Trump: "RNC shouldn't allow" Kasich to stay in race
Donald Trump is pushing for the Republican National Committee (RNC) to disqualify John Kasich from the party's primary race, calling it "unfair" that the Ohio governor is continuing his presidential bid with just one state win under his belt.
"Kasich shouldn't be allowed to continue and the RNC shouldn't allow him to continue," Trump told reporters Sunday at a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. "And Kasich has more of an impact on me than he does on Cruz, in my opinion."
"I mentioned it to the RNC," he added. "I said, why is a guy allowed to run? All he's doing is just he goes from place to place, and loses, and he keeps from running...He doesn't have to run and take my votes. Because he's taking my votes. He's not taking Cruz's votes."
When asked under what grounds Kasich ought to be barred from the race, Trump ticked off a list of his former opponents: "Under the grounds that Rand Paul could've stayed in and he had nothing, Marco Rubio could have stayed in, Jeb Bush could have stayed in. They all could have stayed in. They could have just stayed in. That's all he's doing. He's one for 29."
Referring to Kasich's one state win in Ohio, where he serves as governor, Trump said that if he had "spent one more day" in the Midwestern state, "I would have beaten him cause I came pretty close."
Last month, Kasich won Ohio with an 11-point advantage, earning all of the state's 66 delegates.
Later, the GOP front-runner suggested that he would not be opposed to Kasich having his name still up for a vote in at the Republicans' summer convention.
"Other people were doing much better than Kasich and they left the race because they knew they couldn't win," Trump said. "Now, if he wants to have his name put in, which is what he's looking to do because he can't win he's so far behind, but if he wanted to have his name put in he could have his name put in."
Trump, who took questions from the press as he sat down to eat a meal at a Milwaukee diner, aired one other complaint about the nomination process: that the number needed to guarantee his name on the party's ticket -- 1,237 delegates -- presented an unfair obstacle.
"It's very unfair, the 1,237," he said, though he assured reporters that that "I think I'll get there."
"What's unfair is this -- we had 17 candidates," Trump added. "Those early states, there were so many people."
Earlier on Sunday, RNC chair Reince Priebus defended the nomination process on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"You have to have a majority," Priebus said. "There's nothing that's going to change that rule. A majority of delegates is needed. Just like it was for Abe Lincoln in 1860. It's needed today...That's not gonna change."
Trump, a New York real estate mogul, is campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of the state's Tuesday primary, where 42 delegates are up for grabs. According to a recent CBS News poll, Trump trails Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by a six-point margin in the state.