Jeb Bush Says He Doesn't Regret Using The Term 'Anchor Babies'

Jeb Bush said Thursday he doesn't regret using the term "anchor babies"  to describe children born in the United States to undocumented parents.

While taking questions from the press after a town hall in New Hampshire, the former Florida governor and GOP presidential hopeful was asked if he regretted using the term during a radio interview  earlier this week.

"I don't," he said. "Do you have a better term? ... You give me a better term and I'll use it."

"Is that not bombastic?" a reporter asked.

"No, it isn't," he said. "Give me another word."

"What I said was it's commonly referred to [as] that," Bush continued. "I didn't use it as my own language. What we ought to do is -- do you want to get to the policy for a second? I think that people born in the country ought to be American citizens. Okay? Now we got that over with."

Watch video of the exchange above.

Bush used the derogatory term during an interview with radio host Bill Bennett Wednesday while discussing Donald Trump's recent call to end birthright citizenship . The former governor said he disagreed with Trump, but called for "greater enforcement" of the policy to prevent "abuse."

"If there's fraud or if there's abuse, if people are bringing, pregnant women are coming in to have babies simply because they can do it, then there ought to be greater enforcement," he said . "That's the legitimate side of this. Better enforcement so that you don't have these, you know, 'anchor babies,' as they're described, coming into the country."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called out her potential GOP rival on Twitter:

Read more on Bush's earlier remarks here. 

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