Bush clarifies comments on working longer hours; takes verbal jab at Trump

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Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton trade tweets over American workers

Chief political correspondent Carl Cameron reports from Washington

WASHINGTON – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is walking back controversial comments he made calling for Americans to “work longer hours” -- insisting his remarks were taken out of context and what he really meant is there needs to be more full-time jobs for Americans.

Bush told reporters at a campaign event in New Hampshire Wednesday night that “people need to work longer hours” to grow the economy.

But, he clarified to the Boston Herald, he was referring to part-time workers being bumped up to full-time schedules and not full-time employees working longer hours.

“If we’re going to grow our economy, people need to stop being part-time workers and need to be having access to greater opportunities to work,” Bush said. “You can take it out of context all you want, but high-sustaining growth means people work 40 hours, rather than 30 hours.”

At the event, Bush, who is one of 14 Republican candidates vying for a 2016 presidential bid, also slammed Donald Trump over his comments about Mexican immigrants, the Boston Herald reported.

Bush told a crowd of about 150 people he was going to “campaign in the Latino communities all across this country – and I might do it in Spanish and in English.”

He also called Trump’s personal attack on him a “weird little controversy.”

Trump re-tweeted a claim that Bush likes “Mexican illegals because of his wife,” Columba, a naturalized U.S. citizen.

“You can love the Mexican culture, you can love your Mexican-American wife, and also believe you can control the border,” Bush said.