Jindal: GOP field saying ‘outlandish things’

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is criticizing his rivals in the GOP’s presidential field, accusing them of making outrageous statements to gain attention ahead of the first debates.

“Right now, you’ve got a lot of candidates, they’re willing to say extreme things, outlandish things, to get on TV, to get in the debates,” Jindal said on CBS’s “This Morning.”

“We’re not doing that,” he said about his own campaign for the White House. “We’re actually offering specific ideas to voters, and I think it is resonating.”

{mosads}Jindal also pushed back against former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s remarks citing the Holocaust to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran.

Huckabee said on Saturday that President Obama’s agreement with Iran would march Israelis “to the door of the oven.”

“Outlandish comments are outlandish but they are just comments,” Jindal said. “These are outlandish comments, but we shouldn’t forget is that what’s really at issue here is you’ve got the president trying to push a bad deal with Iran that could start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

“I don’t make it a practice to compare anything to the Holocaust,” he continued. “I think that was a horrific evil.”

Jindal also dismissed suggestions that Donald Trump would have staying power in the 2016 race even as polls show him leading the field.

“I trust the American people,” Jindal said when asked about the outspoken billionaire.

“I think that at the end of the day, they’re going to vote for somebody who is an authentic outsider.”

Jindal’s remarks come as candidates scramble to make the stage in the first GOP presidential debate to be held by Fox News. The network will try to filter one of the most crowded presidential fields in recent memory, with only the 10 top candidates based on national polling taking the main stage.

Fox News announced on Tuesday it is expanding a side debate for lower-tier candidates on August 6 to include all declared contenders regardless of their national polling average. It previously said candidates must nab at least 1 percent nationally to qualify.

The debate with the runners-up will air before the debate boasting the top 10 candidates.

The most recent RealClearPolitics average sampling has Jindal qualifying for Fox News’s runner-up debates with 1.3 percent support across six national surveys.