Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich says GOP front-runner Donald Trump is moderating his rhetoric and could become a “unifier” rather than a “divider.”
“I’ve been listening to him lately, and you notice he’s toned down the rhetoric,” the Ohio Governor said of Trump on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.
“I’m just hoping that as we go forward he’s going to be a unifier,” he added. “Because I’m going to tell you, you can’t win the White House without winning Ohio. If we have a candidate that comes into Ohio who is a divider, there’s no chance they’re going to win it.”
Kasich, who ranks seventh in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, did take shots at Trump’s call to deport more than 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country.
“It is completely ridiculous to think that we’re going to go in the neighborhoods, grab people out of their homes, split up families, and ship people back to Mexico,” he said, adding, “It’s not going to happen. The party is not for deporting 11.5 million people. I’m sorry. I don’t believe it.”
Kasich’s solution? Offering undocumented immigrants a pathway to legalization as long as they have not committed crimes in the United States.
“If they haven’t violated another law when they’ve been here, then they get a path to legalization, and they’ve got to pay a fine,” Kasich said. He said border security improvements and a guest worker program should come first.
Kasich has a long way to go to put his immigration plans into action as president. Trump leads the field with 36.5 percentage points, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls. Kasich has about 2.0 percent.
