Ohio Gov. John Kasich criticized President Trump for pointing fingers at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz following Hurricane Maria and the ensuing devastation.
“When people are in the middle of a disaster, you don’t start trying to criticize them,” Kasich said to Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“You have to ignore it and be bigger than the nonsense,” Kasich added.
The president has used numerous tweets to single out Cruz and her cooperation with the relief efforts.
Early Saturday morning the president tweeted, “”The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.”
“It’s just not the way that I think it ought to be handled. It’s not the way that we handle disasters here. I mean, they’re challenging. You have to get it right. And we’ve watched people who were leaders, I think, Gov. Scott down in Florida did a terrific job warning people. You just don’t get into who’s bad or who’s good, no matter what they say.”
Kasich, who was among the large field of entrants in the 2016 presidential election, has been one of the leading Republican critics of the Trump administration.
The Ohio governor spent much of the summer touting health care reform ideas alongside Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.
Kasich became so frustrated while cataloging the many problems facing the nation, he expressed brief doubts about his own political future, but then quickly reshaped those remarks.
“If the [Republican] Party can’t be fixed, Jake, I’m not going to be able to support the party, period, that’s the end of it.”
CNN host Jake Tapper asked Kasich point blank if he might consider becoming an independent.
“No, not at this — What I’m saying to you is, we need to fix it,” Kasich began.
“If our party, if the Republican Party is going to be anti-immigration, if it’s not going to be worried about debt, if it’s going to be, if it’s going to be anti-trade, this is not where our party can be.
“So I’m going to fight like everything I have to make sure — it’s why I’m on these shows — cause I want this party to be straightened out. I not only want the party to be straightened out, but I want the country to be straightened out. It’s really a battle again inside of both parties, but people are beginning to say, I don’t like either of them. And that says something big.”
