Jeb Bush ends 2016 presidential campaign

Republican Jeb Bush ended his campaign for the presidency Saturday after a disappointing finish in South Carolina, acknowledging his failure to harness the hopes of Republican voters angry at the political establishment.

The former Florida governor and political scion told supporters that he’d tried to stay true to what he believes. Still, he was lagging far behind in the primary in South Carolina, where his well-organised campaign was outmatched by insurgent billionaire Donald Trump, and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

“I’m proud of the campaign that we’ve run to unify our country and to advocate conservative solutions,” a visibly emotional Mr. Bush said. “The presidency is bigger than any one person. It’s certainly bigger than any one candidate.”

“I firmly believe the American people must entrust this office to someone who understands that whoever holds it is a servant not the master,” Mr. Bush said.

The son of George H. W. Bush and brother of George W. Bush entered the race to huge expectations in June, and quickly fueled them with fundraising. Working with a outside funding group that has supported his candidacy, Bush and allies raised more than $150 million by the end of 2015 far more than any of his Republican rivals.

Mr. Bush’s failure to ignite was not simply a factor of the size of the Republican field. Mr. Bush, like others, was caught off-guard by the durable popularity of political outsiders particularly Trump.

The final stage of Mr. Bush’s campaign became an all-out bout with the outspoken real estate mogul the two frequently referring to each other as a “loser.” Mr. Bush took shots at Mr. Trump’s lack of experience while Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Bush’s family legacy, particularly the unpopular Iraq war waged by his brother George W. Bush.

Mr. Bush, meanwhile, offered himself as an experienced public executive and potential world statesman informed in part by his father’s and brother’s wartime presidencies. But it wasn’t a case strong enough to translate into votes.

There were other problems as well. The policy-oriented Mr. Bush was overshadowed in early debates by Mr. Trump and Rubio, which dramatically slowed his early autumn fundraising.

Mr. Bush went on to finish sixth in the Iowa caucuses, but barely squeezed ahead of Rubio in New Hampshire for a fourth place finish.

South Carolina was viewed as a last early voting state for Mr. Bush to make a mark.

Despite support for the Bush family among a segment of devoted South Carolina Republicans, Bush himself had a halting final week of campaigning. At a Wednesday town hall meeting in Summerville he was offered more advice than policy questions, the same day he learned South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley had endorsed Rubio.

Still, Bush amassed crowds growing crowds in the primary campaign’s final days.

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Trump calls for 'complete shutdown' on Muslims entering U.S.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called on Monday for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” an idea that prompted one of his rivals to call him “unhinged.”

The proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike, a sweeping prohibition affecting all adherents of Islam who want to come to the U.S. The idea also raised immediate questions about whether it could pass muster under constitutional protections of the free exercise of religion.

Mr. Trump’s campaign said in a statement that such a ban should stand “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The statement added that the Republican front-runner’s proposal comes in response to a level of hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans.

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Mr. Trump said in the statement.

Mr. Trump’s campaign has been marked by a pattern of inflammatory statements and he kicked off his campaign with a speech in which he said some Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals. He recently drew criticism for re-tweeting an image of inaccurate statistics that vastly overrepresented the number of whites killed by blacks. But so far those and other errors of fact have not diminished his popularity among many Republican voters.

Since the Paris terrorist attacks, a number of Republican presidential contenders have proposed restrictions on Syrian refugees with several suggesting preference for Christians seeking asylum and tighter surveillance in the U.S.

But Mr. Trump’s proposed ban goes much further than those ideas, and his Republican rivals were quick to reject the latest provocation from a candidate who has delivered no shortage of them.

“Donald Trump is unhinged,” Jeb Bush said via Twitter. “His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”

Carly Fiorina said, “Trump’s overreaction is as dangerous as President Obama’s under-reaction.”

John Kasich slammed Mr. Trump’s “outrageous divisiveness,” while a more measured Ted Cruz, who has always been cautious about upsetting Trump’s supporters, said, “Well, that is not my policy.”

Mr. Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Mr. Trump’s proposed ban would apply to “everybody,” including Muslims seeking immigration visas as well as tourists seeking to enter the country.

There are, for example, more than 5,800 servicemen and women on active U.S. military duty and in the reserves who self-identify as Muslim and could be assigned to serve overseas.

Mr. Trump was also unclear on whether his ban would apply to Muslim allies in the fight against Islamic State militants.

Ari Fleischer, a former aide to Republican President George W. Bush, tweeted, “Under Trump, the King Abdullah of Jordan, who is fighting ISIS, won’t be allowed in the U.S. to talk about how to fight ISIS.”

Mr. Trump has taken a particularly hard line against Muslims in the days since the Paris attacks, advocating enhanced surveillance of mosques due to fears over radicalization.

Mr. Trump’s proposal comes a day after President Barack Obama spoke to the nation from the Oval Office about the shootings in San Bernardino, California, which Mr. Obama said was “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people.”

The FBI said on Monday the Muslim couple who carried out the massacre had been radicalized and had taken target practice at area gun ranges, in one case within days of the attack lasts week that killed 14 people.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest accused Mr. Trump of playing on people’s fears and trying to tap into “a darker side, a darker element” of American society.

From the Democratic presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders said- “Trump and others want us to hate all Muslims. The United States is a great nation when we stand together. We are a weak nation when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us.”

On Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said of Mr. Trump’s idea, “It’s just foolish.”

But will it hurt his campaign? “I have no idea,” Mr. McCain said. “I thought long ago that things he said would hurt his prospects, and he continues to go up.”

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