GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Monday that he is merely stating the facts when discussing former President George W. Bush’s handling of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“The fact is [that] we had the worst attack in the history of our country during his reign,” he said of Bush’s administration, according to CNN.
{mosads}“Jeb [Bush] said we were safe during his reign. That wasn’t true,” Trump said of his presidential rival.
“I’m not blaming anybody and I’m not blaming George Bush, although if you look at his three primary agencies, they hated each other and they weren’t talking,” he added.
Trump said he would have implemented a “massive whistleblower system” before the 9/11 attacks so that law enforcement officials could have prevented them.
“A good leader would’ve made sure that they would get along and talk and lots of other things happen.”
The businessman in recent days has been feuding with Jeb Bush over his brother’s handling of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., in 2001.
Jeb Bush has repeatedly argued that his brother kept the nation safe after the attacks and called Trump “pathetic” for suggesting otherwise.
While Trump has repeatedly said he doesn’t blame George W. Bush for 9/11, he has suggested that there were policy failures in the run-up to the attacks that could have been prevented.
On Sunday, Trump said stricter immigration policies would have prevented the 9/11 hijackers from ever entering the county.
“I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I am extremely tough on people coming into this country.”