Republican presidential candidate John Kasich on Wednesday questioned if rival Jeb Bush should carry on his campaign if it relies only on negative attack ads.
“I think it’s a sad situation when you’ve got to rely on negative to move voters, which they haven’t been able to do, as opposed to articulating a positive vision. Why don’t do they do that?” Kasich said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Wednesday morning, referring to an internal Bush memo that circulated late Tuesday evening attacking the Ohio governor’s chances in South Carolina.
The memo by the former Florida governor suggests Kasich “has consistently supported gutting the military and has no viable path in the Palmetto State.”
“Why doesn’t somebody ask them, ‘Well, what are you for?’ And if what you’re for isn’t selling, you gotta ask yourself why you’re running,” the Kasich added Wednesday morning. “At least, if that were the case for me, that’s what I’d be asking.”
Kasich, who finished in a strong second-place in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday with 15.9 percent of the vote, also questioned Bush’s high campaign spending as ineffective.
“Well, look, you’ve got the Bush campaign, I think they’ve spent about $120 million, and they’ve got like four delegates,” he said. “I mean, they got blown out in Iowa and did poorly in New Hampshire. They are spending all their money going negative.”
With 11.1 percent of the vote, Bush finished in fourth place.
The South Carolina primary is Feb. 20.
