Donald Trump Calls for John Kasich to Drop Out
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Donald Trump Calls for John Kasich to Drop Out
MILWAUKEE — Donald J.
Trump called for Gov. John Kasich of Ohio to drop out of the Republican
primary contest, saying that Mr. Kasich “should not be allowed to run.”
Mr. Trump said on
Sunday that Mr. Kasich, who has so far finished first in just one
primary — in his home state, Ohio — could ask to put his name under
consideration for the nomination at the Republican convention in
Cleveland in July. But he said Mr. Kasich was siphoning votes from him
and called on the Republican National Committee to urge him to drop out.
“Kasich shouldn’t be
allowed to continue, and the R.N.C. shouldn’t allow him to continue,”
Mr. Trump told a small group of reporters at Miss Katie’s Diner here.
Mr. Trump, who is
struggling to make up ground against Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in
Wisconsin, which votes on Tuesday, argued that Mr. Kasich had no chance
of winning the 1,237 delegates required to earn the party’s nomination and should therefore end his 2016 bid.
“Rand Paul could’ve
stayed in and he had nothing, Marco Rubio could have stayed in, Jeb Bush
could have stayed in,” Mr. Trump said, listing some of his previous
Republican rivals who had since ended their campaigns. “They all could
have stayed in. They could have just stayed in. That’s all he’s doing.”
Mr. Trump, who last
week met with R.N.C. officials in Washington, said he had been
mentioning his concerns to committee officials, including Reince
Priebus, the party’s chairman.
“I said, ‘Why is a guy
allowed to run?’” He said. “All he’s doing is just he goes from place
to place, and loses, and he keeps on running.”
Mr. Trump added that he told the R.N.C. that the situation was “very unfair.”
“He doesn’t have to run and take my votes,” Mr. Trump said.
Chris Schrimpf, a
spokesman for Mr. Kasich, said in a statement that both Mr. Cruz and Mr.
Trump were unlikely to secure the necessary delegates to win the
Republican nomination — and instead called for Mr. Trump to drop out.
“Ted Cruz also has no
possibility of accumulating enough delegates and Trump also will not
receive a majority of delegates before the convention,” Mr. Schrimpf
said. “Since he thinks it’s such a good idea, we look forward to Trump
dropping out before the convention. Trump living up to his own
self-declared standard is best for the party since he will lose the
White House by a historic margin to Hillary Clinton and also cause
Republicans to lose control of the Senate.”
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In TV Ad, Ted Cruz Accuses John Kasich of Cronyism
Cruz Releases Anti-Kasich Ad
Ted Cruz’s campaign released an anti-Kasich ad.
By CMAG on Publish Date April 3, 2016.
Ahead of Tuesday’s
primary in Wisconsin, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is targeting John Kasich
with a TV attack ad for the first time, suggesting that Mr. Kasich
engaged in cronyism as Ohio’s governor.
The commercial brings
up Mr. Kasich’s lucrative earnings as a board member of Worthington
Industries, an Ohio-based steel processor, before saying that the
company received hundred of thousands of dollars in tax breaks after Mr.
Kasich became governor. The ad also says that the company laid off
workers last year, while its chief executive donated $500,000 to an
outside group supporting Mr. Kasich.
“Despite having no
pathway to the nomination, Kasich insists on continuing his quixotic
auditioning tour to become Donald Trump’s vice president,” Catherine
Frazier, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cruz, said on Sunday. “So far his
greatest strength has been anonymity — we’re simply shining some light
on his record.”
Mr. Kasich has repeatedly insisted he will not be anyone’s running mate. His ties to Worthington Industries have previously received scrutiny in Ohio, including from the Democratic challenger whom Mr. Kasich went on to defeat to win a second term in 2014.
“Ted Cruz is recycling
failed Democrat attacks in a desperate effort to smear Governor
Kasich,” John Weaver, Mr. Kasich’s chief strategist, said in response to
the ad. “It didn’t work for dishonest Ohio Democrats in 2014 and won’t
work for deceptive Ted Cruz now.”
Mr. Weaver offered his own attack on Mr. Cruz, bringing up the loan from Goldman Sachs that Mr. Cruz failed to report
during his 2012 Senate campaign. “Cruz’s attack and own hypocrisy are
further proof that the voters can’t trust him and he will do anything to
win,” Mr. Weaver said.
Mr. Cruz and Mr.
Kasich have scarcely tangled with each other during the Republican
primary, in large measure because they tend to appeal to different
swaths of the Republican electorate. And given his lower profile
throughout the race, Mr. Kasich has tended not to be a magnet for his
rivals’ attacks.
But with the Republican field down to three candidates, the two men and their allies have been increasingly at odds, with Mr. Cruz calling Mr. Kasich a spoiler and Mr. Kasich insisting Mr. Cruz cannot win in November.
Mr. Cruz appears to have an edge
over Donald J. Trump heading into Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin, in
which delegates are awarded to the statewide winner and to the winners
of its eight congressional districts.
Mr. Kasich is expected to finish third in the state, but a poll released last week
by Marquette University Law School showed Mr. Kasich with strength in
the Madison media market, and he told reporters in Wisconsin on Saturday
that he hoped to win a few delegates in the state. The decision by Mr.
Cruz’s team to go after Mr. Kasich suggests the Cruz campaign views
itself as in competition with Mr. Kasich for at least some voters.
Last week, an outside group supporting Mr. Cruz released a commercial that also attacked
Mr. Kasich, inaccurately tying him to the liberal billionaire George
Soros, among other things. A group backing Mr. Kasich — the same one
supported by the chief executive of Worthington Industries — released
its own ad describing Mr. Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” adopting a nickname
favored by Mr. Trump. Mr. Kasich objected to that characterization and urged that the ad be taken down.
Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting.
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Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Continue Back-and-Forth Over Debate Date
Hillary Clinton on Sunday sought to put an end to the debate over the debate.
After much prodding by
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to convince her to agree to another
debate before the April 19 primary in New York, Mrs. Clinton said she
would attend a debate on April 14 in Brooklyn, the borough that houses
both candidates’ campaign headquarters and where Mrs. Clinton spent
Sunday speaking to congregants at several black churches.
“I will be there. I think you’ve penciled it in for the 14th. I’ll be there,” Mrs. Clinton told NY1 after speaking at the Christian Cultural Center in the East New York area of Brooklyn.
But an April 14
debate, which NY1 and The New York Daily News have proposed sponsoring
together, remains a no-go for the Sanders campaign. His campaign says
the date conflicts with a major rally Mr. Sanders plans to hold in a
prime New York City venue that has already granted a hard-to-get permit.
Michael Briggs, a spokesman for Mr. Sanders, said the campaign had
proposed four other potential dates. (In December, when the debate
schedule was first being worked out, the Sanders campaign had put forth
April 14.)
“I’m confident that we
will work out a time that’s good for both of our schedules and when
large numbers of people will be watching,” Mr. Sanders told CNN.
The fight over the
Brooklyn debate is just the latest dust-up in a Democratic primary in
which both campaigns have prided themselves on policy-minded civility.
“The Sanders campaign
needs to stop with the games,” Brian Fallon, a Clinton spokesman, said
on Saturday, noting that the Sanders campaign had rejected three
proposed dates for a debate before the New York primary.
But Mr. Briggs said
that at least one of those proposed dates was “ludicrous” as it would
have conflicted with the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball finals.
Since the last debate
between the two Democrats, on March 8 in Miami, the race has taken a
more combative tone, with Mr. Sanders working hard to try and play
catch-up, and Mrs. Clinton working to secure the party’s nomination
against a unexpectedly formidable, and well-funded, opponent.
In the interview with
NY1, Mrs. Clinton tried to portray Mr. Sanders’s increasingly pointed
criticism as a sign of desperation. “I understand as we get closer to
the end there may be some anxiety, frustration and acting out on the
other side that has to look at the facts,” Mrs. Clinton told Josh Robin
of NY1.
“Look, I have 2.5
million more votes nationwide than Senator Sanders,” Mrs. Clinton
continued. “I have a big lead in delegates. In fact, my lead is higher
right now than when I was running against President Obama and he led me
in delegates.”
At her church visits
on Sunday, Mrs. Clinton criticized Mr. Sanders for his voting record on
gun control measures and tried to portray him as ill-equipped to handle a
national security crisis like the one she confronted as a senator from
New York during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“National security
cannot be an afterthought that somebody gets around to when they finish
talking about everything else,” Mrs. Clinton told the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Her comments were perhaps a preview of her argument in the Brooklyn debate — if it happens.
Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.
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