Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham warned Republican presidential candidates not to defend President George W. Bush's Iraq war because "millions and millions" of GOP voters view it as a "disaster" for the country.
During Saturday's Republican Presidential Debate on CBS, Donald Trump had accused Jeb Bush's brother of lying about weapons of mass destruction.
“Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake, all right?” Trump said. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none, and they knew there were none.”
The billionaire's comments about the war came just days before George W. Bush was set to join his young brother on the campaign trail in South Carolina.
Ingraham told the hosts of Fox News that Trump was engaging in a risky but calculated strategy.
"He's thinking that there are millions and millions of Republican voters who have had the luxury of time to look back on whether the war in Iraq was really a good idea," she explained. "And all the money we spent, and all the men and women we lost. And I think a lot of Republicans -- the establishment doesn't like to hear this -- millions and millions of Americans probably agree with Trump."
"This was a disaster for the United States," she added. "We've lost influence in the Middle East, we've toppled dictators who probably had their finger on the dice of what was going to be a flood of tumult. And he's betting that people aren't going to just reject the Republican Party of today, they're going to reject the Republican Party of the Bushs'."
"If they think they are going to re-litigate the Iraq war throughout the United States in this primary process and that's going to end well for them, I don't think it is."
