A reporter following Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the campaign trail learned the hard way Monday evening not to ask the Republican presidential candidate about his losing streak.
Kasich, who currently has fewer delegates than former White House hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio, is running a distant third behind opponents Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Having won just one nominating contest so far in his home state of Ohio, the two-term governor is banking on a contested convention to earn the GOP nomination.
“Governor, if you got to the convention in Cleveland and you’ve only won Ohio, do you think you’d qualify to be the nominee?” Financial Times reporter Demetri Sevastopulo asked Kasich Monday night.
“There’s no ‘if’ in there, there will be ‘when,'” Kasich responded sharply. “Listen, at the end of the day, I think the Republican party wants to pick somebody who actually can win in the fall.”
“But if you’ve only won Ohio,” Sevastopulo interjected.
“Can I finish?” Kasich said angrily. “I’m answering the question the way I want to answer it.”
“Do you want to answer it?” he asked Sevastopulo before reaching for his recording device.
“Here let me hold that. Let me ask you. What do you think?” Kasich said to the reporter while waving the recorder around.
Sevastopulo later described the exchange as “bizarre,” claiming Kasich was visible “annoyed” by his question.
In bizarre moment @JohnKasich snatches my recorder as annoyed at question about only winning Ohio @benmarinojourno pic.twitter.com/hSingCvpF4
— Demetri Sevastopulo (FT) (@Dimi) April 19, 2016
