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| Campaign live: Trump lords South Carolina win over rivals as Bush drops out of the race | Campaign live: Trump lords South Carolina win over rivals as Bush drops out of the race |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 3.39pm GMT | |
| 15:39 | |
| And now we’re back to Donald Trump on NBC’s Meet the Press. Host Chuck Todd asks whether Trump believes what he’s telling voters, for instance regarding healthcare. | |
| “We’re gonna repeal and replace Obamacare, it’s a complete disaster, it’ll be gone,” Trump says. “You can call it whatever you want, people are not going to die in the middle of the street, people are not going to die on the sidewalks, if I’m president.” | |
| He says he’s not going to call it “a mandate”, but that he prefers “common sense”. I’m really talking about people that can’t afford it. We’re not going to let people die in squalor because we are Republicans.” | |
| Trump says that Republicans got into this mess alongside Democrats. | |
| “That’s part of the problem with Republicans is somehow they got fed into this horrible position. They’re gonna have great plans,” he says, vaguely as usual. “They’re gonna be private, they are going to be lots of different options.” | |
| He adds his own take on Planned Parenthood – which is, somehow, a hair more nuanced than his rivals’. Cruz and Rubio have said they will defund the program without conditions. | |
| “Planned Parenthood does a really good job in a lot of different areas, but not in abortion,” Trump says, “but I would defund as long as they’re doing abortions.” | |
| 3.37pm GMT | |
| 15:37 | |
| Martin Pengelly | |
| …and now The Donald is on The CBS. It’s all a bit like that bit in Sherlock when Moriarty turned up on every screen in Christendom and says: “Did you miss me?” | |
| Let’s see if Trump says anything new. It’s not terribly likely, I know. | |
| He won’t say the nomination is his. Check. “I was always against the war in Iraq.” Check. “They didn’t knock down the World Trade Center. It was other people.” Uh… check. Familiar ground if a bit odd. “Someday they should open the report and take a look.” Um… | |
| The pope spat and whether Trump gets to question people’s faith. “I never questioned Ted’s… anything having to do with his religion.” | |
| Also: “The pope was very nice by the way, and I appreciated it.” | |
| 3.34pm GMT | |
| 15:34 | |
| And now it’s Reince Priebus, the cthulhulically named chairman of the Republican National Committee. | |
| He says that Trump’s victories are a sign that voters are “sick and tired of politics in general, sick and tired of Washington DC. I think it’s just a general feeling out there that’s real, I wouldn’t deny it.” | |
| So is he worried about schisms in the party should Trump win the nomination? | |
| “Winning is the antidote to a lot of things,” Priebus says. “So the name of the game is winning in November. If we win in November a lot of those armchair quarterbacks will fall in line.” | |
| Are you ready for a brokered convention, if no candidate can win enough delegates to secure the nomination – or if the party truly revolts against the voters’ choice? | |
| “We’re going to support whomever that is” that wins the nomination, Priebus says, adding that he’s reading for “anything”, brokered convention or not. “We will be prepared if that happens but I don’t think that’s going to be the case.” | |
| 3.29pm GMT | |
| 15:29 | |
| Martin Pengelly | |
| And now, Rubio. Does he have to win a state to win the nomination? | |
| “We do and we have to win more than one,” he says. “It’s been difficult because up to now we’ve had so many people in the race.” | |
| Rubio thinks the non-Trump 70%, previously split between Bush-Kasich-Cruz-Rubio-Carson-Fiorina-and-presumably-the-one-guy-in-Nashua-who-liked-Jim-Gilmore will start to coalesce behind him. The race is down to “literally three people”, so I guess he doesn’t think John Kasich and Ben Carson count anymore. Is he calling for them to drop out? | |
| “I’m no one to tell anyone to drop out,” says Rubio, refusing to say if their exits would be better for the party. | |
| His first line against Cruz is that the Texas senator is weak on national security. He also says “he’s literally every day making up things”. Then back to national security weakness, which Rubio says cost Cruz in South Carolina. | |
| About that Photoshopped pro-Cruz ad showing “Rubio” shaking hands with “Barack Obama”. Does Cruz have the integrity to be president? | |
| Rubio says … no. Basically. Those robocalls come up again. Some of them in Spanish to English-speaking households in South Carolina. “He did robocalls on the Confederate flag in South Carolina,” says Rubio. | |
| There’s a robocalls/robo-Rubio joke here but that New Hampshire debate was a long time ago so let’s all move on. | |
| Rubio also has to defend his former mortgage arrangements and his Senate attendance record, both familiar issues raised against him in this campaign cycle. So he does. | |
| Last: Governor Haley as a Rubio VP pick? Rubio says he has become friends with Nikki Haley “over the last three days”, since her endorsement of him for president. He also says that Haley’s support and that of Tim Scott, South Carolina’s African American senator shows the GOP is a diverse GOP. | |
| But is she a running mate? “She will certainly be at the top of any list.” | |
| So she’s on his shortlist? | |
| “She’s someone that people are going to be paying attention to.” | |
| So she is, then. | |
| 3.25pm GMT | |
| 15:25 | |
| Ted Cruz is now on the show. He’s competing with Marco Rubio for being the person who Donald Trump attacked most. This is a strategy that did not go well for Jeb Bush. | |
| But Cruz says Rubio’s being a coward about Trump. “For whatever reason he’s afraid to take on Donald Trump,” he says. “If you want to beat Donald Trump you’ve got to go with the only campaign that has shown it can [beat] him. | |
| The Texas senator then repeats what he said on CNN earlier this morning: that Donald Trump has a record of supporting Democrats and non-Republican causes, such as abortion rights and the Wall Street bailouts (he omits that those were initiated by a Republican president). Stephanopoulos takes it to commercial. | |
| 3.22pm GMT | |
| 15:22 | |
| So how come you can’t seem to get any unity, if you’re the candidate of unity, Rubio is asked. | |
| “We had seven to eight people” running, Rubio says, although there were six candidates in yesterday’s primary. “You can only take on so many people at one time. And this is not about taking on Donald Trump, I know people are obsessed about that.” | |
| Rubio says that Trump is “the frontrunner when you have seven to eight people running and he’s dividing the vote.” The senator does not mention that had he won all of the votes that went to former governor Jeb Bush, who finished fourth, he would not have beaten Trump for first. | |
| Stephanopoulos asks would Rubio support a nominated Trump. | |
| “I’m going to support the Republican nominee,” Rubio says, “but I don’t believe he’s exhibited and understanding of foreign policy. And just to say I’m going to surround my self with really smart people, that’s not enough … You have to make judgments. … | |
| “Vladimir Putin’s not going to have a six-month honeymoon period, the world’s not going to wait until you can catch up.” | |
| He finishes with his usual stump speech argument that he’ll bring the party together, though he won’t create “unanimity” he could still be “someone who will seek to unite Americans and not pit us against each other”. | |
| 3.18pm GMT | |
| 15:18 | |
| Marco Rubio is up next on the ABC program, and he says Donald Trump’s tactics of saying ridiculous things to get free airtime have played out. | |
| “It’s not going to work anymore,” the senator says. “I’m going to spend zero time with his interpretation of the constitution with regard to eligibility.” | |
| “The consequences are extraordinary if we get this election wrong,” he adds, before again saying that youv’e got to get out there and see his website at his name dot com. | |
| Stephanopoulos asks whether it’s true that 2012 nominee Mitt Romney intends to endorse Rubio. The senator says he’s spoken to Romney and the report is nonsense, though he’d like the endorsement if it were to ever arrive. “If he were we wouldn’t be announcing on the Huffington Post.” | |
| 3.15pm GMT | |
| 15:15 | |
| Martin Pengelly | |
| And here’s Donald, live – is he? He’s on ABC too. This is confusing – from Palm Beach. | |
| Can he be stopped for the nomination? “I guess you can always be stopped, I have very good competitors,” he says, mentioning among the governors and senators against him Dr Ben Carson. Yes, him. | |
| Ted Cruz is “very sharp”, says Trump, before returning to his complaints about the Texas senator’s campaign tactics and robocalls. | |
| Marco Rubio? “Well he’s a talented guy, a good guy, I like him, I start off liking everybody and all of a sudden they become mortal enemies.” | |
| Well, quite. And then Trump says he probably needs to tone down his tactics and be “more presidential”, which he will be “at the appropriate time”, although the one president he won’t be a better president than is, apparently, Abraham Lincoln. So now you know. | |
| Now Chris Wallace asks him about his rowing back on whether George W Bush lied to get the US into Iraq, and whether he supports the individual mandate in Obamacare or not. | |
| “First of all I don’t want mandates for anything,” he says, and says the confusion arose over the fact he and CNN’s Anderson Cooper were talking over each other at the time he made the remark in question. He then skates over Wallace’s insistence on the remark in question to talk about the “heart” he has, because he isn’t going to have people dying on the street when he’s president and when he says that at rallies people stand to applaud. | |
| “The war in Iraq was a disaster,” he says – and adds that even though he may have praised the military operation at the time that doesn’t mean anything. He avoids the follow up about whether George W Bush lied, too. Of course he does. | |
| “I have nothing against Bush,” he says. He means W. Not Jeb. | |
| Now we’re on to tax returns – an issue which haunted Mitt Romney, another billionaire, four years ago. Will they be released? “We’re having them made, it’s extremely complicated, it will take a while … we’re having them done and they will be released at the appropriate time.” | |
| Voters deserve a look at his finances, Trump says, before trumpeting his previous financial disclosures. Which wasn’t what he was asked about. | |
| He then denies he is engaged in a hostile takeover of the Republican party, but also gives the party establishment a good drubbing. “They’re from a different world,” he says. | |
| “Every time I go to a debate I walk in and it’s like death,” he says. “Every time the other candidates speak they get standing ovations.” The GOP is “stacking” the audiences, he says, and it’s very unfair. | |
| Digested read: Trump is brilliant, everyone else is unfair to Trump, who is brilliant. And the tax returns will be along… at some point. | |
| Updated | |
| at 3.16pm GMT | |
| 3.15pm GMT | |
| 15:15 | |
| Stephanopoulos: You’ve been promising to release your tax returns for months, will you put them out before 1 March? | |
| Trump: “No, I won’t, we’re working on them, they’re massive.” | |
| As for the Wall Street Journal, which called for those tax returns, Trump says: “They have taken me on so much, they’re ridiculous, every day editorials.” | |
| “They should fire their pollster, and they should fire their editorial staff” | |
| Stephanopoulos: But what about the tax returns? | |
| Trump: “Why is there such a rush? Am I supposed to rush like crazy? I released my financial statements and everybody was amazed by how … great the company is … That’s the kind of thinking the United States needs now because our country is in financial trouble and military trouble.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 3.28pm GMT | |
| 3.11pm GMT | |
| 15:11 | |
| On to ABC’s This Week with host George Stephanopoulos, who says that Republicans are now facing the previously “unimaginable” prospect of nominee Donald Trump. | |
| That red-faced nominee then appears via live feed to answer questions. Are you certain you’re going to win, Stephanopoulos asks. | |
| Trump: “No, not at all. I mean look I’m dealing with very talented people, very smart people. … I never take it for granted.” | |
| Stephanopoulos: You retweeted somebody who questioned whether Marco Rubio is eligible for president – do you really believe he could be ineligible, as you’ve suggested Cruz might be because of his Canadian birth to and American mother? (Rubio was born in the US.) | |
| Trump: “I’m not really that familiar with Marco’s circumstances.” | |
| Stephanopoulos: So why retweet!? | |
| Trump: “Because I’m not sure. Let people do their own determination.” | |
| He says that Cruz is “being sued by somebody, it has nothing to do with me.” With regard to Rubio, he insists, “I’ve never looked at it, George, honestly I’ve never looked at it.” | |
| As for why he retweets, Trump is insouciant: “I have 14 million people following me between Twitter and Facebook. We start dialogue and it’s very interesting.” | |
| 3.03pm GMT | 3.03pm GMT |
| 15:03 | 15:03 |
| Martin Pengelly | Martin Pengelly |
| Good morning, and welcome to another edition of the never-popular show, I’m Watching Fox News Sunday So You Don’t Have To… | Good morning, and welcome to another edition of the never-popular show, I’m Watching Fox News Sunday So You Don’t Have To… |
| Will Fox News Sunday break with this morning’s rather depressing precedent and mention the Kalamazoo multiple shooting and any issues arising on gun control? I’m guessing… not. | Will Fox News Sunday break with this morning’s rather depressing precedent and mention the Kalamazoo multiple shooting and any issues arising on gun control? I’m guessing… not. |
| They seem keener on discussing whether Trump is now “Teflon Don”, given that even a squabble with the pope can’t sink him – where does he go next? Jesus? God Himself? The Emperor Ming? – and whether Marco Rubio can win the nomination without winning any primaries or caucuses. Of course they do. | They seem keener on discussing whether Trump is now “Teflon Don”, given that even a squabble with the pope can’t sink him – where does he go next? Jesus? God Himself? The Emperor Ming? – and whether Marco Rubio can win the nomination without winning any primaries or caucuses. Of course they do. |
| Further Trumperama imminent, anyway… | Further Trumperama imminent, anyway… |
| 2.52pm GMT | 2.52pm GMT |
| 14:52 | 14:52 |
| What about Clinton’s new stump speech suggestion that Sanders is a “single-issue” candidate (ie all he talks about is inequality, she’s implying)? | |
| “I haven’t the vaguest idea what she’s talking about,” Sanders says. | “I haven’t the vaguest idea what she’s talking about,” Sanders says. |
| We’re the only major country on earth that doesn’t have a national healthcare program … We need to have free tuition in public colleges and universities … We need to have the wealthiest and biggest corporations to pay their fair share in taxes … We’re working very hard to transform our energy system so we can combat climate change. | We’re the only major country on earth that doesn’t have a national healthcare program … We need to have free tuition in public colleges and universities … We need to have the wealthiest and biggest corporations to pay their fair share in taxes … We’re working very hard to transform our energy system so we can combat climate change. |
| “We are talking about dozens of issues,” he concludes, “so I’m not quite sure what secretary Clinton is talking about.” | “We are talking about dozens of issues,” he concludes, “so I’m not quite sure what secretary Clinton is talking about.” |
| He throws in a glancing jab at Clinton, saying the US has to address “this crisis of a corrupt campaign finance system in which billionaires and Super Pacs” are influencing politicians with donations. He then points out that Clinton has Super Pacs supporting her with millions of dollars. | He throws in a glancing jab at Clinton, saying the US has to address “this crisis of a corrupt campaign finance system in which billionaires and Super Pacs” are influencing politicians with donations. He then points out that Clinton has Super Pacs supporting her with millions of dollars. |
| Finally, Tapper asks about a photo and article unearthed from the Chicago Tribune archives showing Sanders being arrested by police in 1963, over his participation in civil rights protests. | Finally, Tapper asks about a photo and article unearthed from the Chicago Tribune archives showing Sanders being arrested by police in 1963, over his participation in civil rights protests. |
| “I remember it pretty well,” Sanders says. “This had to do with opposition to segregated schools.” | “I remember it pretty well,” Sanders says. “This had to do with opposition to segregated schools.” |
| “I remember being arrested, being driven in a police wagon to the police station. It was an interesting day.” | “I remember being arrested, being driven in a police wagon to the police station. It was an interesting day.” |
| Related: Footage shows a young Bernie Sanders arrested during civil rights protest | Related: Footage shows a young Bernie Sanders arrested during civil rights protest |
| Updated | |
| at 3.05pm GMT | |
| 2.47pm GMT | 2.47pm GMT |
| 14:47 | 14:47 |
| Finally, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders appears – in real time – on the CNN show. | Finally, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders appears – in real time – on the CNN show. |
| He starts off with the same argument Saturday-night Cruz used, saying that Nevada shows how far his campaign has come. Clinton’s huge lead was diminished to six points, he says. | He starts off with the same argument Saturday-night Cruz used, saying that Nevada shows how far his campaign has come. Clinton’s huge lead was diminished to six points, he says. |
| What about the wide margin in black voters in Nevada, who turned out for Clinton? | What about the wide margin in black voters in Nevada, who turned out for Clinton? |
| Sanders insists he’s going to keep winning over those voters as they learn about his campaign. “I think the more the African American community hears our message on a broken criminal justice system,” he says, “when they hear our message about the need for an economy that represents all of us, not just the 1%, I think you’ll see us making progress there as well.” | Sanders insists he’s going to keep winning over those voters as they learn about his campaign. “I think the more the African American community hears our message on a broken criminal justice system,” he says, “when they hear our message about the need for an economy that represents all of us, not just the 1%, I think you’ll see us making progress there as well.” |
| Tapper asks about Hispanic voters, and the Clinton campaign’s contention that early polls are wrong when the suggest Sanders won more of the demographic. | Tapper asks about Hispanic voters, and the Clinton campaign’s contention that early polls are wrong when the suggest Sanders won more of the demographic. |
| “Nationally it is clear that we are doing better and better with Latino voters,” he says, “for a campaign that started off as a fringe campaign at 3% in the polls, we have enormous momentum.” | “Nationally it is clear that we are doing better and better with Latino voters,” he says, “for a campaign that started off as a fringe campaign at 3% in the polls, we have enormous momentum.” |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 2.53pm GMT | at 2.53pm GMT |
| 2.41pm GMT | 2.41pm GMT |
| 14:41 | 14:41 |
| “As the field narrows we’re seeing more and more people coming to us because we’re looking for a strong, proven, constitutional conservative,” Cruz goes on. | “As the field narrows we’re seeing more and more people coming to us because we’re looking for a strong, proven, constitutional conservative,” Cruz goes on. |
| He then seems to suggest that Donald Trump has the similar record on issues – abortion, healthcare, immigration, Wall Street bailouts – as Hillary Clinton. | He then seems to suggest that Donald Trump has the similar record on issues – abortion, healthcare, immigration, Wall Street bailouts – as Hillary Clinton. |
| I don’t think that’s a path to victory. I think the way we win is to follow Reagan’s admonition ‘we paint in bold colors, not in pastels.’ | I don’t think that’s a path to victory. I think the way we win is to follow Reagan’s admonition ‘we paint in bold colors, not in pastels.’ |
| Tapper asks Cruz how he’s going to win if he can’t muster up a victory in the +70% evangelical South Carolina. Cruz uses the same argument that Sanders did about his loss in Nevada, saying of Trump’s huge lead, “much of it disappeared in this last week.” | Tapper asks Cruz how he’s going to win if he can’t muster up a victory in the +70% evangelical South Carolina. Cruz uses the same argument that Sanders did about his loss in Nevada, saying of Trump’s huge lead, “much of it disappeared in this last week.” |
| In fact, Cruz says, Marco Rubio’s the guy who should’ve won. “Marco had the popular governor support, he had the popular senator Tim Scott supporting,” he says. “All the political establishment of South Carolina came out behind him.” | In fact, Cruz says, Marco Rubio’s the guy who should’ve won. “Marco had the popular governor support, he had the popular senator Tim Scott supporting,” he says. “All the political establishment of South Carolina came out behind him.” |
| So Rubio’s second-place loss – which Saturday-night Cruz refuses to concede is also his third-place loss – is “particularly striking”. He thinks it comes down to him and Trump in the next few weeks. | So Rubio’s second-place loss – which Saturday-night Cruz refuses to concede is also his third-place loss – is “particularly striking”. He thinks it comes down to him and Trump in the next few weeks. |
| “It’s going be particularly clear that it’s a two-man race, and that I beat Donald head-to-head.” | “It’s going be particularly clear that it’s a two-man race, and that I beat Donald head-to-head.” |
| 2.37pm GMT | 2.37pm GMT |
| 14:37 | 14:37 |
| Jake Tapper does a smash-cut to a pre-recorded interview with Ted Cruz, from Saturday night. | Jake Tapper does a smash-cut to a pre-recorded interview with Ted Cruz, from Saturday night. |
| “I think we had a terrific night tonight,” Ted Cruz says. He’s wearing huge, white earphones of some kind. | “I think we had a terrific night tonight,” Ted Cruz says. He’s wearing huge, white earphones of some kind. |
| Cruz says he’s totally happy with not winning South Carolina, because it “puts us in a position of having won a strong victory in Iowa, a strong second-place victory in New Hampshire, and now a strong second- or third-place.” | Cruz says he’s totally happy with not winning South Carolina, because it “puts us in a position of having won a strong victory in Iowa, a strong second-place victory in New Hampshire, and now a strong second- or third-place.” |
| “The only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and has beat Donald Trump is our campaign.” He says that Trump is disliked by many Republicans, and that polls suggest “head to head Donald loses to Hillary. And head to head I beat Hillary.” | “The only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and has beat Donald Trump is our campaign.” He says that Trump is disliked by many Republicans, and that polls suggest “head to head Donald loses to Hillary. And head to head I beat Hillary.” |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 2.54pm GMT | at 2.54pm GMT |
| 2.33pm GMT | 2.33pm GMT |
| 14:33 | 14:33 |
| No Republican has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then lost the nominee, Tapper tells Rubio. Are you fighting a losing battle against Trump? | No Republican has won New Hampshire and South Carolina and then lost the nominee, Tapper tells Rubio. Are you fighting a losing battle against Trump? |
| “We never had a race where 15 credible candidates began,” Rubio says. “We’ve never had a race like this.” | “We never had a race where 15 credible candidates began,” Rubio says. “We’ve never had a race like this.” |
| He says history is no guide to 2016. “I think last night was truly the beginning of the real Republican race for president. … Here’s where it really begins at this point now.” | He says history is no guide to 2016. “I think last night was truly the beginning of the real Republican race for president. … Here’s where it really begins at this point now.” |
| So would he prefer a brokered convention, if it came down to it? | So would he prefer a brokered convention, if it came down to it? |
| “I don’t think it’s likely,” he says. “I most certainly don’t want party insiders deciding this.” | “I don’t think it’s likely,” he says. “I most certainly don’t want party insiders deciding this.” |
| 2.32pm GMT | 2.32pm GMT |
| 14:32 | 14:32 |
| How do you feel about Jeb Bush dropping out, Tapper asks. | How do you feel about Jeb Bush dropping out, Tapper asks. |
| Rubio says his departure, and John Kasich’s very narrow strategy “gives us an opportunity now to coalesce, and bring together Republicans”. | Rubio says his departure, and John Kasich’s very narrow strategy “gives us an opportunity now to coalesce, and bring together Republicans”. |
| He makes an electability argument, saying it comes down, “ultimately, [to] who can win. Who do the Democrats fear most? Democrats now acknowledge that that’s me. That’s why they spend so much time attacking me.” | He makes an electability argument, saying it comes down, “ultimately, [to] who can win. Who do the Democrats fear most? Democrats now acknowledge that that’s me. That’s why they spend so much time attacking me.” |
| Rubio says that he thinks the smaller field of rivals “accrues to our benefit”. | Rubio says that he thinks the smaller field of rivals “accrues to our benefit”. |
| He says twice that Americans should check out Marco Rubio dot com. | He says twice that Americans should check out Marco Rubio dot com. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 2.55pm GMT | at 2.55pm GMT |