Kasich to Trump supporter: We shouldn’t 'divide people'
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — “I am a Trump supporter, and every time you call Mr. Trump a racist, you’re calling me a racist. And every time you call Mr. Trump crazy, you’re calling me crazy.”
The first audience question to John Kasich at a forum in South Carolina on Tuesday sent grumbles through the gathering of 140 people, two hours north of where Donald Trump’s Muslim immigration remarks drew a 24-second standing ovation on Monday evening. An audience member called out that the questioner was indeed a racist and crazy, later saying something about fascism.
Kasich, standing next to the questioner, told her he hadn’t called anyone racist and he opposed the “politics of division.” The audience members, clearly not Trump supporters, applauded.
Kasich, who has spent much of the last several weeks criticizing Trump’s ideas and rhetoric, insists the New York billionaire won’t win the GOP nomination. But the exchange highlighted the division that wracks the Republican Party’s voter base and the challenge for a more moderate candidate like Kasich to win over a majority of the GOP’s voters in early primary states such as South Carolina.
Trump on Monday called for a ban on immigration by Muslims, igniting a firestorm of criticism from some GOP candidates and political leaders.
On Tuesday, at a forum hosted by South Carolina’s attorney general, Kasich’s questioner defended the stance.
“This is only a temporary fix, just now,” she said. “New Year’s is coming up. Christmas is coming up. I have a family of Muslim friends in New York. … They’re afraid to go to Times Square themselves. They are for Mr. Trump.” Eventually, a moderator cut her off.
“I don’t believe that we should be dividing people,” Kasich said, “calling names of Hispanics, calling names and insulting Muslims who are moderate and as outraged as all of us are about the attacks in California and Paris. I don’t think we should be insulting women and calling them names. And I don’t think we should build databases on people, because all that does is divide the country. “
“The politics of division weaken our country.”
On Tuesday, Kasich told reporters he had led the GOP in calling out Trump’s “unacceptable” positions. Now, he said, people are “beginning to wake up.”
“To those that support him, that’s their choice,” Kasich said. “I don’t need to go give them a lecture. They’ll figure it out.”
Thompson reports for the Cincinnati Enquirer.