An upcoming interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough got a little bit contentious when Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich accused the press of propping up Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Scarborough pushed back against the notion. I’ll have my say.
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Kasich remains one of the nation’s prominent Republicans who have not announced support for Trump, but he still has not completely ruled out the idea, leaving out hope that Trump’s rhetoric might change.
“You know politics. They don’t care what I think”, Kasich said.
“I’m not just talking about you, Joe”, he replied. “But, unless it changes, you know, I’m not going to be able to get there”.
Of mention, as noted by the Repository, were Trump’s comments about Muslims throughout his campaign, which include calls to ban followers of Islam from the United States as well as the recent suggestion that President Barack Obama is sympathetic to an act of terrorism. Mark Kirk became the first Republican to revoke support for Trump, issuing a statement reading, in part, “I can not and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party”. “It’s getting bigger“, Kasich said, after host Joe Scarborough asked about Trump’s accusation that US troops stole money in Iraq.
At one point in the interview, Kasich, responding to Scarborough’s question on how Trump’s popularity “happened”, called out the role of the media in boosting Trump’s image. “I said, ‘We’re like two companies, we have different values, different visions”.
“I mean I could be having a press conference and they’d have an empty podium with Trump speaking there”, he said. I’ve been a Republican all my life, how do you think I feel about this? “You all know it!”
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“So you focused on it”, Kasich finished for him. “It’s painful”, he said. “You couldn’t get enough of it”. “But we’ll see where it ends up”. I’m not making any final decision yet.
