Jeb Bush's latest counterpunch: Donald Trump is soft on crime, Nancy Pelosi

On Monday, Donald Trump gave Jeb Bush "the Willie Horton treatement," releasing a nasty Instagram video of Bush calling illegal immigration an "act of love" juxtaposed with photos of three undocumented immigrants accused or convicted of murder:

Later Monday, the Bush campaign hit back by suggesting that Trump is soft on crime, mostly because he supported legalizing some drugs and "has spent years supporting soft-on-crime liberals" like Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid. "Donald Trump even supported Nancy Pelosi — who supports sanctuary cities and backed a moratorium on the death penalty," Bush said.

This isn't the first time Bush has tried to swat back at Trump's barrage of personal insults and criticism with tough (for Bush) words. And this time probably won't be any more effective at knocking Trump down from his pole position in the polls.

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"For huge sections of the electorate, the definition of who is a conservative is based on who's making the most incendiary comments," not their policy positions, GOP strategist Steve Schmidt tells Politico. "What Trump is conveying in every speech he makes is strength. If you respond to someone who is attacking your character by talking about issues, you're in the wrong type of fight."