Kasich: Primary voters have second thoughts on Trump

Associated Press

GLASTONBURY, Conn.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich told Connecticut residents on Friday he’s seeing signs some Republican presidential primary voters in states that already voted may have second thoughts about supporting front-runner Donald Trump and now want him to be to the party’s nominee instead.

“These polls that show turnarounds and people having buyer’s remorse are very interesting,” Kasich told reporters after a town hall meeting at Glastonbury High School’s gymnasium that drew more than 1,000 people.

He pointed to new polling that shows more New Hampshire primary voters now support him than support Trump, who won that state back in February.

Kasich urged the crowd to help him win some of the state’s 28 delegates at Tuesday’s primary so he can have greater standing at the national convention in July.

“No one is going to have enough delegates, and we’re all going to learn about how we pick a president, and I think it will be very interesting,” Kasich told the crowd. “Make sure that you get out and vote and allow me to win delegates in the district in which you live so I can go to the convention in a strong position.”

Connecticut is one of five states having presidential primaries Tuesday. A Quinnipiac University Poll shows Kasich trailing Trump 48 percent to 28 percent, with 19 percent supporting Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is sending mixed signals on whether he will persist in his pointed critique of Hillary Clinton’s record as some Democrats urge the party to coalesce around the former secretary of state.

Sanders largely gave her a pass Friday, except by implication, as he denounced the thinking behind the Iraq war, which she supported, and warned of the risks of pushing regime change, as he addressed and took questions from a crowd of some 2,000 in a gym in Gettysburg, Pa., with hundreds more in an overflow room.

Clinton has been more muted in her assessment of Sanders since she won a convincing victory in her home state of New York. She briefly mentioned his handling of gun control at an event Friday in a Philadelphia suburb, as she did a day earlier with Connecticut family members of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.

“I voted against it,” she said of a bill to protect gun-makers from legal liability. “My opponent, Senator Sanders voted for it.” She said the bill “has given a really free hand to gunmakers and sellers.” But on both occasions, she resisted wading deeply into his record.