In his first nationally televised interview since exiting the 2016 GOP presidential race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he hasn’t decided whether to endorse presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump yet, but that he’s not planning to launch a third-party presidential bid and he’s not inclined to be Mr. Trump’s running mate.
“At the end of the day, endorsing is going to mean a lot, and frankly, my wife and my daughters have watched this,” Mr. Kasich said in an interview that aired Monday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“And if I were to turn around today and endorse him, they’d be like, ’Why, Dad?’ ” he said. “And that matters to me. We’ll see what he does. He has a chance to move to the positive side and unify this country.”
Mr. Kasich, who had tried to stay above the fray in the 2016 GOP race, was the last Republican standing against Mr. Trump and dropped out a day after the May 3 Indiana primary.
The governor said he’s had a phone call with somebody who wanted him to consider a third-party run but said he’s not going to do that.
“I gave it my best where I am,” Mr. Kasich said.” “I just think running third party doesn’t feel right. I think it’s not constructive.”
Mr. Kasich routinely batted away talk of being someone’s running mate while still in the race, and he said he’s “not inclined” to be Mr. Trump’s vice presidential candidate.
“It would be very hard for me, unless he were to change all of his views and become a uniter, for me to get in the middle of this thing,” he said.
Mr. Kasich’s lone win of the GOP primary race came in his home state of Ohio. For the last month and a half or so of his campaign, he found himself in fourth place in a three-person contest in terms of delegates, sitting behind Mr. Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida in the delegate count even though Mr. Rubio ended his own bid in mid-March.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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