Bobby Jindal has dropped out of the race for the White House after struggling for months to gain traction amid a sprawling field of Republican candidates.
Although the Louisiana governor showed some strength in the early voting state of Iowa, he consistently performed poorly in national polls.
Bobby Jindal, 44, was shut out of the main Republican debates, relegated to secondary stages.
“This is not my time,” he said on November 17.
The Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants added diversity to the Republican field, which includes African-American neurosurgeon Ben Carson and businesswoman Carly Fiorina.
Photo Getty Images
However, Governor Bobby Jindal sought to distance himself from his Indian heritage during the campaign.
“We are not Indian-Americans, African-Americans, Irish-Americans, rich Americans, or poor Americans. We are all Americans,” he told supporters when he launched his campaign in June.
Unpopular in his home state after a budget shortfall, Bobby Jindal had been considered a long-shot for the nomination.
During his campaign, Bobby Jindal sought to appeal to evangelical Christian voters, taking hard lines on gay rights and Islamic extremism.
However, he was courting the same slice of the electorate as rival candidates such as Ben Carson, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
Bobby Jindal joins former Texas Governor Rick Perry and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who have also suspended their campaigns for president.
Fourteen Republicans remain in the presidential race.
Joe Biden will not run for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 White House race.
The 72-year-old vice-president said his family was ready after the death of his son, Beau Biden, earlier this year, but he had now run out of time.
He also said it would be a mistake for Democrats to turn their backs on President Barack Obama’s record.
Democrats seeking an alternative to frontrunner Hillary Clinton had been urging Joe Biden to run.
Though he will not be a candidate, Joe Biden said he “will not be silent”.
“I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully on where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”
Joe Biden said any candidate would be making a “tragic mistake” to reject the Obama legacy, and urged an end to political bickering.
“I believe we have to end the divisive, partisan politics ripping apart this country,” he said as he stood in the Rose Garden of the White House, flanked by his wife Jill and President Barack Obama.
Repeating a dig at Hillary Clinton that he has made several times this week, he said it was wrong to see Republicans as enemies.
When asked at last week’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton said she was proud of making an enemy out of Republicans.
In explaining his decision not to join the race, after three months pondering it, Joe Biden said his family had “reached a point” where they felt they could cope with his third presidential run, but time was now against him.
Beau Biden died from brain cancer in May, another family tragedy for the former Delaware senator after the deaths of his baby daughter and first wife in 1972.
Joe Biden then rose through the Senate ranks and ran for president in 1988 and 2008.
After hearing the news, presidential candidates for 2016 tweeted their well wishes.
Bernie Sanders also tweeted that he supported Joe Biden’s plans to make college free, fight economic inequality and close tax loopholes.
Democratic candidate Martin O’ Malley tweeted that he respected Joe Biden’s decision and that he is “one of the most decent, compassionate public servants our nation has produced”.
President Barack Obama offered a clever retort to Donald Trump after the real estate mogul offered to donate $5 million to the charity of his choosing if he released college records and passport application.
Speaking on The Tonight Show, Barack Obama told Jay Leno that the rivalry between began in their childhood.
“This all dates back to when we were growing up in Kenya,” he joked.
“We had constant run-ins on the soccer field, he wasn’t very good.”
Barack Obama was referring to The Donald’s highly publicized demands that the president present his birth certificate to prove that he was born in the U.S., and therefore eligible for the presidency.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s long-awaited “major announcement” about Barack Obama was labeled as something of a disappointment over what was promised.
Donald Trump made his offer in a YouTube video released at noon today, two days after promising to make a “gigantic” announcement about Barack Obama which could change the course of the presidential race.
Donald Trump offered to donate $5 million to the charity if Barack Obama released college records and passport application
Web users reacted to the massive letdown with derision, with many taking to Twitter to mock the controversial businessman.
Donald Trump previously denied staging a publicity stunt, insisting the announcement is “not a media event”, but instead is “about the United States of America”.
A number of sensational claims about the content of the message had been swirling around the web for three days – one pundit with links to the billionaire even suggested that he was set to unearth divorce papers between Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
However, the man himself tweeted: “All predictions re: my 12 o’clock release are totally incorrect. Stay tuned!” – and some may be disappointed by the relatively tame nature of the announcement.
Donald Trump set the hare running on Monday by claiming that he was set to make an announcement today that would be “bordering on gigantic” and that it would “possibly” change the presidential race.
But when the announcement finally came, in the form of a YouTube video and accompanying Facebook post, it was somewhat less explosive than promised.
Donald Trump has challenged President Barack Obama to release his college records and passport application – and has promised to donate $5 million to a charity of the President’s choice if he does so.
Donald Trump made his offer in a YouTube video released at noon today, two days after promising to make a “gigantic” announcement about Barack Obama which could change the course of the presidential race.
The tycoon previously denied staging a publicity stunt, insisting the announcement is “not a media event”, but instead is “about the United States of America”.
A number of sensational claims about the content of the message had been swirling around the web for three days – one pundit with links to the billionaire even suggested that he was set to unearth divorce papers between Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.
However, the man himself tweeted: “All predictions re: my 12 o’clock release are totally incorrect. Stay tuned!” – and some may be disappointed by the relatively tame nature of the announcement.
Donald Trump set the hare running on Monday by claiming that he was set to make an announcement today that would be “bordering on gigantic” and that it would “possibly” change the presidential race.
But when the announcement finally came, in the form of a YouTube video and accompanying Facebook post, it was somewhat less explosive than promised.
Donald Trump started the announcement by saying: “President Obama is the least transparent President in the history of this country.”
He added: “I’m very honored to have gotten him to release his long-form birth certificate… or whatever it may be.”
The meat of the message ran: “If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications, and if he gives his passport applications and records, I will give to a charity of his choice – inner-city kids in Chicago, American Cancer Society, AIDS research, anything he wants – a cheque, immediately, for $5 million.”
Donald Trump has challenged Barack Obama to release his college records and passport application
Donald Trump went on to say that the records had to be released by 5:00 p.m. on October 31, and that his donation would be given within an hour of Barack Obama releasing the records “to my satisfaction, if it’s complete”.
The video concluded: “Mr. President, not only will I be happy – and, by the way, totally satisfied – but the American people will be happy, and those charities will be very, very happy.”
There are a number of conspiracy theories surrounding Barack Obama’s records from his time at Occidental College, Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Most common is the assertion that the future President’s grades were weak, which would undermine his intellectual reputation, but some go further and argue that he might have taken “anti-American” courses or even have attended college as a foreign exchange student.
Donald Trump’s appeal for passport records, meanwhile, appears to be linked to the “birther” conspiracy theory which holds that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. and in which the businessman has been a leading voice.
The White House has not yet responded to Donald Trump’s offer, and is unlikely to do so.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump defended himself against claims that he was focused more on self-publicizing than serving the American people, as he tweeted: “This is not a media event or about Donald J. Trump – this is about the United States of America.”
The billionaire followed that up with a quotation from Chinese author Sun Tzu reading: “Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.”
Donald Trump told Fox & Friends on Monday that he had “something very, very big concerning the President of the United States”.
“It’s going to be very big. I know one thing – you will cover it in a very big fashion.”
Donald Trump declined to elaborate, but yesterday an investor who appears on the same business talk show as him claimed to have more details.
Douglas Kass, a Florida-based investor who appears on CNBC’s talkshow Squawkbox where Donald Trump is often a commentator, tweeted to his 48,000 followers: “High above the Alps my Gnome has heard that Donald Trump will announce that he has unearthed divorce papers between the Prez and his wife.”
The claims about divorce papers have previously been made in a book released earlier this year by author Ed Klein. The White House rubbished the allegations then and claimed Ed Klein had a history of making things up.
Republican Rick Santorum has ended his bid for the White House, leaving Mitt Romney as the presumptive nominee.
The former Pennsylvania senator made the announcement at a news conference in the city of Gettysburg.
“While this presidential race is over for me, we are not done fighting,” said Rick Santorum, a social conservative.
Rick Santorum had been campaigning in Pennsylvania, his home state, ahead of its primary on 24 April.
But he was far behind Mitt Romney in terms of funding and was in danger of losing the state for the second time in six years, analysts said.
In 2006 Rick Santorum lost his Pennsylvania Senate seat by an 18-point margin.
In the current race for the Republican nomination, Rick Santorum lags far behind Mitt Romney in terms of the number of delegates needed to seal the nomination at the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, in late August.
Rick Santorum’s children and his wife Karen stood behind him in Gettysburg as he made the announcement that he was suspending his campaign.
He had taken time off the campaign trail in recent days as his 3-year-old daughter Isabella, who has a rare genetic disorder, was admitted to hospital.
Republican Rick Santorum has ended his bid for the White House, leaving Mitt Romney as the presumptive nominee
Rick Santorum proved to be the most resilient of the Republican rivals challenging Mitt Romney’s front-runner status.
In his statement Rick Santorum said he had surpassed expectations, adding that “against all odds, we won 11 states, millions of voters, millions of votes”.
“We were winning in a very different way,” Rick Santorum said.
“We were touching hearts.”
Rick Santorum remembered some of the volunteers he worked with during the campaign.
Without the help of people like Wendy in Iowa, who made 5,000 phone calls or the girls in Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose song “Game On” became an internet sensation, the campaign would not have come as far as it did, Rick Santorum said.
He mentioned his visit to the factory of the Minnesota manufacturer of his sweater vests, which became known as the former Senator’s signature outfit.
Rick Santorum won a total of 11 primaries and caucuses, and picked up additional delegates in states that awarded them proportionally.
He emerged on the national scene on the night of the Iowa caucuses in January, eventually winning the state by a whisker after victory was initially handed to Mitt Romney.
His old-fashioned, hard-working campaign style saw him visit every one of the Iowa’s 99 counties in the months preceding the vote, and won him the respect and support of many in the state.
Rick santorum continued to garner strong support in the Midwest and in the South, halting Mitt Romney in a swathe of states from Minnesota to Alabama and as far west as Colorado and North Dakota.
In conceding that he could not win the nomination Rick Santorum made no specific mention of Mitt Romney, and did not say whether he planned to endorse the front-runner.
However, he reportedly telephoned the former governor to concede shortly before speaking to reporters.
In a statement, Mitt Romney congratulated Rick Santorum on his campaign, calling him an “able and worthy competitor”.
“He has proven himself to be an important voice in our party and in the nation,” the former Massachusetts governor said.
Meanwhile, fellow candidate Newt Gingrich said Rick Santorum had run a “remarkable campaign”, adding that “his success is a testament to his tenacity and the power of conservative principles”.
Newt Gingrich, though, insisted that he would remain in the race in an effort to broaden the policy discussion and offer a conservative alternative to Mitt Romney.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul congratulated the former senator on running a “spirited campaign”. Ron Paul has the fewest delegates but, like Newt Gingrich, has refused to pull out of the contest.
Despite them remaining in the race, many analysts quickly characterized Rick Santorum’s decision as the moment the general election campaign effectively began.
Mitt Romney, who made his fortune in a private equity firm is now seen as the man to take on Democratic President Barack Obama, a former law professor and community organizer, in November’s election.
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