Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) says his 2016 rival Donald Trump will not be the Republican presidential nominee, citing his lack of experience in elected office.
{mosads}“I believe that Donald Trump will not be the nominee,” Kasich said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I think things will settle down, and I believe at the end of the day, and what I’ve heard in New Hampshire, is that experience is what counts.”
The Republican presidential hopeful suggested that Trump’s supporters won’t show up to vote for the primaries.
“Here he came to Ohio, had a big crowd, thousands of people, and 10 minutes into it, the crowd was leaving, about half the crowd by the end of his appearance,” Kasich said.
“First of all, it gets to be about who’s going to vote, you know, it’s not just about what a number is today,” he added, dismissing polls that show Trump with a commanding lead.
Kasich also defended a campaign ad that appears to compare Trump to the Nazis, saying it was about “uniting people,” as opposed to dividing them the way Trump has done.
“This is a message about uniting people,” he said. “When you attack Hispanics, when you characterize all Muslims in a very negative way, when you insult women, we don’t think that that’s good.”
“And it’s no more than that, and any reading into more than that is certainly not what was intended or what was meant,” he added.