CONCORD, N.H. – Jeb Bush is running hard here – and hitting his one-time pal and protégé Marco Rubio even harder, telling POLITICO he thinks Rubio failed the major character test of the campaign so far: confronting xenophobe Donald Trump.

“The question of confronting a challenge and sticking with it and having a backbone, if you will — he’s never been challenged in his life in that regard. He’s young,” Bush said during an interview for the “Off Message” podcast to be posted in its entirety on Monday morning — and vowed to stay in the race despite a whisper campaign by Rubio backers to nudge him out after next Tuesday’s primary here.


“The Rubio people have made an argument that, ‘I came in third. Everybody else must leave,’” he said. “I’m not buying it. Why should I? ... You know, it’s like come on. You get a bronze, you get a little red ribbon, and everybody is supposed to just — the waters are supposed to part?”

Bush, who garnered about 3 percent in the Iowa caucuses, is in the political fight of his life after starting the campaign with a huge cash advantage, pick-of-the-litter staff and establishment support.

He is expected to do much better here – though Rubio seems to be gaining more momentum on the strength of his surprising third-place Iowa finish – but could see his campaign cash dry up if he doesn’t prove viability to the big-money donors who have buoyed his effort.

The momentary pause in the campaign – and the New England weather – put Bush in a self-reflective mood, staring out of the snow-weighted trees as his campaign bus sloshed through between Manchester and Concord on Saturday. His meditative mindset veered away from the Yankee-Texan stoicism of the Bushes – and his own increasingly bitter attacks on Rubio – as he talked about the future of his “fractured” party and the stresses of his own lonely fight against Trump in the ugly, early debates Bush deeply detested.

“I’m the only guy that has consistently gone after him,” he said. “Everybody else has avoided him. It’s, ‘God forbid you meet the wrath of Donald Trump and have a tweetstorm coming at you.’ Well, I’m a big boy. I can handle it.”

Bush, who turns 63 next Thursday, spoke about his disappointment and anger with the surging Rubio in a far-ranging 35-minute discussion that also included an extended section on his brother George, who just cut his first campaign ad for him, even though he remains unpopular with many GOP primary voters.

But it’s his own would-be presidency he’s fighting for – and his allies have been waging all-out war on Rubio: Right to Rise, the cash-fat pro-Bush super PAC, has spent an estimated $20 million in negative Rubio ads – and launched a blistering new ad this weekend in which Rick Santorum, who endorsed the Florida senator after dropping out earlier this week, gropes to name a single Rubio legislative accomplishment.

Rubio’s growing ranks of establishment supporters have been hitting back, warning in increasingly shrill terms that Bush’s attacks are damaging the future face of the Republican Party. Their message: Lay off Marco.

Bush emphatically rejected that advice – and said his team’s whacks were “little stuff” compared to what the Democrats will throw at the eventual nominee. “Hey, just to remind everybody that’s listening: There’s going to be a general election, and the Republican nominee will start feeling —will start getting twitches because the Clinton hit machine will start hitting them before they even know … And they’re going to get the bark scraped off of them.”

He added: “Marco doesn’t need any protection. I don’t need any protection. Everybody needs to man up!”

Still, at times, Bush was more circumspect about Rubio – with whom he shares the crowded and increasingly contested center lane of the party ahead of Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary here – as his bus bounced to a midday rally. He modulated between an admiring assessment of his rival (a “true conservative” who “lights up a room”) and a complaint that the 44-year-old Florida senator too often chooses political “tactics” over principle.

When I asked Bush if Rubio’s less-than-forceful approach to Trump during the debates indicated a “lack of courage” for not standing up to the bully billionaire more forcefully when he suggested Mexican immigrants were “rapists,” the two-term former Florida governor nodded in the affirmative:

“Standing on principle and confronting the ugly rhetoric of a candidate, I didn’t — you know, I'm not going to spend any money focus-grouping that,” he said. Calling out Trump was something he did, Bush said, because it was the right thing to do.

Jeb Bush is expected to do better in the New Hampshire primary after a small turnout for the governor in Iowa. | Getty

“I think Marco has taken a different approach: ‘I guess maybe it’s let Jeb go do it,’” he added. “It’s all a tactic for him, and I think principle matters. Trump has this view that people are idiots or POWs aren’t heroes because they got caught or, you know, mocking the disabled, disparaging women… It’s wrong. Forget everything else, [it] doesn’t matter. It’s wrong.”

And Bush – the most enthusiastic advocate for comprehensive immigration reform in a GOP that seems dead set against even the whiff of “amnesty” – had an equally dour assessment of Rubio’s ill-fated stab at immigration reform in 2013 – saying Rubio ran from his own plan at the first sign of significant resistance.

“Marco, as gifted as he is, hasn’t had to make a tough choice. The one time he did, which I admired, was the — getting involved in something that was quite controversial,” Bush said. “He took heat, and he backed away.”

“The immigration deal was he made a decision: My personal ambition trumps doing my job,” he said, describing what he believed to be Rubio’s mindset.

“So, do you want someone whose natural tendency is to pursue ambition, or do you want someone who runs to the fire?”

