GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush said he did not see a 112-page internal memo by his campaign that included a presentation to donors on why Sen. Marco Rubio was a "risky bet" before the document became public.
"That's not a hopeful tactic," host Chuck Todd told Bush on NBC's "Meet the Press," in a reference to the candidate's comments earlier in the interview that he wants to deliver a hopeful, optimistic and aspirational message through his campaign.
"I didn't see it," Bush answered.
"It's your campaign.... You don't know this memo? You don't know this PowerPoint?" Todd asked about the memo, obtained by the U.S. News and World Report.
"I read about it when it was leaked, for sure. I didn't know about the PowerPoint.... I want them [the campaign] to focus on winning New Hampshire, winning South Carolina, winning Iowa, winning Nevada. That's our first mission," Bush said.
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In a tense exchange that highlighted the rivalry heating up between the two candidates, Bush criticized Rubio for his missed Senate votes during last week's CNBC debate. Rubio shot back, saying Bush was using this particular attack line only because his advisers had told him to do so.
"The basic point with Marco isn't that he's not a good person or he's not a gifted politician — everybody can see that," Bush said on "Meet the Press. "It's that I have proven leadership skills. I got to be governor of a state and accomplish big things. And in this era of gridlock, it's really hard to break through, and I think he's given up and I think that's the wrong thing to do."
Rubio brushed off the claims made in the leaked memo, repeating on CBS's "Face the Nation" that "obviously someone has convinced Jeb that attacking me is going to help his campaign."
Rubio also defended his voting record: "Far too many votes today in the Senate are predetermined. We know what the outcome is going to be. It's being done for messaging purposes, but it's never going to pass, because even if you could find enough votes to pass it, the president would veto it."
