Cleveland
Ohio governor John Kasich took a shot at Donald Trump’s foreign policy Tuesday, including the Trump campaign’s reported attempts to make the Republican party platform more favorable to Russia.
“Let me tell you one other thing. As long as I’m breathing air, I’m for arming the Ukrainians that want to fight for their own freedom over in the Ukraine,” Kasich said at an International Republican Institute event. “It must’ve been a terrible mistake that apparently arming the Ukrainians somehow was left out of the Republican platform.”
The Trump campaign reportedly lobbied delegates to cut language from the platform about supplying weapons to Ukrainians in their fight against Russian forces and Russian-backed rebels.
The Ohio governor also emphasized the importance of foreign alliances and slammed Trump’s remark that “NATO is obsolete.”
“We think NATO doesn’t matter? Are we kidding?” Kasich said. “Let me ask you a question: What would we put in its place? And what are we supposed to tell everybody, to be on their own?”
While Kasich did not mention Trump by name, he argued against themes that critics associate with the presumptive nominee, including “isolationism” and “anti-immigration.”
The Trump campaign has criticized Kasich in recent days for his refusal to endorse the businessman. Campaign manager Paul Manafort, who for years lobbied on behalf of former Ukrainian president and Vladimir Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych, said Monday that Kasich’s absence at the convention was “embarrassing.”
“You know what, he’s making a big mistake,” Manafort said on Morning Joe, which elicited boos from the audience. “Most of the Republicans who aren’t coming are people who have been part of the past.”
