Donald Trump is accusing presidential rival Jeb Bush of flip-flopping on whether the term “anchor babies” is appropriate.
“Jeb Bush signed memo saying not to use the term ‘anchor babies,’ offensive,” Trump said in a Tweet Friday. “Now he wants to use it because I use it. Stay true to yourself!”
{mosads}Trump is apparently referring to a language guide that was sent to Republican lawmakers in 2013 by the Hispanic Leadership Network (HLN).
The memo was sent out two weeks after Bush and other prominent Republican leaders met at a Hispanic Leadership Network event in Miami to map out GOP outreach to Hispanics following the 2012 general election.
It is not clear whether Bush signed the memo.
Bush said Thursday that he did not regret using the term “anchor babies,” which some people view as offensive.
“Do you have a better term?” Bush responded to reporters after a New Hampshire town hall. “You give me a better term, and I’ll use it.”
Bush used the phrase while talking about Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship.
“If there’s abuse, if people are bringing — pregnant women are going in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement,” Bush told radio host Bill Bennett on Wednesday. “That’s [the] legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don’t have these, you know, anchor babies, as they’re described, coming into the country.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has also criticized Bush for his comment.
“They’re called babies,” Clinton said on Twitter Wednesday.