Ohio Gov. John Kasich continued to withhold endorsement of Republican Party presumptive nominee Donald Trump in a nationally televised interview today, even adding distance between them.
“He's trending the wrong way with me,” Mr. Kasich said, bringing up Mr. Trump’s controversial criticism of a Mexican-American judge. “Look at what just happened with this judge. Here's a guy born in Indiana and this guy says that he's biased, or if he was a Muslim, he's biased. I mean, that's not good stuff.”
Mr. Kasich commented on Twitter on Monday that Mr. Trump “should apologize to Judge Curiel & try to unite this country.” He added in a follow-up, “Attacking judges based on their race &/or religion is another tactic that divides our country. More importantly, it is flat out wrong.”
Mr. Trump in the last two weeks has said the San Diego judge overseeing a lawsuit against his now-defunct Trump University, Gonzalo Curiel, has made judgments biased against him because he has Mexican heritage and because of Mr. Trump’s advocacy for a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
In the interview with Fox News, Mr. Kasich said his positions and those of Mr. Trump remain too far apart to allow him to endorse his former opponent.
“You know, if you look at Twitter, there's this thing called ‘trending,’ it's trending poorly. Yeah, look, I have a completely different message, you know, Mr. Trump called me and he said, ‘You know, what are you going to do to support me?’ I said, "We're like two companies, you know, we have a different vision, a different value system, and a different objective." So it's pretty hard to put that together,” Mr. Kasich said.
“But right now, the divisiveness, the division, the name calling, it just doesn't go down well with me,” he said.
Mr. Trump has not commented directly but Wednesday night retweeted a supporter who said, “JohnKasich, the VOTERS have spoken.We want @realDonaldTrump. You AGREED to support NOMINEE. Get on board or leave @GOP"
Fox anchor Bill Hemmer pushed Mr. Kasich on whether he could attend the convention in Cleveland July 18 without endorsing Mr. Trump.
“Absolutely. Of course. Look, I've been this way since I was in politics. I kind of call them the way I see them and never more than today does the country need to be unified. Do we need to stop all the fighting? Do we need to realize that we're Americans before we're Republicans and Democrats,” he said.
Mr. Kasich struck a hard stand against Mr. Trump late in his campaign, saying he found many of Mr. Trump’s positions to be “disturbing.”
Numerous Republican leaders, including Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman have condemned Mr. Trump’s statements about Judge Curiel. Illinois Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, who is in a tough re-election fight, withdrew his endorsement on Tuesday.
Mr. Portman has refused to do so, saying he shares more policy stances with Mr. Trump than with Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I think it's offensive to say what he said," Mr. Portman said of Mr. Trump. "I believe it's wrong to say someone can't do his or her job because of their heritage."
David Bergstein, spokesman for Democrat Senate nominee Ted Strickland, said, “Another spineless, simultaneous endorsement and condemnation of Trump from Senator Portman – this kind of D.C. doublespeak represents exactly what Ohioans hate about Washington insiders.”
Contact Tom Troy: tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058 or on Twitter @TomFTroy.
First Published June 9, 2016, 8:06 p.m.
