Pataki: Trump ‘spewing nonsense’ on 9/11

Former Gov. George Pataki (R-N.Y.) on Monday said GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump is wrong for suggesting that former President George W. Bush could have prevented the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“My reaction is Donald Trump is like an eighth-grade schoolyard bully spewing nonsense,” he told host Thomas Roberts on “MSNBC Live.”

{mosads}“This is all complete nonsense,” Pataki said of Trump’s campaign rhetoric.

“Whether it’s [Sen.] John McCain is not a war hero or Mexico’s going to pay for the wall or now, today, if his immigration policy had been in effect, Sept. 11 might not have happened,” GOP presidential candidate Pataki added.

“He just continually says things that make it plain that this man is not fit to be president of the United States.”

Pataki’s remarks follow Trump’s repeated attacks on President Bush’s handling of the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath.

Trump began arguing late last week that Bush could have prevented the bloodshed by implementing different policies.

Pataki insisted Bush is no more responsible for the attacks than the administration that preceded him.

“You wonder why all of a sudden he’s going after Bush when it was [former President Bill] Clinton [and] the Clintons who had been in power for eight years before Sept. 11,” he said, referencing former President Clinton and his wife, the current Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“What is he really thinking here?” asked Pataki, who was governor of New York during 9/11. “I don’t know what he’s doing here.”

Trump said earlier on Monday that he is merely stating the facts.

“I’m not blaming anybody and I’m not blaming George Bush, although if you look at his three primary agencies, they hated each other and weren’t talking,” he said.

“A good leader would’ve made sure that they would get along and lots of other things happen.”

Trump’s recurring skepticism toward the second Bush administration’s actions has drawn fierce criticism from former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.), President George W. Bush’s brother.

White House hopeful Jeb Bush has said that Trump is “pathetic” for turning the event into a campaign issue. He has repeatedly defended his sibling as having kept America “safe.”

Trump is well ahead of both Jeb Bush and Pataki across multiple national polls in the presidential race.