Rick Santorum admonished Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday for not casting a vote for Donald Trump despite signing a loyalty pledge last year to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee.
Mr. Kasich, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in May, cast a write-in vote on Monday for 2008 Republican nominee John McCain, instead of choosing one of the existing candidates on the ballot. The symbolic vote fulfilled his promise last month to abandon Mr. Trump in light of a 2005 recording of the business mogul talking on a hot mic about groping women, but it went back on a “loyalty pledge” that he signed last year promising to support the party’s nominee, “regardless of who it is.”
Mr. Santorum said he’s “not happy” with Mr. Kasich’s decision.
“I want to say to John Kasich, if you’re watching, John you signed a pledge,” the former Pennsylvania senator told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. “You signed a pledge saying you would support the Republican nominee for president. You signed a pledge in order to get on the ballot in South Carolina.
“You can’t say a man who is not going to keep his word is someone, frankly, who should be paid attention to when it comes to how he’s going to vote. John, you’re better than that,” he continued. “You wouldn’t have been on the ballot, you wouldn’t have been able to run for president had you not signed that pledge.”
“I’m going to tell your kids and grandkids that you signed a pledge, you gave your word to be president of the United States and you backed away from it. Shame on them,” he said, also referring to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who said Tuesday that he had voted for the party’s nominee without mention Mr. Trump by name.
Mr. Santorum said he’s uncomfortable with some of the things that Mr. Trump has said and done, but that doesn’t outweigh his concerns about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I don’t want my daughters to emulate Hillary Clinton either,” he said. “This is someone who I find, not just on character, deeply flawed, but also on public policy. See, it comes down to one of them is going to be president. They’re not going to be head of the garden club.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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