After a round of insults between Republican presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Jeb Bush Monday morning, Trump took to the television airwaves to lambast the former Florida governor for being "sad," "pathetic," "desperate" and an "embarrassment to his family."
"He's a desperate person," Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Monday afternoon, just a day ahead of the New Hampshire primaries, according to The Washington Times. "He's a pathetic person - he doesn't even use his last name in his ads. He's a sad person who has gone absolutely crazy. I mean, this guy is...a nervous wreck. I've never seen anything like it."
He continued: "Jeb is having some kind of breakdown, I think. Look, he's an embarrassment to his family. He has to bring his mother out and walk his mother around at 90 years old. I think it's a very sad situation that's taking place."
Trump then moved on to the topic of eminent domain, a law that Bush says that Trump abused to steal land from citizens. "The Texas stadium, when he talks about the taking of land. Well, they used - the Bush family used the taking of land privately, eminent domain on Texas stadium. So you look at this kind of stuff - it's absolutely amazing," he told CNN, according to The Daily Caller.
"And on top of it, Wolf, he spent over $100 million, and he's a failed candidate, I mean, he's a laughingstock," Trump added.
The bickering started early Monday morning when Trump hopped on Twitter to claim Bush has "zero communication skills," which resulted in him spending "a fortune of special interest money on a Super Bowl ad."
Bush, Trump's most consistent critic on the campaign trail, hit back a couple hours later, tweeting to Trump: "You aren't just a loser, you are a liar and a whiner. John McCain is a hero. Over and out."
Bush was referring to comments Trump made over the summer about McCain, the Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee who was held as a war prisoner in Vietnam for five years. Trump said he likes people that weren't captured and that McCain was only "a war hero because he was captured."
Trump responded with a couple more tweets:
The two also traded jabs in separate interviews on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday morning.
Bush has been ramping up his attacks against Trump in an attempt to gain footing in New Hampshire ahead of the primaries. Trump is still dominating the field with 31 percent, while Bush sits in fifth with 10.5 percent, according to Real Clear Politics' average of polling data. Bush is doing something right, though, as a poll released Sunday by Monmouth University found he has risen 9 points since January.
When on CNN on Monday, Blitzer asked Trump to respond to being called a "loser ... a liar and a whiner."
Trump unleashed on Bush: "No, I'm not a whiner. I get things done. You know, I get things done. Look, Jeb is the kind of a guy, if he weren't in government, nobody would give him a job. Couldn't get a job. You look at what he says, I mean he lies so much. I'm very strong on Second Amendment. You know that. You've heard my speeches. I'm very strong on low taxes. I've got a huge tax cut for everybody. He says I want to raise taxes on everybody. I mean, you know, how do you do that? A guy goes out and says he wants to raise taxes."
"The guy is, you know, he's got a failed campaign," Trump said. "He's a nervous wreck. He's probably going to be the last of the governors, I would say. Certainly he's the least talented of the governors. And you know, he's done poorly in the debates over the period of time. And what he does is he goes around saying I'm the only one to have courage to go after Trump.' "What courage is it?," Trump rhetorically wondered. "He says nasty things. I always put him down on the dais, and he goes away like a little sheep. You know, the guy is just not a man. He shouldn't be - he should speak much more positively."