Oh wow! John Elias Bush threatened to take his ball and go home at a town hall in Charleston, South Carolina. CBS News reported on Saturday, Bush said:
"If this election is about how we're going to fight to get nothing done, then I don't want anything, I don't want any part of it.
I don't want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. That is not my motivation.
I've got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around, being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them.
That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that."
2016 sure isn't shaping out for JEB in the way he was promised it would go. On Friday, JEB
cut pay for his campaign staff by 40 percent, axed consultants, and "45 percent of its budget, except for dollars earmarked for TV advertising and spending for voter contacts". His senior staff was asked to stay on as volunteers.
Add to it today, JEB has to answer to mom and dad why he's so "underwhelming" on the campaign trail and upsetting his rich campaign backers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, JEB is faltering and not winning over his family's richest backers. The WSJ reached out to "dozens" of George W. Bush’s biggest donors to see why they weren't backing brother JEB.
Several of these donors said they are disgusted by the circus-like atmosphere dominated by Mr. Trump, and see Mr. Bush as an uninspiring candidate, despite his qualification.
“When I see him on television, he seems like he’s stumbling,” said Travis Thompson, a former Ranger and GOP national committeeman from Hawaii who hasn’t committed to a candidate. “The fact that he did an excellent job in Florida isn’t turning people on.”
According to the Washington Post, some big donors believe
Marco "Thirsty" Rubio may be a more viable Republican establishment candidate and Bush's campaign is a dead man walking.
But one Bush fundraiser who requested anonymity to speak freely said: “It feels very much like a death spiral, and it breaks my heart. I don’t know anyone who wants to reinvest now.” The campaign, this person added, has been “head-scratchingly bad in every element. I wouldn’t be shocked in 60 days from now if he wasn’t in the race.”
No wonder JEB seemed a little more petulant than usual on the stump this weekend.