Donald Trump, Jeb Bush again dispute George W. Bush and 9/11

Donald Trump and Jeb Bush took their latest dust-up — this one over President George W. Bush and the 9/11 terrorist attacks — to the Sunday morning talk show circuit, saying it reflects fundamental differences over foreign policy.

Trump told Fox News Sunday  he doesn’t blame George W. Bush for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but does question Jeb Bush’s claim that his presidential brother kept the nation “safe” — using 9/11 as the prime example.

“Look, look, Jeb said we were safe with my brother — we were safe,” the Republican front-runner told Fox. “Well, the World Trade Center just fell down! Now, am I trying to blame him? I’m not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down.”

Bush, who has called Trump’s comments “pathetic,” told CNN’s State of the Union: “Look, my brother responded to a crisis, and he did it as you hope a president would do.”

The former Florida governor — who has fallen far behind Trump in GOP presidential polls — said his brother united the country after 9/11, organized a response to the attack, and “he kept us safe,”

Bush told CNN that Trump’s response shows a fundamental lack of seriousness about foreign policy, whether it’s terrorism or the current conflict in Syria.

“Across the spectrum of foreign policy, Mr. Trump talks about things as though he’s still on ‘The Apprentice,'” Bush said, referring to the businessman’s television series.

Trump, who first made his 9/11 comments in an interview with Bloomberg Television, toldFox News Sunday that his immigration policy could have blocked the 2001 attacks because “I doubt that those people would have been in the country” in the first place.

“With that being said, I’m not blaming George Bush,” Trump said. “But I don’t want Jeb Bush to say my brother kept us safe because September 11 was one of the worst days in the history of this country.”

Benghazi investigator tells GOP lawmakers to 'shut up' on probe

WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the congressional panel probing the Benghazi tragedy is telling his GOP colleagues to "shut up" about the committee's work because most of them know very little about what the panel is doing.

Speaking Sunday on CBS' Face The Nation, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy dismissed recent statements by two Republican lawmakers — including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California — implying that at least part of the panel's mission was to embarrass Democrat Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State during the Benghazi attacks and is now running for president.

"I get that there is a presidential campaign going on," Gowdy said on the show. "I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends to shut up talking about things you don't know anything about and unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found."

Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee Thursday.

Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he wants to find out more about what role she may have played in deciding whether to draw down security at the U.S. embassy compound in Benghazi shortly before an attack on the Libyan facility killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

But his work has been complicated by statements from McCarthy, who told Sean Hannity on Fox News Sept. 29 that "we put together a Benghazi special committee (and) what are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping."

Last Wednesday, Rep. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., told a local radio program that "a big part" of the Benghazi panel was designed to go after Clinton.

"After what Kevin McCarthy said, it's difficult to accept at least a part of it was not," Hanna told a Utica radio station. "I think that's the way Washington works," Hanna said. "But you'd like to expect more from a committee that's spent millions of dollars and tons of time.''