[ laughter ] we have to wait for that little thing to land and now it's landed. >> it's not a drone. don't worry. >> as we come to the top of another hour -- >> we need some coffee. >> we should reestablish here. we are projected two winners this evening. the first one was out west a while back. several hours ago, when we projected hillary clinton, the winner of the nevada caucus. by the way, a preview here, expect to hear a lot of hubbub over the pronunciation of

nevada. saying nevada on national media and get ready to get a t-shirt that gives you the pronunciation on the front. hillary clinton, 53-47, or thereabouts over sanders tonight. they have both given their speeches. then we called south carolina for donald trump. with a very, very healthy and comfortable margin. and that is all we have been able to project. the rest of the field, as you see there, the difference between second and third has been going back and forth all night between rubio and cruz. jeb bush has left the race, suspended his campaign. kasich and carson continue. >> in terms of the news that has been made tonight, obviously the winners are the big news. jeb bush suspending his campaign is the other big news. in terms of setting up a general election contest in the state of the two parties, we got very interesting news from nevada and south carolina in terms of

turnout. on the democratic side, a third straight race which the turnout is way down. at least the preliminary numbers, the turnout at the nevada caucuses was down almost 50% from what they did in 2008. on the republican side, a third straight race in which the exact opposite happened, which they appear to have record turnout. previous record turnout in south carolina was 606,000 in 2012. right now, 725,000 with a 99% reporting thus far out of south carolina. so it's been a very big night for the republicans again and again. turnout isn't everything. a six-person race is different than a two-person race. this cannot be good news for democratic party looking ahead to the general. >> before we go inside the numbers with steve, we had widely anticipated a primary in south carolina with a lot of dirty trickery. it turns out that didn't come

true, but some did. >> yeah. what happened in south carolina, there was less of the typical south carolina dirty trick, which is i don't know who did this, and i can't capture it in any way. it becomes a whisper campaign, something that you can't document. it becomes something that is into the wind and nobody has to pay a price for it. we did see things turn in sort of a nasty way, including my favorite not dirty trick but sort of nasty campaign trick, which was a robocall, which has been running the last 24 hours run by a ted cruz supporting super pac. it's an anti-donald trump robocall and it is a hall of fame anti-gay campaign tactic. listen to this.

>> a little taste of the south carolina republican primary. that robocall going out to more than 100,000 households in south

carolina right before the vote. obviously didn't hurt donald trump too much. >> donald trump ran up huge numbers on ted cruz in new hampshire and now in south carolina. and i would venture to say that none of his supporters have any problem with his positions and his comments. so i think this was a tactic, i would be surprised if he keeps it up. because donald trump is the dominant figure in the republican party. this is not your father's republican party. the republican party has moved on from these policy debates. >> no, they haven't -- >> they have -- >> every candidate in the race, other than arguably ted cruz -- >> by elevating donald trump above everybody else running, there is a large swath of the republican party that has moved on. donald trump is the national front-runner. [ overlapping speakers ]

>> he has a better idea of what's important to republican based voters right now than anybody. than any other candidate. he really does. yeah, you could say that he's -- you could theoretically expect an ad like that to have some effect on the margins. there's no indication it had any effect at all. >> this is a nationalized republican primary. donald trump is way out ahead and he holds positions on abortion, on equality, on gay rights, on health care mandates that are totally at odds with the republican base and they don't care. >> which would be -- you would expect to have the republican -- the rest of the republican field get more heterogenius on the issues to reflect that. >> or just think about it, think about what the voters are telling you. they don't care about the stuff you're talking about. >> my favorite detail with that ad is the guy that runs that

super pac for ted cruz is the guy that was fired from the steve lamigan campaign for saying senator corey booker was gay. he was fired for that. ted cruz snatched him up to run that super pac ad. >> and he didn't beat trump in south carolina, so it wasn't effective. >> but donald trump was very effective in south carolina. >> you heard of red states and blue states. this is not a dr. suess story. what about green states? get used to it. steve is standing in front of one of them. >> let's take a look. this is the map, most of the vote is in. there are two counties in the state, charleston county, the most liberal one you'll find on the republican side. and richland, where the state capital is. there are two counties where marco rubio will win. the rest of the state is donald trump green. a couple things we can tell you. first of all, there's this hot race for second place between

marco rubio and ted cruz. if you look up here, your county, if your look in here, these are the two counties with the most outstanding precincts left. the highest concentrations of unreported precincts. trump is winning, but what we're seeing is that ted cruz is outpacing marco rubio. so at least that is a potentially good sign as ted cruz tries to overtake marco rubio. relatively speaking, he has a tough road to hoe. other thing we can tell you about is the delegate situation. there is the potential, and i don't think anybody saw that coming in tonight. nobody thought we would be see thing much green. there is the potential for donald trump to win all 50 conventional delegates. why is that? 29 of them are delegates that are awarded to the statewide winner. donald trump wins, he gets 29. the other 21 are given out three per congressional district. to appreciate what donald trump has pulled off here, greenville,

spartanburg counties, this is the fourth congressional district. this is greenville, this is trey gowdy's congressional district. this was the heart of ted cruz's strategy for the state. votes are in. looks like donald trump is leading with all the vote in up there. down here, he's losing to marco rubio in the state capital, a lot of bedroom communities around there. but trump makes up for it by winning lexington and aiken county. the place where he has the most trouble, the thing that's keeping him from that 50 delegate sweep could be down here along the coast. trump losing to rubio by about 800 votes in charleston county. he's basically winning by 800 in buford and in these outlying areas, trump is leading there, as well. so it's not official yet. it's not been called. there's a possibility rubio can still pick off one or two of

these districts. it is looking like donald trump is going to win all 50 delegates. >> steve, thanks. and we have a bit of gratitude to pay. chris matthews, we have delayed his annual trip to play the quarter slots tonight. he's hung out waiting to talk to us. hey, chris, thank you for waiting so long. >> it doesn't take you to keep me away. i just think tonight, if you just separate the wheat from the chaff and go what really matters and who is going to be the next president? i think hillary clinton winning today is very important to keep her in the forefront of that fight to win the democratic nomination. i think she is the forefront, out front again. i think that's very important. i do believe, this is my judgment, she has a very good chance to be the next president. on the other side of the aisle, i do believe trump is flawed, cruz is too far to the right to win a general election.

so i'm looking at rubio. the importance of today and to the country, it's hillary clinton winning and rubio doing well. those are the two possible -- in fact, most plausible candidates to be our next president. that's why their good showings tonight are very, very important. >> but chris, what about the appeal -- begin right where you are, the appeal of donald trump? your rubio theory for it to hold has a trump fade built into it. where does that happen? where do you see that happen? >> you know, i think as we go down the road, i think we begin to think about the presidency and who can beat hillary clinton. and i thought rubio made that argument tonight. i think they're going to start looking at each other, the two parties, as the person they have to beat. they'll be looking at hillary as you'll hear in the comments by the speech by cruz tonight. they'll be looking at hillary more than bernie sanders.

and i think the democrats are going to be looking, and i know they are, looking at mr. rubio. i do think that rubio does have a chance. he has to collect the bush vote, the kasich vote, he's got to put that together with his own vote. he has to hope that trump will knock off cruz and it will be enough votes left. i thought lawrence put it very well, that so far trump is a minority candidate with a very low ceiling. the ceiling maybe is 35%, 38%, something like that. i don't think it's well over 40%. so by that arithmetic, whoever comes out as the other republican candidate at the end of this whole fight, whether it's at the convention or the later primaries, in the big states, i think it's going to be rubio. the reason i talk rubio up much, i think he can win a general election. i don't know if trump can. >> the problem for the democrats is, people don't look at steve's green state and see it as a 35% state. they see it as a sweep for

donald trump. >> especially if he wins all the delegates for winning and then he wins all the delegates from all seven congressional districts around that state. that is just a commanding win there. and i hear that all the strategizing happening in this republican race, i still haven't heard a credible case that either ted cruz or marco rubio would quit and defer to the other at any other time. they will not -- >> there's no state on the calendar there trump has a deficit in the polls. >> you have three lanes, and there appear to be walls between the lanes. i know that parties come together when a leader finally emerges. that's what generally happens. it always happens. it's very hard to imagine that happening. it's very hard to imagine trump supporters saying oh, well, sure, i'll go with marco rubio.

it's hard for me to imagine marco rubio supporters saying oh, yeah, donald trump, that's the guy. >> trump is a much more commanding front-runner than say hillary clinton is on the democratic side. you're absolutely right, nicole, there is not a race on the map that has anybody other than him ahead. and in the polls so far have mostly been right. so it's an interesting thing, because he's an interesting character to imagine the front-runner, but there's no question about it. that fight for second place is only a fight for second place. >> the coolest thing tonight is chris matthews in nevada, he looks completely at home out there. chris, thank you very much. >> thank you, brian. >> thanks for all your contributions tonight. >> that's the job i want because it comes with a free buffet.

>> and quarter slots. any way, we're back with more right after this. announcer: through sunday

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we are back. this is election headquarters of the winner tonight in south carolina, trump election headquarters. we are expecting to see the candidate within about 15 minutes from right now. so we'll obviously go there the moment we see donald trump and the place will presumably erupt. welcome back. marco rubio has been dining out on the campaign trail, peppering his speeches with the line that he is the guy the democrats fear most. and that's going to become an interesting conversation coming out of tonight. gabe gutierrez is standing by at rubio headquarters tonight. gabe? >> reporter: let the spinning begin. the marco rubio campaign, of course, has been saying for a while that they want to finish

in the top tier. they say tonight finishing in the top tier would be a huge comeback. they knew they had to make a big comeback after that disappointing fifth place finish in new hampshire. they retooled their campaign, trying to come off less scripted and more aggressive. for the past several days, they have really gone after ted cruz. it has been knock down, drag out. and they were able to secure some major endorsements here in south carolina. of course, congressman trey gowdy, senator tim scott, and the most important one of all, governor nikki haley. together, all of them have been campaigning throughout south carolina over the past few days saying we are the new faces of the conservative movement. as you mentioned, brian, now they're making the electability argument. a lot of his critics, rival campaigns are saying how can the rubio campaign say this is a victory if they finish in third? they finished third in iowa, fifth place in new hampshire.

how is that a victory? the rubio campaign comes back and says once the republican candidates, the others drop out of the race, they feel that they are best positioned to take on donald trump, once that republican establishment coalesces behind him. then moving into nevada, a state where marco rubio has ties there. he spent part of his childhood there. tomorrow, marco rubio is going to tennessee and arkansas, two key states in super tuesday before heading on to nevada. right now the rubio campaign feeling optimistic. the question is where he finishes in relation to ted cruz as they are locked in this battle for second place. >> gabe gutierrez, thanks. >> that is a fascinating point there, and unexpected that rubio is not going straight nevada. we are in this little bit of a weird place. south carolina and nevada are voting tonight. >> what part of that weird

place? >> weird calendar place. south carolina and nevada are voting tonight. they are also voting next for the other parties. >> no more weird than anything else. >> you could do one election day for both parties. why are these two states holding their elections three days apart in one case and seven days apart in another case? go fish. nobody knowing. that is how we have decided to do it. so we are ahead, seven days ahead looking to south carolina for the democrats, three days ahead of nevada for the republicans. for all accounts, in terms of the way people have been talking about that nevada republican race, there's been much less of it. there just hasn't been a big presence in nevada for the republicans. luckily, the dean of the nevada political press is on our payroll right now. my sense is that the race there

just hasn't been as evident. the campaigns haven't been as evident. are they battling it out on the republican side? >> they're battling it out for second place. the cruz, rubio and bush campaigns have all got great organizations here with very smart people running them. rubio reached out to the mormon community here. bush has a good organization, if that means anything after south carolina. and cruz is really ramped up in recent weeks. he got the new conservative rising star of nevada to endorse him. but all of those campaigns privately will tell you they're playing for second place. data i have seen, public and private, indicates trump has anywhere from a 25 to 30-point lead. >> wow. >> so he's going to win here very big, i would guess. the only wild card is how goofy the republican party is here that they have set this up on a tuesday night in a four-hour

window with different starting times for voting in different counties. so you just never know what might happen. even likely caucusgoers are indicating they're going to go big for trump. >> just to follow up, if trump is doing so well but with no evident campaign in the state, does that break the rules as far as you understand them in terms of how a person is supposed to put together a campaign in nevada? is he just winning on the strength of national attention? >> i don't think this is endemic to nevada. trump has broken all the rules of politics, and i think it's happening in nevada, too. he's been here three times, and he's coming back before the caucus. he's done huge rallies here. huge, did i say that right? and he has gotten t-- in some ways you might think nevada is a

perfect, fertile territory for trump, generally uneducated electorate. people who are just mad about the federal government all the time here in nevada in various ways. so i just think it's a great place for trump. he doesn't need an organization. he doesn't have one. i think he's still going to win the state fairly easily. >> we've seen the fight over lands, basically, over federal lands and whether or not those get to still belong to the federal government. i know ted cruz has made a real issue on that. is he likely to make any in roads there? is that a really fringe thing? >> that's a big thing in rural nevada here. and you're right, trump showing his indepth public knowledge. clearly didn't know what he was saying, he said it's great that the federal government has control of these lands. we should keep these lands

great. cruz and his people, especially the attorney general who is suing the federal government over some public lands issues, have seized on this. they're running a campaign commercial now in nevada with cruz pointing out that he wants to bring more land back into the control of nevada. 87% or so of nevada land is owned by the federal government. of course it's all public land and ted cruz and any other republican who says they want to give it back to the state won't say how the state is supposed to pay for the management of it. but it is a real resonant issue in nevada. is it enough to hurt donald trump? come on, this is a guy that fights with the pope and becomes a 9/11 truther. >> thank you, john. >> as always, he's encapsulated the debate perfectly. >> you think it hasn't been fun yet? >> as the train rolls on. we are going to take another

break. i should tell you while we've been talking, ben carson has told his supporters it is just beginning for him, and for them. and in many ways, for our coverage, which will continue after a break.

i won the lottery when i was born 63 years old. my mom is the strongest woman i know. this is not about my family or his family. >> for a number of week, ted is cruz -- >> when you point to his own record he screams liar, liar, liar. >> he is a nasty guy who doesn't tell the truth. >> this is now a disturbing pattern. >> today, the bitter fight between ted cruz and marco rubio. >> every day they're making things up. the picture is fake. >> they simply start screaming liar, liar, liar. >> what they say is so wrong. >> trump is still on the attack. >> i've had great success with lawsuits. >> threatening to sue the canadian born lawsuit. >> file the lawsuit. >> he doesn't even have the right to serve as president. >> one of the things i look

forward to most of all is deposing donald trump. >> donald trump taking aim at jeb bush and his brother for 9/11. >> the world trade central came down during his reign. >> we're going to be so nasty. >> this is just nuts, okay? >> a week ago, the week that was in republican politics. tonight we have a winner in south carolina. it is donald trump. tonight, the conversation will center around the viability of several candidates. among them, jeb bush. let's be charitable. among the least self-aware candidates we've ever seen was talked into just this week. contact lenses and out of his glass frames as a 2.0. a remaking of jeb bush. i don't know why i'm looking at nicole wallace as opposed to lawrence o'donnell. both only -- both of whom join us. what a week. >> i would be using contact lenses if i knew how to put them in. the big decision for jeb bush,

is it over? what would be the justification for going forward at this point? we are bound in the media to overreact to wins. this is not for donald trump a win of the majority of the vote. we've only seen that in the democratic elections. since there's only two candidates. that's why it's possible on the democratic side. he is going to win about 35%. 73%, 73% in the exit poll favor donald trump's unconstitutional ban on muslims entering the united states. he lost most of the people who favor his wildest idea. that is how challenging the trump candidacy actually is. people agree with many of his ideas and continue to vote against him because of a lot of things that we saw in those debates. the late deciders went heavily against him. they went heavily for cruz and rubio.

so for people who wonder how much did the scrap with the pope hurt him? this crazy suggestion of suing ted cruz over a campaign ad. how much did that hurt him? it probably did hurt him with the late deciders and he still comes out with the most points on the board tonight. but he is not a decisive winner that a party can look at and say here we go. especially when the worst news came in the nbc poll which shows, if this goes one on one, trump against rubio or trump against cruz, each one of them beats trump by 16 points in a one-on-one race. >> but there will never be a one-on-one race. >> you sound like a democrat at the salad bar of rationalization. we have just heard nicole talk about the long path of acceptance. >> here's the thing. there are a lot of people in the republican party who agree the

analysis that this crowded field -- >> this is just statistical. >> the analysis is what angers some folks in the establishment lane who would like to see a smaller establishment group so there could be more of a head to head competition. and i think coming out of tonight, that will burst into public the frustration that some folks feel that trump isn't being confronted more frontally and will bubble over. >> let's talk about that. the reason there won't be any time soon a trump versus rubio or a trump versus cruz campaign is because both cruz and rubio are drowning in money. drowning in money of which there is endless additional money to come. they have separate donors. they are not competing for the same people and there are enough rich guys to keep it coming. the two brothers that are supporting ted cruz alone could keep the super pac going from here to mars. there is no likelihood at that top tier that they have any

reason to get out any time soon. so we are looking at ben carson, we are looking at jeb bush, at what john kasich's path might be and that's interesting in materials of the bottom tier and how fast it might shrink. but it won't shrink to mano y mano for very, very long time. >> let us not forget, in front of the casino, new york, new york. our friend, chris matthews. >> i want to jump in on the salad bar side. i do think his numbers are correct and unimpeachable. that trump is a minority candidate within the republican party. i just think what has been said all night by people intermittently tonight on the table there that rubio is the one they're afraid of. if you're a smart hillary person, you're afraid of the age issue. that picture of rubio with nikki haley, the governor of south carolina.

there's something about that picture that just jumps out at you in a race where you're seeing people like trump and hillary and bernie sanders running around, where the average age of them is in the early 70s. you look at this. this is the future of the republican party. and rubio has come out of a hugely embarrassing situation where he was caught behaving like a broken record. literally on the ground or a broken doll repeating himself endlessly verbatim. yet he's come back. so i would be worried about that. the big story is if rubio is in the running and bush and kasich have to leave and carson has to fade, look at the numbers and add them up. add that to rubio and you get a lot of establishment vote. i think in a long race, in a long race, if rubio can hang this there and perhaps get some money out here from the strip,

gets all the other neoconmoney, they can win. he is a hawk, he is young and the establishment has no other hope. >> nicole wallace, will nikki haley be on a national ticket? >> i talked to some folks who were interested in her endorsement. the jeb bush folks were hoping to get her endorsement. she has a relationship with president bush 43. she endorsed mitt romney. she has political courage. she is a rising star. the republican party, and this is not a good thing, we're not long on bright women who are as articulate and principled as she is. and i think she will be in every single conversation regardless of who is at the top. >> that said, no republican is going to need help winning south carolina. >> you watch on the stump. she values the diversity of what they present to south carolina in a way that translates to a national audience hungry for a republican party to reach in

tomorrow and make the party. >> if you're going for a steak. john kasich is the front-runner for vice president on anybody's ticket. >> maybe even hillary clinton's ticket. >> my favorite theory. 36 after the hour. coming up on 37 after the hour. let's show again where this race stands. donald trump, the projected winner of south carolina. the rest of the field is where this gets interesting. and that will shake out probably in the hours to come still. >> look at that. second place, 42% of the vote in. 22-22, locked at the same percentage as they have been all night. and then just as interesting, bush/kasich. another break. we'll be right back.

we've gone to bush headquarters. jeb bush has emerged. let's listen in. >> this is going to be short and sweet.

to those who helped jeb bush and worked so hard on his behalf, in south carolina and throughout the country, thank you very, very much. to jeb bush and his family, thank you for running a race for the presidency that we could all be proud of. thank you, jeb, for being one of the most decent, thoughtful men i've ever met. ladies and gentlemen, my friend for life, jeb bush. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. >> jeb! jeb! >> thank you. thank you, lindsey. when i began this journey in miami i said i would campaign as i would serve. going everywhere, speaking to

everyone. keeping my word. facing the issues without flinching and staying true to what i believe. for the better part of a year i've endeavored to do just exactly that. i have put for the a vision for america that includes all because our country deserves a president for everyone. the presidency is bigger than any one person. it is certainly bigger than any candidate. it is not, we're different in our country because our head of state is not above us but because the head of state are part of the people. in a government of the people by the people and for the people, we elect a president and perfect under god's wachful eye. i've had a front row seat to this office for most of my adult life. i've seen fallible men rise up to the challenges of our time

with humility and clarity of purpose, to make our nation safer, stronger and freer. i firmly believe the american people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant, not the master. someone who will commit to that service with honor and decency. our next president will lead an extraordinary country whose people have always made the improbable possible in big ways and small. every day, americans test the bounds of freedom and achieve more than they could have ever dreamed. over the last seven years our nation's bright light has become little more than a flicker. we have retreated from the world stage. the american values that have brought peace and opportunity are fading. that is not the america we know and love. america is a country that thinks big, acts boldly and leads without apology. it will be up to the next

president to restore that kind of leadership. i'm proud of the campaign that we've run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions that would give more americans the opportunity to rise up and reach their god given potential. but the people of iowa and new hampshire and south carolina have spoken and i really respect their decision. so tonight i am suspending my campaign. >> no! >> yeah, yeah. [ applause ] i congratulate, i congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island, on their success for a race that has been hard fought. just as the contest for the presidency should be, because it is a tough job. in this campaign i have stood my

ground, refusing to bend to the political winds. we put forward detailed innovative conservative plans to address the mounting challenges that we face. despite what you might have heard, ideas matter, policy matters. [ applause ] and i truly hope that these ideas that we've laid out will serve as a blueprint for a generation of conservative leaders at every level of government so we can take back our country. we laid out plans on everything from reforming our tax and regulatory system to reviving our economy to rebuilding our military and to fixing the v.a. once and for all. [ applause ] finally, i am so grateful to senator lindsey graham of south carolina for his steadfast support. [ applause ]

and his amazing humor. he stole the line that i am now saying which is that he's become a friend for life. i thank all the jeb alumni. many are here that have been going door to door across the country who have put their lives on hold for this cause. i want to thank my mom and brother who came here to south carolina. america truly loves them and respects them and so do i. [ applause ] i want to thank all my family. 2.0 is always back there in the back. [ applause ] and to my dad who served as an inspiration to me. he is the greatest man alive. and continues to be.

i want to thank all the volunteers and supporters that i've met along this incredible journey and to all the fellow grinders in our campaign, our staff who never, ever, ever gave up. [ applause ] i've had an incredible life. for me, public service has been the highlight of that life. no matter what the future holds, here's the greatest safety landing, if you can imagine. tonight i'm going to sleep with the best friend i have and the love of my life. [ applause ] and i am totally blessed to be the father of three extraordinary children. and as you might know, four near perfect grandchildren. and i'll be blessed to say that i'm living in the greatest

country the world has ever known. i remain optimistic and with the right kind of leadership we all need to make sure happens, america's best days are ahead. with strong conservative leadership, republicans can win the white house and we can get back to being on the verge of having the greatest time to be alive. that's what i honestly believe and i know you do as well. i look forward to working to make that dream come true. i will do it as a private citizen just as you are. thank you for the opportunity to run for the greatest office on the face of the earth. i love you all. god bless you. [ cheers and applause ] >> to dismiss what we have just seen as a lesser candidate gets out of the race would be to make a large error. this story is so much bigger than just this one man giving just this one speech this early in the contest. that's because jeb bush was the republican establishment in this race.

an ascendancy to nominee, so assured and so assumed a year ago that people were grousing, can we have another bush versus clinton going head to head in this race? chuck todd has been watching and listening with us. and chuck, there is even a view out there that it is jeb bush who gave this race donald trump because donald trump was his equal and opposite reaction as establishment candidate. >> i mean, absolutely. and trump mirrored the jeb campaign. jeb announced on june 15th. donald trump announced on june 16. and it was the first target of donald trump. and as we've seen when donald trump has gone after somebody, he has won. bush was basically his first target and he brought bush down

to size in a hurry. it is possible bush would have been brought down to size by others. this was always a tougher hill for him to climb. he came into this race with two issues that were against the base of the party. one was immigration. and the other was common core. and donald trump went at him very personally. that didn't help at all. he always still had an issue with immigration. and donald trump just took immigration and exploited it and exploited it in a way that basically bush could never catch up. bush could never figure out how to pivot into a change candidate. and it is really tough when your last name is bush in an atmosphere, in a political party that was ready to move on. and it is amazing. south carolina has been so good to the bush family. south carolina gave bush the nomination in '88. south carolina gave another bush the nomination in 2000. now south carolina ends the bush dynasty in '16.

it is quite the, quite the, i guess, literary ending there for team bush. >> and very bittersweet moment for nicole wallace who is here with us in new york. so close to the bush family. having worked for his brother. >> for him. i was jeb bush's first press secretary when he was first term governor. it wasn't his time. and i think a lot of people that went out on the trail could see that very early on. that the policy issues he had were a burden. his support for common core. his statements about immigration being an act of love. they were going to be a policy burden no matter who was sort of that outsider person. but he also became donald trump's foil. and he was admired by the people who watched him hand to hand with voters but he never impressed a television audience. he never dominated a news cycle. and he could never get himself on offense long enough to create

any momentum. >> he was that first target of trump's. in that first two weeks, when trump was at 10% of the vote he relentlessly went after jeb bush. and i remember saying two weeks into it, how long can bush allow this to go on? it seemed silly. he seemed like a silly candidate. but it was going unanswered. donald trump, classy as ever, has tweeted about the exit of the former front-runner. he says jeb bush has run out of energy and dropped out of the race to be the next president of the usa. he insults jeb bush exactly the way he insulted him the first day. >> not to lose this moment. we're watching for donald trump's victory speech here. we should note that was an incredibly gracious way to get out of the race. it was emotional. his wife there with him and crying. jeb bush crying. it was a very intense emotional moment. >> old school like him.

now to the ballroom of the winner of tonight's republican primary in south carolina. >> usa! usa! usa! >> i want to begin by thanking the people of south carolina. these are special people. we got a little boost last week of a place we all remember. new hampshire. we can't forget it. and they said it with a very good feeling, right? so i really want to thank you.

and my volunteers. all of these people. volunteers. and they travel and they go, i say what are you doing? now they're going to texas. some are going to nevada. i'll be going to nevada. we're making a big speech tomorrow in atlanta and then right to nevada. and i think we're going to do terrific there. and the s.e.c. is going to be very, very exciting. we expect to do very, very well. i want to say thank you to my family. it is not easy for them. they don't see me anymore. i'm making speeches all the time. i have a great family so i want to thank all of you. ivanka, we have a hospital just in case. in south carolina, we're going to have a baby. nothing wrong with that, right? so it could be any second. it could even be before i'm finished. but you know, she insisted on

being here. it was so important to ivanka to insist on being here. we have a wonderful lieutenant governor who backed us very early in the process. you know henry, right? the lieutenant governor of south carolina. i will take him over the governor any time. because we won. we won. he can handle that very nicely. tiffany, say something. please, melania. >> just wanted to say an amazing place, south carolina. congratulations to my husband. he was working very hard.

and he loves you. we love you. and we are going ahead to nevada. and we will see what happens. he will be the best president. [ applause ] >> and representing some very, very wonderful children, ivanka, say a few words. >> thank you, south carolina. this is an amazing, amazing night. the momentum since the beginning of this campaign has been unbelievable. that's because my father's message resonates so deeply with so many people. so as our family, we're incredibly proud. we're incredibly grateful to each of you so thank you for being here to support us. and i will say this. my father is an incredibly hard worker and he'll be working for each and every one of you. so together we'll make america great again.

thank you. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. so i was watching upstairs. and it was really amazing to be watching what i was watching. and some of the pundits, a number of them said, well, if a couple of the other candidates dropped out. if you add their scores together, it is going to equal trump. right? these geniuses. they're geniuses. they don't understand as people drop out, i'm going to get a lot of those votes also. you don't just add them together. so i think we'll do very, very well. i want to also congratulate the other candidates. in particular i have to say ted and marco did a really good job. they did quite well. [ crowd booing ] come on. just one minute.

one second, right? okay. we go back tomorrow morning. tomorrow morning we'll be back. i want to congratulate the other candidates. nothing easy about running for president. i can tell you. it is tough, nasty, mean, vicious, beautiful. when you win, it's beautiful. and we're going to start, we are going to start winning for our country. we're going to start winning. because our country doesn't win anymore. doesn't win. we don't win with the military. we can't beat isis. we have great military but we can't beat isis. we don't win on trade. you look at what china is doing, what japan is doing, what mexico is killing us at the border. killing us at the border with trade. mexico is killing us, absolutely. we'll do the wall. don't worry. we'll do the wall. we're going to do the wall and by the way, who is going to pay for the wall?

>> mexico! >> mexico is going to pay for the wall. and it is very easy. the other politicians say you can't get mexico to pay for the wall. i said, 100%. we have a $58 billion trade deficit with mexico. the wall will cost $10 to $12 billion. believe me, they will pay. one of the officials, actually, one of the ex-officials from mexico had a news conference and he said we will not be paying for the wall. who does mr. trump think he is? they came to me, the press, look at all those cameras back there. the press came to me and they told me that he said they would not pay for the wall. do you have a comment? i said yes. the wall just got ten feet taller. [ applause ] it's true. and i love mexico. i love mexico. i love china. i love many of these countries that rip us off because we have

leaders that are incompetent and don't know what they're doing. i love these countries. they're great. i have thousands and thousands of hispanics. we're going to nevada. i lead with the hispanics. i'm leading in every poll with hispanics. they love me. i love them. the problem is that the leaders of these countries, whether mexico or japan or vietnam which is just doing a big number now all of a sudden, or china in particular, that's the big one, the greatest abuse of a country that i think i've ever seen financially, china. what they've done to us is the greatest single theft in the history of the world. they've taken our jobs, they've taken our money, they've taken everything. we're bringing our jobs back, folks. we're bringing our jobs back. we're bringing them back. and i know how to do it. we've had so many incredible endorsements to. me getting the greatest business people to endorse me is very important.

carl icahn endorsed me. so many others have endorsed me. and we'll put these great that business people in charge of trade. when china wants to come and negotiate, they're going to negotiate not with a political hack which is what they have now. they're going to negotiate with the best business minds in the world. and we have them in this country. so we're going to do a lot of beautiful work. we're going to terminate obamacare. it will be terminated. it will be over. it will be repealed. and it will be replaced. so you're going to have much better health care at a much smaller cost. obamacare, look at the increases in your obamacare. 25, 35, 45, even 55%. it's dead. it's not working. we're going to a plan that will be so much better and so much less expensive.