During a recent appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said that family should be off limits during elections. As reported by Politico, Kasich’s comments came after the wives of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz became focal points of the Republican presidential campaign in the past week.
“Families have to be off limits,” Kasich was quoted as saying. “I mean, you cannot get these attacks on families. And if this becomes the order of the day, what kind of people are we going to have in the future that are going to run for public office? There’s got to be some rules, and there’s got to be something that gets set there. Some decency.”
Did you miss #MTP? Catch up in less than 2 minutes w/ #comPRESSed featuring @BernieSanders and @JohnKasich.https://t.co/5VyxOZFDdo
— Meet the Press (@meetthepress) March 27, 2016
As pointed in a report from Time, Kasich’s “family off limits” statement was made just a short while after Cruz blamed Trump for planting a story in the National Enquirer, which claimed that Cruz had several extramarital affairs. Prior to it being published, Trump had threatened to “spill the beans” about Heidi Cruz if a pro-Cruz super PAC continued to post photos of his wife, Melania Trump, from her days as a model, the publication wrote.
On Sunday, Kasich also made it clear that he’s not sure he could support Donald Trump if he was to become the Republican presidential nominee. He said that every day he reviews the matter.
“We’re going to look at it every single day, and we’ll see what happens. We’ve got a long way to go. And I don’t want to project that he’s going to be the nominee. I don’t think he will be. And if he is… I review it every day,” Kasich explained.
When integrity matters more than attention, taking the high road comes naturally. #KasichForUshttps://t.co/KFbKKMN11h
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) March 25, 2016
Despite Kasich receiving numerous calls for him to exit the race, he remains in the running and he even described Ted Cruz’s calls for him to get out of the race as being “absurd.” He also said that his exit would only hand the nomination to front-runner Donald Trump. In Ohio, Kasich told his followers to continue campaigning until July in order to secure the Republican nomination. Kasich said that if he had dropped out before winning his home state, which is his only victory so far, Donald Trump already would have clinched the nomination.
“It’s absurd,” Kasich expressed. “Let [anti-Trump voters] consolidate behind me because, frankly, I’m the one that can win in the fall. And I’m the one that can get the crossover vote.”
Cruz repeatedly has called for Kasich to get out of the race, because he feels he has the best chance to beat Donald Trump. While Cruz is still behind Trump in the delegate race, he remains the only other candidate with a plausible, albeit long-shot, path to the nomination.
Although Kasich is third in the race to win the nomination of his party, it doesn’t appear that he will be giving up anytime soon. He has recently made several explosive statements showing how optimistic he is in advancing in the primaries.
The "pendulum swings" to John Kasich.https://t.co/v3BbqsogaA pic.twitter.com/HD4muv4Q5V
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) March 24, 2016
It appears that Kasich is surging among Pennsylvania Republicans, according to a Franklin and Marshall poll out on Thursday, doubling his support from last month. The same survey found high negative ratings for Trump and Cruz among the full electorate.
According to the Washington Times, Kasich is mathematically unable to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot. He is holding out hope that he can peel off enough votes from Trump to force a contested convention in July in Cleveland, and then broker a deal to capture the nomination. He said he will keep collecting delegates in upcoming contests where he should be competitive.
[Image via Scott Olson/Getty Images News]