national security threat," Trump said.
"Jeb will never be able to secure our border, negotiate good trade deals, strengthen our military or care for our veterans.
"The biggest difference between Jeb and me on the border is that I believe in securing our border by building a wall, which will protect our safety, economy and national security.
"This is a vital step in making America great again."
Earlier Saturday, Trump blasted both Rubio and former New York Gov. George Pataki for their attacks earlier in the week.
Rubio said in a statement Friday that "Trump’s comments are not just offensive and inaccurate, but also divisive. Our next president needs to be someone who brings Americans together — not someone who continues to divide.
"Our broken immigration system is something that needs to be solved, and comments like this move us further from — not closer to — a solution," the first-term senator added. "We need leaders who offer serious solutions to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system."
Pataki wrote a letter to all the Republican presidential candidates this week calling on them to speak out against Trump and his remarks.
"I know Pataki well," Trump told Fox News on Saturday. "He was a terrible governor of New York. Terrible.
"If he would have run again, he wouldn't have gotten anything," he added. "He was a failed governor.
"And, you know, as far as Rubio, he is very weak on immigration — and he I have been saying that for some time," Trump said.
He praised another candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz — who vowed in a "Meet the Press" interview to be aired Sunday that he was not going to participate in "Republican-on-Republican violence" — saying that he respected the Texas senator.
Trump's comments have also been attacked by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in New Hampshire Saturday that the remarks reflected poorly on the Republican Party.
"I think he made a severe error in saying what he did about Mexican-Americans, and it's unfortunate," Romney told CNN during one of the holiday parades.
When asked whether more GOP candidates should call out Trump, Romney responded: "I think a number of them have."
