Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) isn't ready to turn his back on the Republican Party just yet, but told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday that he won't remain part of the GOP if it stays on its current path.
"If the party can't be fixed, Jake, then I'm not going to be able to support the party," he said on Tapper's show State of the Union. "Period. That's the end of it." Kasich, an outspoken critic of President Trump, wants the GOP to stop bending to the will of the nationalist wing, and for the "party to be straightened out."
The public is unhappy with Republicans and Democrats alike, he said, and they want a return to the center. "What I'm trying to do is struggle for the soul of the Republican Party the way that I see it," he said. "And I have a right to define it, but I'm not going to support people who are dividers." That includes right-wing Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore, who as a judge was twice removed from the bench for ignoring federal rulings and has made inflammatory statements regarding race and sexuality. "I don't run the party," Kasich said. "I can tell you, for me, I don't support that. I couldn't vote for that."
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