In 1994, 7 years before 9/11, Tom Clancy’s Debt of Honor ended with a Japanese airline being intentionally flown into the Capitol.
In 1995, the terrorist Bojinka plot was revealed, which included plans for flying an airliner into CIA headquarters.
The whole notion that the 9/11 plot was simply inconceivable prior to 9/11 is an enormous myth. GWB had been in office only 8 months. But surely he stills some responsibility and surely it is too much to say that he “kept us safe”. I also do not think the thousands of Americans who died or lost limbs in Iraq were “kept safe” in an effort that ended up under George W. Bush with an Iranian-allied government in power in Iraq and the entire Middle East destabilized. (Which is in no way to excuse Mr. Obama for making the situation even worse.)
Bush had faults (Medicare, immigration, bank bailouts) but when it’s said he “kept us safe” everyone understands that is post-9/11. That’s just an unspoken understanding. If one wishes to even partly blame him for 9/11, ok I guess some arguments can be made there (I wouldn’t make them) but when Jeb Bush said his brother “kept us safe” it was crystal clear (at least to me) that he was speaking post-9/11.
Were there any Ft. Hood style shootings on his watch? How about knife wielding members of the ROP roaming around stabbing cops? Were there any ROP motivated attacks on Bush’s watch? The answer is “no” so yeah he “kept us safe”.
The Dems by and large (except the Truther nuts who come from both extreme right and left) don’t blame Bush for 9/11 at all because they know that there’s more blame to lay at Clinton’s feet for it than Bush.
It was just stupid for Trump to bring 9/11 up at all as a challenge to Jeb. I don’t know why he and his apologists can’t seem to just admit that and move on.