Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is emerging as the strongest critic of fellow Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his controversial remarks on illegal immigrants.
"I don't think Donald Trump's remarks reflect the Republican Party," Perry said Thursday after a speech at the National Press Club in Washington in which he called on the GOP to reach out to African Americans in the upcoming election.
He sharpened his attacks later in an interview with Fox News,
The Texas Tribune reports.
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"I think that was huge error on his part and, number one, it's wrong," Perry said of Trump's remarks on illegals in his June 16 announcement speech. "What I would say is that we want somebody who’s actually dealt with this before, not somebody that’s just going to shoot from the hip.
"I will suggest to you I know how to secure the border, and the border security is the real issue here," he said.
Perry, who stepped down in January as the Lone Star State's longest-serving governor, last year
deployed 1,000 National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border to combat the surge in illegal immigrant children pouring into the country.
His Thursday attacks on Trump marked a sharp departure from Perry's comments the previous day, in which he told Fox that the billionaire developer's remarks on immigration simply were ones "that I certainly wouldn't have made."
Perry's campaign, however, played Thursday's criticism for all that it was worth, the Tribune reports.
Staffers immediately released the comments to reporters, with video from the interview and transcripts highlighting the remarks.
Perry himself even sent out this Twitter message linking to the release:
In response,
Trump criticized Perry on Saturday, telling Fox News the former governor had not done more "in terms of protecting people" from illegals crossing the South Texas border.
Still, Perry remains far behind Trump
in the polls. He finished 8 percentage points behind Trump, who placed second, with 12 percent of those surveyed saying that they supported him.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush finished first, with 19 percent.