Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush did not vote for Donald Trump and told a group at a leadership conference last Thursday that he "didn't think either candidate passed the threshold of who should be sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office, making decisions that have a huge impact on the world."
But the younger brother of George W. Bush also followed up on his notion that Trump’s campaign was successful because it was grounded on the idea that the GOP "needed a new messenger."
"The people's anger is legitimate. Their frustrations are real. The system hasn't worked for people in a long while. Washington needs to be drained. It is a swamp," Bush said during a visit to East Tennessee, reports The Hill.
Bush, who ran for president in 2016 but suspended his campaign in February and later backed Ted Cruz, wrote in late November in The Wall Street Journal that Trump "successfully tapped into the anger and deep distrust that voters feel toward Washington."
"These voters believe the American dream is increasingly out of reach. They believe our system is skewed in favor of the powerful and the connected. They believe that the politicians elected to right these wrongs have only made them worse."
He also said conservatives, in order to move forward, need to understand that they are living in a divided country.
"Republicans need to do more than oppose things," he said. "We have to be for a few big ideas and show that we can put them into action."
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