‘I have a very big lead and I intend to keep it’

“Of those people who are all gone, they’re all people who attacked me”, Trump said of the Republican candidates who have dropped out of the race.

“You can’t use hair spray because hair spray is going to affect the ozone”, Trump said, speaking at a rally in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. We view this as war.

Just like they did with Clinton, the crowd booed Bush, and Trump repeatedly compared the two candidates from different parties. Other candidates were put in the position of having to explain why, after claiming that President Obama was somehow “soft” on immigration, their position on allowing the undocumented to stay is basically the same.

INSKEEP: Although aren’t you in a situation where, granting that no votes have been cast, but based on the polling in 2015, very large numbers of Republican primary voters don’t seem to want to be in that spot you’d like them to be in.

Talking to NPR, Bush insisted none of the early states are must win: “The good news is, expectations are low for me, and I’m definitely gonna beat those”, he said. Trump brags that he has spent far less money than Bush and his other rivals, but has begun saying he plans to start laying out much more in January.

INSKEEP: That possibility is at risk, though the former Florida governor still has money and a big goal. South Carolina’s Republican primary is set for Saturday, February 20, 2016.

He criticized President Obama, denouncing the Iran Deal and the Affordable Care Act.

While some Republicans, like US Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have urged a retreat from “military adventurism”, Bush is among those advocating a more robust use of force.

“I think the emotion of the here and now will subside”, Bush added. So, we have to do it. You can’t let people push you around.

“The voids are being filled”, he said.

Bush said he didn’t exactly agree with the president’s characterization of the root of that frustration. Since he generates such massive media attention, Trump does not need to rely on traditional advertising to bolster name recognition. As Bush has hewed toward a more moderate approach, candidates projecting an angrier profile, like Trump, have thrived.

But a punchier Bush hasn’t necessarily translated into movement in the polls.

DETROW: In just about a month, I guess, when the caucuses take place.

BUSH:…I think it’s a question of fairness. He said he had “totally misunderstood” the question during an interview with Fox News.

“When she said that, I had no choice”.

He also appeared to chalk up the question to an interest in Bush family psychodrama.

He continued: “So I’m sitting in this concealed apartment, this concealed – I really do live in a very nice apartment, right? – but it’s sealed!”

BUSH:…Yeah, I have a lot of that…