Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) gave a strong indication Sunday he might not support Donald Trump if Trump won the Republican nomination for president.
Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” asked the GOP presidential hopeful if he would honor the commitment he and fellow Republican candidates have made to support the party’s nominee -- even if that nominee is Trump.
“We're going to look at it every single day, and we'll see what happens,” Kasich responded. "We've got a long way to go. And I don't want to project that he's going to be the nominee. I don't think he will be. And if he is ... I review it every day.”
Todd pressed Kasich, asking him to confirm he is growing “more hesitant every day” to back Trump.
“I said what I said, Chuck. And I'm done talking about this subject,” Kasich concluded with a chuckle.
Kasich also offered a thinly veiled condemnation of Trump’s insinuations about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) wife, Heidi.
“Well, first of all, Chuck, families have to be off-limits,” Kasich said. “I mean, you cannot get these attacks on families. And if this becomes the order of the day, what kind of people are we going to have in the future that are going to run for public office?”
NBC chronicled the evolution of Kasich’s statements about supporting Trump on previous “Meet the Press” appearances. A look at his past comments indeed suggests he has become more equivocal about the possibility of endorsing Trump over time.
In the past, Kasich deflected by flatly denying that Trump will be the nominee.
“We’ve got a long way to go to the nomination. I don’t believe he’ll be the nominee,” Kasich told Todd in January. In March, Kasich said, "It's tough, but he's not going to be the nominee."
The Ohio governor hopes to pick up the nomination in a brokered party convention and vehemently reiterated his argument on Sunday that he is the only Republican candidate who can beat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the general election.
Kasich has yet to win any state aside from Ohio, however.
If Kasich ultimately chooses not to back Trump, he will be joining a growing number of Republican officials who have ruled out endorsing the real estate moul.
Rep. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) said on Thursday he will not vote for Trump under any circumstances -- and notably refused to rule out backing Clinton.
Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.), Reps. Scott Rigell (Va.) and Reid Ribble (Wis.), New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker have all also said they will never support Trump.
Editor's note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims -- 1.6 billion members of an entire religion -- from entering the U.S.
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