Yesterday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had an interview with CNN where he responded to GOP front-runner Donald Trump's comments to drop out of the race for the nomination. Bush said, "I always knew this was going to be hard. I never felt like a front runner cause we haven't earned it," he added his campaign is just "starting out on the journey."
Bush said he does not plan on dropping out of the race and believes that he has the organization, the money, and the will the continue campaigning and ultimately win the nomination.
Bush also defended his comment about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's Senate attendance record saying, "It's not a criticism, it's just a simple fact," that people should show up to work. He said Sen. Rand Paul, also a presidential candidate, has a good attendance record even though he's running for office and that Rubio should be attending Senate votes and meetings.
One interesting point in the interview came when CNN's Jamie Gangel asked Bush if he thought Rubio was more qualified than Trump to be president. Rather than answer that question he said, "If you're comparing me to Trump, I'm better qualified to be president."
Gangel asked Bush several times if he thought Rubio was ready to be president and each time he dodged the question by saying he was the most qualified candidate to be president. Even going so far as to say, "I'm better qualified than anybody else running for president."
So aside from the fact that Bush just brushed over the question, why is this interesting? After the debate Bush said he was going to have to be a better "performer." He told NBC News last Thursday night, "I'm going to have to do what the other candidates do: which is rudely interrupt, not answer the questions that are being asked, and hopefully the debate moderators will actually ask more substantive questions as well."
Well it looks as though Bush has begun to not answer the questions that are being asked. This comes as Bush has been trying to reassure donors that his campaign is not on "life support," and that he can stage a come back and win the nomination.
However, it does raise the question: What questions will he answer?
The CNN question was not whether or not Rubio is more qualified than Bush. And while answering that question may have appeared to be an attack on one of the two candidates, his non-answer just seems weak.
You can watch the clip from CNN below: