Scarborough: Jeb Bush Politically ‘At the End of the Line’ After This Campaign

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, along with panelists Mike Barnicle and Mark Halperin speculated on what could happen after Saturday’s South Carolina Republican Primary for either former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) if either lose the state by a considerable margin.

According to Bloomberg’s Halperin, there will be no “rationale” for either Bush or Rubio to go on if they finish behind one another.

“Normally I don’t like to force anybody out of the race,” Halperin said. “And normally in this cycle, I think people are inclined to go on. But Bush will have no political rationale for going on if he finishes behind Rubio in this state, which they have called ‘Bush country.’ Rubio will have no financial rationale for going on because he’s having trouble raising money off of New Hampshire. Basically, we have five guys competing for the nomination. I think after Saturday we’ll have four. John Kasich will go on and he has to play in the northeastern states, the midwestern states. But Trump is not fading away. People thought, ‘Oh he’ll lose on state as he did in Iowa and he’ll be done.’ Trump is a finalist. Cruz is a finalist. We’re looking to see now if we have two more people going on or just one after Saturday.”

Scarborough point out one key distinction between Rubio and Bush, which he was Rubio has a future, but Bush was “at the end of the line.” On Rubio, Scarborough argued if he were to proceed, it could damage that future if he winds up being blown out by Trump in a future contest.

“The difference between Rubio and Bush is that Jeb Bush politically is at the end of the line,” Scarborough said. “There’s a lot of things he can do and he will do. Marco Rubio is young. Regardless of what happens in this campaign, he emerges from this race, even if he got out this Sunday, the brightest rising star in the Republican Party – the brightest rising star in the Republican Party. That’s something he has to weigh that Jeb Bush doesn’t have to weigh. Marco can’t afford to lose to Donald Trump by 15-20 percentage points because there are a lot of people in his home state of Florida are wanting them to get back to the Senate to fight the Scalia fight.”

“And maybe show up for a vote,” Brzezinski added.

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