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South Carolina RESULTS: Trump Wins // JEB SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN

South Carolina RESULTS: Trump Wins // JEB SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN

50 delegates for the taking

Welcome to our South Carolina Republican Primary live blog.

Up for grabs, 50 delegates.

Jeb drops out of race

South Carolina Primary Results

Melania Trump South Carolina Victory

Marco Rubio South Carolina Results Speech

Ted Cruz South Carolina Results

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Comments

conservative tarheel | February 20, 2016 at 7:34 pm

I am very sorry to see this .. but not shocked..Trump will be all things
to all people. when you start asking tough questions like
how do you plan to do that .. you get bluster.
say hello president clinton …

    Trump is all things to 35% of open primary voters. We’ll see if he’s able to break this number. The man is nobody’s second choice and he will have difficulty consolidating the conservative vote.

      Trump is going to win. No way he loses to gang of eight Rubio.

        Has Rubio issued one of his Boy Wonder victory speeches yet? Has Bill Kristol predicted Trump’s impending doom yet?

        BTW – good job predicting this one.

        rabidfox in reply to Gary Britt. | February 21, 2016 at 1:11 am

        If Trump doesn’t get the majority of delegates going into the convention he’ll be ‘brokered’ out and Rubio will be the candidate.

      Is Trump’s challenge in consolidation any more difficult than the other candidates, especially if the battle among themselves becomes a circular firing squad? They’re all fighting to be #2, before they can fight to be #1. Among the #2 candidate down, is Cruz or Rubio any sort of consensus choice? Personally, I see them largely breaking Cruz vs. GOPe/Anti-Cruz.

      Which of those candidates have the resources to get through many more states, much less win significant delegates in any of them? If Trump leads into the GOP convention with less than enough to win, will a brokered convention result, denying the delegate count leader? I’m not suggesting Trump’s path is easy, simple or sewn up, nor that Trump can beat the Dem candidate in the general. I’m just not sure any other candidate’s path is any easier than Trump’s.

        “Is Trump’s challenge in consolidation any more difficult than the other candidates, especially if the battle among themselves becomes a circular firing squad?”
        Yes.
        I think it will be Rubio after Jeb! and all of them dropping out. If Trump drops out, it’s not too late for Cruz.

          Why should Trump drop out? He’s in the lead and probably will stay that way. His biggest problem will be if he doesn’t have majority of candidates prior to the convention – if he doesn’t he’s toast and the GOPe will serve up Rubio as the candidate. Hello President Clinton.

        NC Mountain Girl in reply to gulfbreeze. | February 21, 2016 at 1:14 am

        Trump has much higher negatives than traditional candidates. Part of it is that he isn’t trusted because his long and deep ties to Democrat politicians. Part of it is his personality. Trump particularly rubs many women the wrong way. Men who upon reaching middle age dump the wives for a younger model tend to do that.

          “Trump has much higher negatives than traditional candidates. Part of it is that he isn’t trusted because his long and deep ties to Democrat politicians. Part of it is his personality. Trump particularly rubs many women the wrong way. Men who upon reaching middle age dump the wives for a younger model tend to do that.”

          Good points if Trump truly does have a 35-40% support ceiling. Personally, if I had to put money today on consolidation among the non-Trump candidates, I’d put it on Rubio, because I believe he is the single candidate that GOPe money/politicians would easily support, and polls consistently have shown him defeating both Hillary/Bernie (and there’s little the GOPe cares more about than that). Cruz is not the candidate the GOPe will easily support (I think they’d support Trump more easily). Of course many Cruz supporters see that as a reason to support Cruz, but that still doesn’t move a dollar of GOPe money or endorsements toward Cruz’s favor. Rubio picked up Romney’s endorsement this morning, and (not that it means much beyond GOPe symbolism) I believe Bush will endorse him.

    What boggles my mind is that in Trump we have Republican primary voters saying yes to ObamaCare and the personal mandate. When you rely on that sort of voter it’s no wonder that the process is so easily hijacked.

And the narrative of the day is “tight race” …………..

TIGHT RACE FOR SECOND

CNN TRUMP WINS

TRUMP WINS SC THIS IS YUUUGE !

Any republican who wins both New Hampshire and SC always wins nomination !!

Trump wins evangelical vote over dominionist non tithing Cruz.

Anyone who knows Ragspierre personally please get to his house ASAP and hide all sharp objects.

I wonder if Lindsey Graham believes the poll numbers are real yet !

I guess the face of god that Cruz wanted to sh9w us wasn’t well received.

    Ragspierre in reply to Gary Britt. | February 20, 2016 at 8:15 pm

    No worries about me and sharp objects…at least in that context, goose-stepper.

    As noted before, I’ve watched my nation elect a lying, narcissistic asshole twice in a few years.

    It could be a trend.

    You know, this thread was interesting until now. Can we please keep the personal attacks out of this one blog? Please?

    I am not a Trump supporter but I read every one of the comments of people supporting him to see if I’ve missed something about him. You’re not helping him, Gary. Maybe that’s the plan?

When will you people believe me when I tell you THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT THE WALL AND NOT WHO IS MOST CONSERVATIVE.

    Well well well. Where is everyone? Funny, no Trump train wreck video on this post from Kemberlee. I guess there will be other states. Or not. It is going to be an interesting ride, one way or the other.

    Evan3457 in reply to Gary Britt. | February 20, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    The whole game is Supreme Court nominees. If the left controls the court, nothing Trump wants to do will get done.

      Trump’s favorite justices Thomas and Scalia. Says he will appoint judges like Pryor and Sykes.

      tom swift in reply to Evan3457. | February 20, 2016 at 10:33 pm

      If the left controls the court, nothing Trump wants to do will get done.

      If he’s serious about controlling the immigrant crime wave, he doesn’t need the courts, or Congress. The requisite laws are in place, as are several Federal bureaus which exist solely, or primarily, to enforce them. All that is already in the hands of the Executive; all he has to do, really, is “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” He could start on his first day in office. There aren’t too many excuses for foot-dragging on this one.

    mariner in reply to Gary Britt. | February 20, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    Forget it Gary, it’s LI.

    People here don’t listen any better than the GOPe leadership, and aren’t willing to believe anything that doesn’t conform to their prejudices.

      Ragspierre in reply to mariner. | February 20, 2016 at 9:04 pm

      I accidentally up-thumbed your comment.

      Just FYI, the REASONS we oppose Der Donald is BECAUSE we DO listen and we think.

      We are not cultists.

        Browndog in reply to Ragspierre. | February 20, 2016 at 9:35 pm

        Cultist leftist use the term “we”, instead of “I”.

        Check yourself, Rags.

          Ragspierre in reply to Browndog. | February 20, 2016 at 10:06 pm

          “People here…”

          and

          “…their prejudices”

          Are your stupid enough not to see the plurals, or to think I don’t know the other people here who see through T-rump?

          Check yourself, dog.

          Browndog in reply to Browndog. | February 20, 2016 at 10:29 pm

          I’ll be damned if I came back to LI to renew old wars with your ego-

          I’ll just say this-

          When I saw you use “t-Rump”, after seeing that pejorative on left-wing sites, I was dismayed.

          Dismayed that your head us still upyourass.

          Ragspierre in reply to Browndog. | February 20, 2016 at 10:46 pm

          Hey, as far as I know, I made it up.

          I don’t read left-wing sites as a rule.

          Get YOUR head out YOUR ass, dog.

          Did you miss the plurals? Are you stupid enough to think I don’t know the positions of other posters here?

          Browndog in reply to Browndog. | February 20, 2016 at 11:22 pm

          You ought cut down on your use of the word “stupid”.

          -not healthy.

    NC Mountain Girl in reply to Gary Britt. | February 21, 2016 at 1:04 am

    Exit polls suggest this is more about angry people seeking catharsis. They don’t care about the issues. They just want the whole world to know they are mad,

    All anger burns out sooner or later. Often that results in a spectacular divorce when the poor slob realize that, mad at the world over a perceived slight from his longtime girlfriend he ended up married to the girl who had slept with the entire football team in both high school and college. Often his first reaction is to ask family and friends why they didn’t warn him about what she was really like.

    We did, Gary. We did.

      It’s like the “Arab Spring.” They want to “burn it all down” without giving thought to what’s going to replace it. And then once they realize that what has replaced it is even worse than what they had, they will cry and look for someone else to fix it. But it may not be fixable by that point.

      There is no end to the self deception and rationalizations in which Cruz supporters will engage rather than face the truth that there are many more people that are equally intelligent and perceptive and informed as the Cruz people that are Trump supporters. And that there are many good and rational reasons to support Trump.

      These self deceptions are comforting because they allow you to avoid avoid having to confront fact that your opinions and beliefs might not be the most correct ones.

    Same Same in reply to Gary Britt. | February 21, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    Rube. Trump won’t build a wall. He’ll take your vote and your country and do whatever the hell he pleases.

Bush is out!
In case you missed it above.

Looks like Rubio has shot at edging out Cruz at the wire.

I see politicians congratulating their fellow politicians on their loss….as if they’d actually won, but we’re too stupid to figure it out.

Good riddance.

    Cruz actually came out and congratulated himself for outperforming expectations. LOL. Doesn’t that reinforce the Cruz is a liar mantra.

    Cruz didn’t win a single county not even in evangelical part of state.

    Cruz will not win a single delegate tonight. Trump will win 49 or 50 out of 50 delegates.

NC Mountain Girl | February 20, 2016 at 9:50 pm

Talk is cheap. Nevermore so when we ae talking about a compulsive self promoter. I am still waiting for the evidence that Trump means a word he has saids this past year. I believe he he means it when he says that Donald Trump is wonderful. Otherwuze, based on his record since the 1980, I don’t trust a single word he says, including and and the.

    You don’t see because you choose not to.

    You don’t believe Trump. That’s fine. I don’t believe either Cruz or Rubio, based on their records since they were elected.

    The way I see it a vote for Trump is taking a chance, but a vote for either Cruz or Rubio is guaranteed disappointment.

      BuckIV in reply to mariner. | February 20, 2016 at 11:46 pm

      I believe everything Trump says the moment he says it. And then I wait 2 days and decide I believe his contradictory statements as well.

      I believe everything he says while he says it and not a moment longer because, in a very quick fashion, he’ll reverse himself entirely. When he does that I have to be nimble quick to figure out what I believe about him given the particular context.

    I’d wonder about how many things you had right from the get-go since 1980.

      NC Mountain Girl in reply to Browndog. | February 21, 2016 at 1:17 am

      where to start. I told people GeorgeH.W. Bush was not as con

        NC Mountain Girl in reply to NC Mountain Girl. | February 21, 2016 at 3:16 am

        hit the wrong button.

        Where to start on how many times I have been right about both general election outcomes how winning candidates would perform? The editor of another conservative blog says I am a better political analyst than many employed in the media. I have a particular knack for calling upsets.

        In Autumn 1992 I predicted that Clinton would miss huge opportunities if elected because he was over concerned with his image. His hometown newspaper noted his indecision as governor when they made no endorsement.

        In January, 1993 I predicted that Republicans should not despair because Clinton would set the stage for a Republican rebound. Few people trusted him to begin with and he was veering left.

        During the attempt to sell Clintoncare in 1993 I first noted that Hillary Clinton had all the political instincts of a stone.

        I called the upset Republican victory in the 1993 New Jersey governor’s race.

        I called the 1994 takeover of Congress when the pundits were still saying voters would punish Republicans over the defeat of Hillary care.

        I predicted a missed opportunity in early 1996 because Dole’s time had passed and the rest of the primary field were even less appealing to voters.

        In early October 1988 my political colleagues thought I was nuts when I told them to watch Minnesota because Jesse Ventura could win.

        I warned people in 1999 that John McCain should never be trusted and that I could never be more than a reluctant supporter of his presidential ambitions. (Met him in 1996. Bad vibes. Did research. Worse vibes.)

        I told people that Denny Hastert was slimy to the core and would be a disaster as a replacement to Newt Gingrich as Speaker.

        I told people in 2000 that Al Gore perhaps had the worst character of any person to become a VP since Aaron Burr. Even if George W. Bush was not as conservative as I might like, Gore was dangerous. Gore actually believed he had a religious style calling to save Mother Earth from mankind. That was the only election in which I ever made a large contribution. Gore really scared me. I met him shortly before Clinton made him his VP candidate and was appalled.

        I predicted at this time in 2008 how the media would abandon McCain as soon as he won the nomination as too old and out of touch. I also predicted McCain would run a lackluster campaign. Blog post on subject was read on air by Rush.

        Told people Hillary would flounder in her presidential bid because she still had the political instincts of a stone. Also that the Democrats would dump her for Obama because they feared losing the black vote.

        At this time in 2008 I also told people who were arguing that McCain should be the nominee because the most important issue was the war in Iraq that by November the issues everyone would be talking about was the economy and that was McCain’s weakest issue.

        I predicted in February, 2009 that early Tea Party rallies were the start of a major political movement.

        In midsummer 2010 I called the biggest upset of the 2010 election, the defeat of 36 year Democrat incumbent Jim Oberstat in MN-8 by an unknown running for office for the first time.

        At this time in 2012 I warned people that Romney always ran stronger against Republican opponents in the primary than against Democrats in the general election.I also wrote of how the Democrats would use Bain Capital’s record against Romney and predicted his weaknesses with blue collar voters.

        I predicted in January 2015 that John Boehner was in his last term as speaker. The writing was on the wall. He was reelected only because no alternative had announced at the November caucus. By the time one did announce, too many Republican Congressman had pledged Boehner their support and many regretted they had.

        I told people in July, 2015 that Mark Meadow’s procedural challenge to Speaker Boehner was serious. He’s my congressman and perhaps the nicest politician I have ever met. The challenge could not be written off as either ambition or pique because Meadows is not that kind of guy. He also isn’t a parliamentarian so someone still unidentified with a keen legal mind was advising him.

        My one mistake at the national level was that I didn’t see Sarah Palin as a quitter. I liked her a lot in 2008. I understand her motives, but she hurt her credibility when she resigned.

        Since I got active in politics in the 1970s only one other politician has seriously disappointed me. That was a former Democrat running for County Sheriff as a Republican reformer. Instead he converted the corrupt machine to his own purposes.

        I don’t get disappointed because I don’t see politicians as quasi religious figures. I also understand procedural limitations, so I know what is possible. Perhaps even more important, I keep my expectations in line with the candidate’s past accomplishments and character. There was nothing George W. Bush did as president that was inconsistent with how he had acted as Governor of Texas.

        The best predictor of future performance is always past performance. Campaign promises are cheap and road to Damascus conversion are as rare in politics as they are in religion.

      NC Mountain Girl in reply to Browndog. | February 21, 2016 at 3:20 am

      I’ll match my record against yours any day. I’ve been wrong twice in all that time.

Odd, that the last place you can find somewhat objective election coverage is Fox News.

Looking quite likely that Cruz finishes third tonight. 99% of vote counted and Cruz still in third.

WIll Trump sit out the Fla debate if Megyn is moderating.

Trump polling in Nevada are even higher than it was in S. Carolina.

His Super Tuesday States are pretty much all double digits.

Like I told the wife a few months ago; You better get your head around Trump, because he’s not going away.

And yes, she turned white with “Seriously?”.

Yes, darling. Seriously.

FOX News Election Analysis
————————————–
“Charles?”

“Well Brett, if you take Rubio’s base totals, then assume that Bush voters will undergo trinary fission, square the Carson vote, and add the combined product of all Republicans who once considered voting for Fiorina or moving to the Ascension Islands, you’ll find that Trump’s lead begins to look rather flimsy…”

Trump basicallly cut Ted Cruz’s balls off in SC.
….face it folks…
this election isn’t about the real/fake conservative
it’s about who is the strongest leader and is able to get things done.

Trump is the only one with the track record of doing that.
….Ted Cruz and Rubio aren’t.
(you need only look at their tenure in the Senate to see… they’ve either done the opposite… or accomplished nothing)

hahaha… you want ted cruz to win? I’d suggest a massive repeal of 0bamacare ….like right now….
***before 0bama leaves off.***

there is nothing the voters will like more than to see 0bama suffer massively by having his own 0bamacare rammed down his throat in front of billions of people… …and him only being able to take it, and powerless to veto, or do anything about it.

but I don’t think Ted Cruz understands what voters want, and I doubt he has the skill to accomplish that.

…I mean, look at what he’s done in
the senate so far: absolutely nothing.

NC Mountain Girl | February 21, 2016 at 3:44 am

Only in the phony world of WWE do strong men walk around proclaiming how great they are. Strong leaders let their deeds do all the talking.

    Trumps campaign style is just an extension of what he wrote 30 years ago in “Art of the Deal”. It’s who and what Trump has been for decades.

    “One thing I’ve learned about the press is that they’re always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better. It’s in the nature of the job, and I understand that. The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you. I’ve always done things a little differently, I don’t mind controversy, and my deals tend to be somewhat ambitious. Also, I achieved a lot when I was very young, and I chose to live in a certain style. The result is that the press has always wanted to write about me.”

It will be interesting to see if Trump can begin to go over the 35% or so figure. There are a lot of “not Trump” voters; about 65% at the moment.

So… Trump got all fifty delegates.