Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal held a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to discuss ending his presidential campaign.
Advertisement
“I’ve come to the realization that this is not my time”, Jindal said Tuesday on Fox News Channel as he announced the decision to suspend his campaign.
Jindal does not know what his next job will be but he said he will continue to work with America Next, the think tank he created.
But Jindal’s early nativist pitch his super PAC’s first ad featured Jindal saying all immigrants should “adopt our values” and learn to speak English should have been a victor with Republican primary voters. He was banging the gong about immigration before Donald Trump made it cool, and singling out Muslims for verbal abuse before Dr. Ben Carson said he wouldn’t support a Muslim for president.
The campaign also lamented the nationalization of the election process-that national polls were used to determine admission to the main debate stage and that it was a disservice to Jindal’s strengths as a debater. He was facing a major cash crunch to keep the campaign going, after wrapping up the last fundraising period with $261,000 on hand.
Colbert rolled a clip from almost three years ago that featured Jindal saying, “It’s no secret we had a number of Republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and weird comments – I’m here to say we’ve had enough of that”.
“This must be bad for Jindal’s base, or whatever it is you call 0.3%”, Colbert ribbed in reference to the Governor’s risible poll numbers. “I mean, he’s a fighter and his instinct is to never give up”.
Jindal becomes the third GOP contender to leave the race.
“This clearly wasn’t our time”, Jindal said.
“I was the only one who’s actually reduced govt spending, all these other republicans talk about it”, he said.
“I don’t think in a million years they would have ever imagined that I’d be governor or one day I’d be running for president of the United States”, he said.
Advertisement
Jindal passed up several opportunities to endorse fellow Republican David Vitter as the Louisiana’s next governor. Rick Perry of Texas and Scott Walker of Wisconsin both left the race in September.
