John Kasich: "I'm not inclined" to be Donald Trump's VP https://t.co/KdcOt3ElaP https://t.co/hzl1YVxP8R
— CNN (@CNN) May 17, 2016
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said during a CNN interview broadcast Monday night that he’s “not inclined” to be presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate.
{mosads}”It would be very hard for me, unless he were to change all of his views and become a uniter, for me to get in the middle of this thing,” Kasich told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Kasich has continued to be mentioned in discussion of potential Trump running mates, though Trump himself has recently indicated it was “unlikely” the Ohio governor would be his VP.
Monday’s broadcast was Kasich’s first national interview since dropping out of the race nearly two weeks ago. In it, Kasich maintained he’s undecided on supporting Trump, saying, “I don’t like when he’s attacking, putting people down. You know, learn to take it a little bit.”
He said he’d get a degree of blowback from family members if he turned to endorse Trump after the bitter primary.
“We’ll see what he does. He has a chance to move to the positive side and unify this country,” Kasich said, adding he was withholding his endorsement of Trump due to a mixture of reasons surrounding Trump’s tone and policy positions.
“When I talk about two paths — the path of rebuilding the country or pushing people down into the ditch — that’s not some political ploy that somebody calculated for me, that’s my insides, that’s my soul,” Kasich said.
The Ohio governor said he campaign for House and Senate members, as other prominent Republicans who have withheld their endorsement from Trump have signaled they will do. Kasich said he spoke with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) over the weekend and said Ryan was “delighted” by his plans to campaign.
Kasich also ripped Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for labeling Trump the presumptive GOP nominee after the businessman’s win in the Indiana primary on May 3, which forced his closest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), to drop out of the race. Kasich dropped out the next day.
“When Indiana happened and you had the chairman of the Republican Party endorse Trump, which I thought was completely inappropriate,” Kasich told CNN.
“Well I’m still there,” Kasich added when asked why he thought it was inappropriate. “He just wanted to get this over. I’m not happy about it.”
Kasich said he planned to stay in the race for “four or five days” more to see if he could get big-money donors to rally around his campaign, saying he had plans for a national newspaper editorial board meeting and a pair of fundraisers, which contributed to him being “conflicted” about dropping out.
On a third-party candidacy, Kasich said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate. I just don’t think it would be the right thing to do.” Kasich said a candidate would need a compelling message, but he hasn’t identified such a candidate yet.
Kasich indicated he didn’t want a third-party candidate to emerge to stop Trump.
“We’re not a third-party kind of a country,” Kasich said, adding that a third-party campaign to block a candidate was “not for me.”
This post was updated at 8:56 p.m.