John Kasich guarantees brokered GOP convention
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has a message for everyone who's worrying that Donald Trump is close to securing the 1,237 delegates he needs to win Republican nomination outright: it's not going to happen, for him nor any other candidate.
"Nobody's going to have the delegates they need going to the convention," he said. "Everyone will fall short."
He said said once the delegates arrive in Cleveland, they'll focus on which candidate has the best chance of winning in November.
"We will go into Cleveland with momentum and then the delegates are going to consider two things: Number one, who can win in the fall--and I'm the only one that can, that's what the polls indicate," he said. "And number two, a really crazy consideration, like who could actually be president of the United States."
At the convention itself, Kasich noted that the candidate who goes in with the most delegates hasn't historically been the one to get the nomination most of the time.
"If you go in way ahead you're likely to be picked, but what's interesting is in the 10 contested Republican conventions, did you know that the leader going in only got picked three times?" he asked.
As for the candidates who have suggested the Ohio governor should get out of the race to avoid playing spoiler -- namely, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- Kasich responded: why don't those candidates drop out instead?
"Nobody is calling me directly and asking me to drop out," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Wait a minute--why don't they drop out? I'm the one who can win in the fall."
He said Cruz needs 80 percent of the remaining delegates in order to get to 1,237, which he said is "not going to happen," and noted establishment figures have been pushing him to step aside for a while now.
"You know what's interesting? Some of those very same people wanted me to get out of the race and they wanted to get behind Rubio," he said. "What happened? Rubio's out, I'm in. Now they want me to get out? Listen, these are the same establishment people that have been fighting me my entire political career."
Kasich also took a veiled shot at Cruz's experience, referring to Republicans' frustration with President Obama as a first-term senator without much experience back in 2008. (Cruz, a first-term senator, was elected in 2012.)
"This party has run around for seven years saying how is it that we elected a one-term United States Senator to be president who's never had the experience," he said. "Whatever happened to that?"
The Ohio governor called GOP front-runner Donald Trump's suggestion that there would be riots if he doesn't get the nomination "outrageous," condemning the violence Trump has seemingly incited at his rallies across the country.
"When he says that there could be riots, that's inappropriate," Kasich said. "I think you understand that, okay? Secondly, while we have our differences and disagreements, we're Americans. Americans don't say, 'Let's take to the streets and have violence.'"
Kasich also said in the interview that Senate Republicans should meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, though he later clarified that he was only making "an effort to be polite."