As pressure mounts on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to leave the 2016 presidential race, the governor conceded he does not know whether it’s his “purpose” to be president of the United States.
Kasich skipped campaigning in Nevada on its caucus day to attend town halls in Georgia, where he encountered several confrontational questioners. Some of the governor’s heated exchanges came with a pair of questioners who wanted to know why he would not counter Donald Trump on the debate stage and another who was deeply concerned about the rise of Trump.
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“It’s time to take the gloves off and be the top competitor in your sport,” one person challenged Kasich.
“Well let me, that’s I know how a lot of people feel,” Kasich replied. “I don’t know if my purpose is to be president. My purpose is to be out here doing what I think I need to be doing and we’ll see where it ends up. And if it’s not this crusade, it’s another one. Maybe it’ll be a really small one somewhere in my kids’ school, who knows?”
The governor’s answer was followed by a questioner who noted that Trump had drawn a much larger crowd in Georgia recently and who said she was “torn” by Trump’s success.
Kasich has routinely countered such arguments by calling for the end of negative campaigning, but his campaign has attacked Trump and jokingly needled the billionaire by claiming Trump chose Russian President Vladimir Putin as his running mate.
Kasich, who ranks fourth out of five candidates in the Washington Examiner‘s GOP presidential power rankings, courted controversy on Monday by telling Virginians about the “women who left their kitchens” to support him. The 2016 race’s only remaining governor will campaign in Mississippi and Louisiana on Wednesday.
