Donald Trump called on rival John Kasich to drop out of the Republican primary, saying the Ohio governor shouldn’t be allowed to stay in the contest when he’s so far behind in the race for delegates. It’s the party’s job to step up and put a stop to his candidacy, Trump said, adding that he raised the issue during his meeting with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus last week. “Kasich shouldn’t be allowed to continue and the RNC shouldn’t allow him to continue,” Trump said.
Trump said that if Kasich wanted to be considered as a candidate in a contested convention in July then he could still do that without staying in the primary battle. But he shouldn’t stay in the race when he has only won one contest, which was in his home state.
“All he’s doing is just, he goes from place to place, and loses, and he keeps running. Well, why doesn’t Marco Rubio do that? Why doesn’t Jeb Bush do that? Why didn’t all of them do that?” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “Now if he wants to go and have his name put in nomination in the convention, he can do that. He doesn’t have to run and take my votes. Because he’s taking my votes, he’s not taking Cruz’s votes. He’s taking my votes.”
Kasich’s campaign said that by that logic, Trump should drop out as well because he won’t have the delegates to win the nomination outright. “Since he thinks it’s such a good idea, we look forward to Trump dropping out before the convention,” said spokesman Chris Schrimpf.
Earlier in the day, Kasich said that he expected there would be an open convention. “It’s going to be so much fun,” Kasich said on ABC’s This Week. “Kids will spend less time focusing on Bieber and Kardashian, and more time focusing on how we elect presidents. It will be so cool.”
Although he has only won one contest, Kasich said delegates at the convention will see him as an electable candidate. “There’s two strong things I have going for me. Number one, I beat Hillary Clinton in virtually every poll,” Kasich said. “Secondly, look at the record … I believe that a convention will look at somebody like me and that’s why I think I’m going to be the nominee.”
In an interview with CNN, Priebus acknowledged there is a “highly, highly unlikely” chance that someone who is not in the primary battle could become the nominee at the convention. But he insisted that “I think our candidate is someone who’s running, OK? That’s pretty obvious.”
