George Pataki blasted Donald Trump on Thursday, saying, “I think the whole Donald Trump thing has been not just a distraction but it’s demagoguery.”
Former New York Gov. Patakai, appearing on CNN’s “Wolf,” was also critical of Trump’s illegal immigration plan indicating that it is “idiotic.”
Wolf Blitzer: Give us your quick reaction to what you just heard from Jeb Bush.
George Pataki: Well Wolf, I got to tell you, I think the whole thing is ridiculous. We’re talking about what term you use to describe children born in America. The world is falling apart. Iran is on the verge of having an illegal nuclear program. ISIS poses a threat to us here in America. Our economy is not growing and we’re arguing back and forth about utter nonsense. I think the whole Donald Trump thing has been not just a distraction but it’s demagoguery when Americans understand we need a leader who can bring us together and actually solve problems.
Blitzer: Why is he doing so well in all the polls and you’re not?
Pataki: I think the American people are angry, and I understand that. I’m angry, too, about a government that doesn’t stand up for America in the globe, that doesn’t understand too many American families are hurting and, by the way, Wolf, right now in Washington it is a corrupt insider system. People are angry at that. Donald Trump has tapped into that anger and focused it now on immigrants, which I think is tragic and bad for America, but ultimately it’s not about being angry. It’s about turning that anger into positive solutions that’s not what Trump has done. It is what I would do.
Blitzer: He recently tweeted this, Governor Pataki was a terrible governor of New York, one of the worst, would have been swamped if he ran again. That is just one of the tweets he had attacking you. What’s your response directly to him?
Pataki: I’m part of the crowd. I think he’s pretty much attacked everybody and, by the way, when I was governor I can’t tell you the number of times he told me I was a great governor. But we shouldn’t be discussing Donald Trump’s tweets. We should be discussing the idiotic policy he’s advanced where he’s going to say, for example, 7, 8, 9 year old child born in America sitting in a third grade classroom, we’re going to send thousands of police or soldiers or something into that classroom, take that child and send it to a country they’ve never been to, where they may not speak the language, because their parents don’t have the right papers. This is not America. This is not a solution, this is demagoguery. We have to move beyond this as Republicans and as Americans and understand that if we work together and look at solutions, the best for this country should be ahead of us, and I know that it is.