Just days before the Wisconsin primary on April 5, Donald Trump said that John Kasich should exit the Republican race, because without Kasich, he would get an “automatic win.”
Kasich took to a campaign trail himself to argue his case more directly: “I’m going to get a heck of a lot of his voters, OK. That’s what’s going to happen.”
Kasich’s campaign has also responded with biting sarcasm, “Since he thinks it’s such a good idea, we look forward to Trump dropping out before the convention,” said Kasich spokesman Chris Schrimpf.
Trump’s argument was that Kasich keeps losing: “He goes from place to place, and loses, and he keeps on running.”
Kasich has acknowledged that a path to the Republican nomination can only be reached through a contested convention, and with 143 delegates, he trails Cruz with by over 300 delegates and trails Trump by over 500.
Trump isn’t the only candidate to call for Kasich to drop out of the race. Ted Cruz has said that Kasich should drop out of the race so that he can take on Trump one-on-one.
Kasich responded by calling it “absurd”:
“It’s absurd,” Kasich said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Let [anti-Trump voters] consolidate behind me because, frankly, I’m the one that can win in the fall. And I’m the one that can get the crossover vote.”
The Governor from Ohio has only won his home state of Ohio, and has been courting moderate voters in Wisconsin and New York leading up to the primaries.
