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A day after his campaign slashed staff and salaries to retrench ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Jeb Bush decried the toxic tone of the presidential race and suggesting that “demonizing” people isn’t what he signed up for in this campaign.

Mr. Bush made the remarks at a town hall in South Carolina, where, according to a report by CNN, he seemed fired up about taking on the person who has overshadowed him during the campaign, Donald J. Trump, who is leading most Republican polls so far.

“If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done,” Mr. Bush said, then “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.”

He added, “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.”

The rise of Mr. Trump in the Republican contest has confounded Mr. Bush, his family, and his supporters, who had built a battleship-sized campaign operation that was theoretically geared toward a general election.

Earlier, before the town hall, Mr. Bush told reporters he was not focusing his energy on Mr. Trump.

“I’m past Donald Trump,” Mr. Bush said.

Bush at 91: Irritated and Invigorated by ’16 Race The senior President Bush finds himself straining to understand today’s political climate. But if he is frustrated, the 91-year-old is also immersed.