Jeb on Rubio: He Has Little Record of Leadership

GOP candidate Jeb Bush said Friday he considers rival and one-time protege Marco Rubio a "good man," but he told Newsmax TV that he does not believe the Florida senator has a proven record of success that compares to his own.

"Having a life experience where you've had to make tough choices, where you've had setbacks and you've learned from it, where you've had to make tough decisions where you've learned how to forge consensus, develop strategies, work on things in a way that makes things better for people, it's called leadership," Bush, who was governor of Florida from 1999-2007, told Newsmax TV's John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth. "The biggest difference is I have a proven record of leadership, and we've not had a leader in the White House for seven long years."

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The country can't afford to have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the White House either, said Bush, "because she's not a leader either. We need someone with a proven leadership record to be able to fix the mess in DC."

Meanwhile, Bush said he does not know if his party's establishment should be considered in a "civil war" or not, but it is a "rough and tumble business" as it "always has been."

"Everybody, their record should be scrutinized," said Bush. "I'm an open book, I gave out all my tax returns for the last 30 plus years, I've given out all my emails to contrast quite favorably to the efforts of Hillary Clinton to hide all of her emails. It's the right thing to do, just lay out your record when there's differences, talk about it, do it with civility but do it with toughness. That's fine. I'm not sure that that's a civil war."

There is good news, though, Bush continued, because whoever wins the nomination, "I hope it's going to be me and I'm working hard to make it me," unity will prevail "because no one wants Hillary Clinton to be elected president of the United States."

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