Former presidential candidate John Kasich said Monday he is not ready to back Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee nor will he serve as his running mate because the two Republicans have polar opposite messages.
“We’ve had two different messages. His message was ‘the elites are bad and everybody’s giving you the shaft’ and kind of got the people angry. My message is ‘yea … they’ve all disappointed us one way or another, they’ve all given us the shaft,’ but my message is ‘let’s stand against the wind,'” Kasich told CNN host Anderson Cooper Monday. “Don’t cave in to the negative. Let’s figure out how as people we can rebuild our country.”
The Ohio governor said he would not fit into Trump’s campaign because he has tried to appeal to voters as a “uniter,” which would clash with Trump’s focus.
“Those are two very inconsistent messages, so it would be very hard for me — unless he were to change all of his views and become a uniter — for me to get in the middle of this thing because, you know, I’m undecided here about what I’m gonna do in this race,” Kasich said.
The latest presidential race dropout did admit his interest in helping congressional candidates win re-election this November. Kasich told Cooper he had reached out to GOP leaders over the weekend, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, to say he was willing to get out on the campaign trail with senators who need a boost.
In sharing that story with a friend from New York, Kasich added that the talk with Ryan reminded him of what could have been.
“Can you imagine if you were president and Paul Ryan were speaker? Could’ve changed everything,” the friend told Kasich.
