Delegate sweep, kills off the campaign of jeb bush. Puts him in a powerful position. No republican who has won both New Hampshire and South Carolina has ever lost the nomination. The big question for so many in the gop today, a question unimaginable one year ago. Can donald trump be stopped . He joins us live in a moment. First, jon karl brings us the results of the biggest day yet in this campaign. Good morning, jon. Good morning, george. This is a remarkable moment in american politics. What once seemed utterly impossible is one step closeto reality. Hillary clinton could be facing off against donald trump this fall for the presidency of the united states. With his big win in South Carolina, donald trump took command. This is nothing easy about running for president. I can tell you. It tough. Its nasty. Its mean. Its vicious. Its beautiful. [ laughter ] reporter trumps backtoback victories in South Carolina and New Hampshire bode well for his chances on super tuesday. 11 states voting on march 1st. Lets put this thing away. And lets make America Great again. Reporter while trump celelebrated,marco rubio narrowly edged out ted cruz for second place. Both seemed to declare victory. Reready to take on trump. After tonight this is a threeperson race. And we will win the nomination. We are the only campaign that has beaten and can beat donald trump. Reporter after betting big on a South Carolina comeback, jeb bushs distant fourth place finish ended his white house bid. The people of iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina have spoken. And i really respect their decision. So tonight, imuspending my campaign. Reporter the field wont narrow much. John kasich and ben carson are both staying in. Clinton was finally able to slow the momentum of bnie sanders. Some may have doubted us. But we never doubted each other. Reporter sanders touted how quickly his campaign has closed the gap. We have come a very long way in nine months. Its clear to me, and i think most observers, that the wind is at our backs. We have the momentum. [ cheers and applause ] back in South Carolina, donald trump showed remarkable strength across the board. Even winning evangelicals over ted cruz. And so far, trump has won 44 of the states 50 delegates. The remaining six could still go his way. And the map, and the math, get even better for him as the race goes national. By march 15th, half of the delegates will have been awarded. Among the states voting on march 1st is tedcruzs home state of texas. If cruz is to have a prayer of winning the nomination, he has two weeks later, its marco rubios home state of florida. If rubio is to have any chance at all, he absolutely must win that winner take all f florida primary. No question about that. Thank you, jon. Lets bring it to matt dowd. Youve been bullish on Donald Trumps odds for a long time. This summer, he had 16 opponents. He had the best odds. Now he has basically three opponents left. His odds have only improouchd the problem for the other candidates is donald trump has a clear path. A clearer path to the nomination while the other candidates dont. In that scenario, donald trump is the odds on. Theyve been willing to take eaeachthther on more willing than to take on donald trump. What has to happen . I think two things hav to happen. The first, somebody else has to catch fire much better than in the past. Not eyelike iowa or New Hampshire. Version of political jenga. Hes been taking blocks out, taking blocks out, every thinks it will fall. At some point, it will. Both things have to happen. Thank you, matt dowd. Lets go to donald trump. Congratutulationsn your victory. You think you have the nomination in hand . No. No, not at all. Im dling with very talented people. Very smart people. Great politicians. And ben carson still in, i understand. Hes a terrific guy and talented guy. So, you know, im dealing with smarart ople, talented people. I never take it for grand. You said last night, we go back to war tomorrow morning. Who is your toughest competition right now . Marco rubio ored cruz . I think theyre both tough. I think theyre all tough. Everybodis tough. People. I would say this. I was hit very, very hard yesterday by ted because he did two robo calls. Which was, you know, very tough and unfair. And one on i gue gay marriage. And they were oneame on at 9 00 in the morning. In election day, this is something i didnt anticipate. One came on about 12 00 in the afternoon. During the election. I said to myself, wowow this ia tough business. These people are worse than manhattan real estate developers. This is rough stuff, politic. I thought maybe they would have a bigger effect than they did. I didnt know i w would w by that much. We won every congressional district. Got every single delegate. That was sort of recordsetting stuff. They hit me hard with negative ads. Youre hitting them hard, too. You september out a retweet suggesting Marco Rubio Might be ineligible to be president as well. Do you believe that . I think the lawyers have to determine that. It was a retweet. Im not that familiar with marcos circumstances. But then why retweet it . I think because im not sure. Let people make their own determination. I think ted is being sued by somebody, having nothing to do with me, by the way. Maybe its in new york. Youre not sure tt marco rubio is egible to run for president . Youre not sure . I dont know. I have never looked at it. I have never look at it. Somebody said hes not. Retweeted it. I have 14 mlion people between twitter, facebook, instram. I retwt things. We start dialogue. Its interesting. Maybe thats why i have 14 million people. Do you think as you get on the path for the nomination, youre the clear frontrunner right now . Youre in command of the race, youre going have to be more careful abobout the kd of things you say and tweet snrnlgts i didnt know i was going to win by so much yesterday. You didnt either. That was bigger than the tollspolls. The polls said three or four points. I won by ten. They said i would get some of the congressional districts. I had no idea i would win by that much. Certainly after the robocalls i never thought so. Think the republican establishment might close ranks and come down hard try to block in nomination . If they do, is it still possible you would run as an independent . I dont think that is much of a possibility. I dont think im being treated fair by the rnc. Every time i walk into a debate. Im selffunding my campaign. Im not getting money from the special interests, the big drug companies. Everybody else is. Everybody on both sides. I walk in and they have all special interests, lobbyists, donors. Sitting in the room. I dont have any of that. I walk in, its dead silence except for my wife and kids. Something that is stupid or not even good and they get s standing ovatns eve time they open thei mouth. Its very unfafair in terms of the debates, i think. I think i had my best debate last time. Some people dont. Some people think theew york values debate wasas better. I was being hit from all sides. Its veryunfair wn a room is so stacked. If you win, sit a hostile takeover of the gop . No. Not at all. I was a member of the establishmentt of the gop. I say proudly. I gave 350,000 to the republican governors association. Before i ran. Before june 16th. And i gave tremendous aptsmounts of money to people in the Republican Party. I gave to everybody. I was very establishment. Once i ran, they said, whats going on . Thats not supposed to hpen. They like to control the people, the senators, the congressmen. Awards or pharmaceutical awards they make sure they get it. Im going to do whats right for the country. As a selffunder, im the only one. Ill do whats right. s certainly different. At will be good for the party. Becaususe wereoing win the election. Two polls came out recently where i beat Hillary Clinton and i beat Bernie Sanders. I dont think Berni Sanders will be the problem. I think hillary will be the one im comting against. Unless she has legal problem. Youou tol me months ago you would release yoyour tax rurns. The wall street journal editorial page came out yesterday and said mr. Trump should release his records before super esday. He should be eager to release them for public scrutiny. Will you release them by super tuesday . No, i wont. Were working on them. Theyre massssive. Street journal. I have no respect for them. Theyve taken me on so much. Its so ridiculous. Every day, editorials. Bad editorials. They had a poll come out. I said they should fire the pollsters and the editorial staff. I dont want to read it much anymore. If you look at their polls, one day and two day, two polls before the election. They turned out to be so wrong. That they should honestly, they should fire their pollster. So i dont care what the wall street journal says. If anything, i would do the opposite. That will turn out the be more correct. So no release before youre a nominee . At some point. Were going talk about it. At some point. Well rerelease. Why is there such a rush . I released my financial statements. Which are much more important. And everybody was amazed at how big and how great the company is. Much bigger than they thought. Very little bt. Tremendous cash flow. Some of the best assets in the world. Thats the kind of thinking the ununited stas needs now. Because our country is in financial trouble and military trouble. Were in every kind of trouble you can have. Our country is a mess. Were going strengthen the border. Do all of the things you and i have been talking about for a long time now, george. It will be great. Mr. Trump, thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you very much. And were join bid the number two finisheher in South Carolina. Senator marco rubio. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. We heard donald trump say hes not sure youre eligible to run for president. Your response . Well, this is look this is a pattern. Game he plays. He says something that is edgy and outrageous. The media flocks and covers it. And nobody else can get any coverage on anything else. That worked when there are 15 people r running for president. That doesnt work now. His thoughts on eligibility. This country faces a very significant and important choice in 2016. And it needs to be made in a serious way. The consequences are extraordinary if we get thi election wrong. Republicans need to elect someone who unify the party, grow the party, and win this election. Thats why im asking people to vote for me. To on my website, marco rubio. Com and sign up to support the effort. One note that mitt romney may be set to enzors youdorse you . Is that true . I have spoken to him. Hes not set to endorse me. If he were, we would not be announcing it on the huffington post. I would love to have his enrsement. His top strategist, stewart stooechbs, is in the New York Times this morning taking a its crazy that nobody else is trying to win but trump. Rubio is not going after the person who i is winning. Ive never seen campaign t that seems as satisfied to not go after the leader. Is it time to take on mr. Trump directly . This is not an election like others up to this point. Seven, eight people dividing up 70 of the vote. I had one superpac that spend 40 million going after me. You can only take on so many people at one time. This is not about going after donald trump. It isnt. People want to obsess about that. He is the frontrunner. Its about who is the most capable hes the frontrunner when you have seven people running. 70 of republicans nationally are saying im not willing to vote for donald trump. Once the number narrows, well we have to nominate someone that can take our message to newew people, and that can win. Someone that is going win in november. We cannot lose this election. I give our party the chance to nominate someone as conservative as anyone in the race. I am conservative that can unite us. Can grow this party. And can ultimately win in november. Thats the argument were going make. If there are differences between me and donald trump on policy, as im sure there are, well talk about those. Bottom line is he qualified, if your view, to be commander in chief . Nomine well, im going to support the republican nominee because is so horrific. I will say this. I dont believe hes exhibited an understanding of Foreign Policy, which is the most in chief. To say im going to surround myself with smart people, thats you, yourself, have to make judgments. You ve to understand these things. On the day he becomes are the, i become prident, whoever becomes president , the world is not going to wait until you catch up before they Start Testing you. Day one. Our next president has to be something to bring this country together. Some level of unity. Not unanimity. But unity. Thats the kind of president ill be ill be a president for all americans. Even tse who do not aagree with me. I think that is very important given what we have faced in the last seven years and how divisive barack obama has been. Where do you win . Well, when we get to the winnertakeall s states w havee to start winning. They award all the delegates to one person. Were going to be doing national campaign. Im in tennessee today. Then arkansas. Tomorrow more of the same. Were competing everywhere. The way this process works for people that are watching, these states are awarding delegates proportionate proportionately. Come march 15th, if you win a state, you get all of thei delegates. Well be in real good shape for that. And florida is must win . I think that is trueor ern in the race. Its always been true. We feel real good about florida. Especially now that the race is narrowed. I have a lot of admiration for governor bush. We shared supporters. Now t thates suspends his campaign, i think that boosts us t just in florida, but ohio. And o otherer k places. Senator rubio, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you. And were joined now by the man who came in third in South Carolina. Senator ted cruz joins us. Thank you for joining us this morning. You said you defied expectations last night. How is a third place finish we have been through the first three primary states. We won iowa with baig margin. Came in third in New Hampshire. In a state where they said a conservative could not do well in a moderate new england state. Last night, we effectively tied. There is now only one song conservative remaining in this race that can win. Our game plan from day one was do well in the first four states. And con sol dade conservatives to go forward i into super tuesday. I think were positioned eye deal liely to do that. Your base. Trum won them over. How do you explain that . Doesnt it bode ill for you on super tuesday . Well, listen. Donald trump has proven to be a formidable candidate. One of the things the first three states have shown is there beaten enen or can beat donald trump. 70 dont believe trump is the right candidate to go head to head with Hillary Clinton and beat her in november. One of the things were seeing coming out of last night is people are recognizing, okay, if we want to beat trump, cruz is the only one who can do it. Hes the only one who has done it. Papart of th reason is, george, you cannot beat trump coming from the left. You cannot beat trump with a candidate who supports amnesty. It doesnt work. The you come at the left to trump, you will lose. The only way to beat trump is with a strong proven constitutional conservative. Thats why we have had 980,0000 contributions at tedcruz. Org. People acro the country are saying, we need to have a real conservative. I think South Carolina will only accelerate that process. You have been making that case. Its not work something far. Donald trump won New Hampshire. Won South Carolina yesterday by a large margin. No republican who has won both the nomination. Are you going to be up to having to make a new and tougher case agnst donald ump . And what is it . Look, a primary is an ongoing conversation. Everyone in the media said trump would win iowa. We, then, had the largest turnout. Earned more votes in iowa than any republican in history. Last night, one of the m most encourages results, our campaign wonoung people in South Carolina. We won young people in iowa. Two statates in row that we won young people. New hampshirire, we we in second place with young people. You want to talk about where the excitementnt, the energy is, young people want a brighter future. Theyant jobs. They want their konks constitution consistent tugt Constitutional Rights protected. Marco was endorsed by the popular governor and senator and all the establishment circled their wagons around marco. Me still only came in second. Frankly, if i had done that in iowa, look in iowa, we had the heavy hitters come behind our campaign. If he had come in second or third, you guys would have barbecued us for having all the big hitter behind us and not winning. We won iowa. Even though all the big hitters were behind one of our opponents in South Carolina, we still effectively tied for second. What were doing is unifying conservatives. That may be true. As long as you and marco rubio are going after each other, doesnt that give donald trump a clear path . Thats a great ququestion. Donanald devotes all his time and energy, money, to attacking me. That demonstrates that donald sees me as the only real threat to him and for that matter, and energy toto attacking me as well. Hes been unwillingg o afraid or for whenever reason, he wont take on trump. If you want to beat donald trump jourks to go with the only campaignhat has demonstrated we can beat donald trump. Ill tell you, going into super tuesday, i think were positioned, nine days from today, to have an amazing day. Our base on the ground is strong. Listen, republicans want a reaeal conservative. They dont want someone like donald trump who supported john kerry, jimmy carter, Hillary Clinton. Supported the wall street bailouts. The obama stulus. They wawant, instead, someone who will stand up to the washington deals. Well be watching. Senator cruz, thank k you for joinin