Ohio Gov. John Kasich holds Reince Priebus to blame for Donald Trump's ascendance, after the GOP chairman called the race for the Republican nomination for Trump following the May 3 Indiana primary, even though Kasich was still running.
Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted after the Indiana voting and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's decision to quit the race:
"What Priebus did was dead wrong, after Indiana, declaring Trump the nominee," Kasich told
The Washington Post. "I was still in it and I think he dissed me, and I think it's inappropriate."
"I haven't spoken to him. I don't think there's any point to it. I don't even understand what he was doing," Kasich said. "It was amateur hour for him."
Kasich dropped out the next day, having won only his home state of Ohio in the primaries. A Priebus spokesman defended the comment, saying the chairman was just expressing "simple math."
Despite leaving the race, Kasich still does well in polling against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. A recent
NBC News survey shows Kasich getting 50 percent to Clinton' s 42 percent of registered voters.
Clinton leads Trump 48 percent to 43 percent, the NBC/Survey Monkey weekly tracking poll shows. Against Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Clinton does slightly worse, tying with Romney and slightly trailing Ryan.
Kasich would pull in 15 percent of Democrats, more than either Ryan or Romney, and would swing almost six-out-of-10 independents to his side.
Last week, speaking at a Trump rally in Cincinnati, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called on Kasich to support the New York billionaire.
"By the way, your governor is a good friend of mine," Gingrich told the crowd, according to the
Washington Examiner. "Although it's about time he got on the Trump bandwagon."
Kasich won't attend the GOP convention, even though it is being held in Cleveland, and hasn't endorsed Trump. The Post said he has no plans to even set foot inside the convention hall.
"I'm just doing what I think is the right thing to do, based on my campaign, what I feel about the country, reflecting the views of my family," Kasich told the Post. "I'll navigate through it."
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