Jeb Bush: We Need 2020 GOP Challenger

Former candidate thinks president should face a Republican rival in primary
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 15, 2019 12:00 PM CDT
Jeb Bush Wants Republican to Challenge Trump
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush addresses an audience at Brown University on April 25, 2018.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

President Trump should have to overcome both Democratic and Republican opponents if he wants to retake the presidency, according to Jeb Bush. In a CNN interview to air Saturday, the former Florida governor who faced Trump in the 2016 primary calls for a competitive round two in 2020 among Republicans. "I think someone should run just because Republicans ought to be given a choice," Bush tells David Axelrod of The Axe Files, per Mediaite. "It's hard to beat a sitting president, but to have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative, I think it's important."

Bush seems to have Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in mind. Per CNN, the comment came as Bush was discussing Hogan's January inauguration. Bush spoke at the event, describing Hogan as "at the top of a list of leaders that I admire today." Upon hearing Hogan's own speech, "I kind of got a sense that maybe this was an opening" for a presidential run, says Bush, who was "incredibly candid on all fronts," according to Axelrod. Hogan's comment as of this month, per the AP: "Never say never." (Bush once appeared to suggest Trump's kids don't love him.)

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