Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Wednesday that he would have fired Donald Trump’s campaign manager after video emerged of his altercation with a reporter and that he has not yet decided whether he could support the GOP frontrunner as the party’s presidential nominee.
“Now I heard there is a video I would have gotten rid of him. Period,” Kasich told NBC News’ Chuck Todd during a town hall conversation airing Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
Corey Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery on Tuesday for allegedly grabbing a reporter attempting to ask Trump a question at an event earlier this month. A video released by Florida police shows that the political operative made physical contact with the reporter.
Kasich, who is last among the three remaining GOP candidates in delegates, said he has not yet decided if he would back Trump if he becomes the party’s presidential nominee.
“I have two 16-year-old twin daughters. And if he happened to be the nominee, I would have to tell them why I would endorse him if I did,” Kasich said.
The two-term governor said Trump has “driven people further and further into gloom and doom” and that he does not believe the real estate mogul will amass the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination before the convention.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, and honestly, I don’t think he’s going to be the nominee,” Kasich said.
Throughout his campaign, Kasich has wavered on questions about whether or not he would support a possible Trump nomination. He has said he “reviews it every day” based on Trump’s often unpredictable behavior.
Trump and Cruz also continue to hint they would not support a Republican National Committee pledge to back the eventual nominee. Cruz has said he is “not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife” after a recent Twitter feud that involved both of their spouses. Trump said during a CNN town hall Tuesday that Cruz “doesn’t have to support me.”
Despite Kasich’s delegate deficit and the fact he has won just his home state of Ohio, the governor continues to tout his viability in a contested GOP convention taking place Cleveland in July. He has said delegates will need to look at who can beat Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and who can run the country. Those, Kasich said, are areas where he can pull ahead of Cruz and Trump.
He dismissed the suggestion by fellow Ohioan and former House Speaker John Boehner that an outside candidate should be selected if no one secures the nomination in the first ballot of voting, saying his former colleague was caught “in a weak moment.”
“It will be up to the delegates, but since I’m one of the three still in, I think it should be one of us,” Kasich said. “I’m just kidding.”
He also seemed to slam the door shut on a possible vice presidential nomination.
“I would be the worst vice president anybody ever had,” Kasich said. “Trust me.”
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
