Trump stands by campaign rhetoric, calls Kasich a ‘baby’

Associated Press

BLOOMINGTON, ILL.

Showing few signs of trying to ease the nation’s tense political atmosphere, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is standing by his antagonistic campaign rhetoric, rejecting any responsibility for violence at his rallies and defending his supporters who have been charged with assaulting protesters.

“We’re not provoking. We want peace. ... We don’t want trouble,” he told a large crowd in Bloomington, Ill., the first of two comparatively docile events Sunday as he campaigns ahead of another critical slate of large-state primaries.

Trump’s three-state schedule, which was to end Sunday evening in Florida, also comes less than 48 hours before polls open in a five-state slate that could determine whether he wins the GOP nomination without a contested summer convention.

Against that backdrop, Trump continued to blame protesters, media and even Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for the increasingly caustic campaign environment that his rivals assailed as “cause for pause” and certain “to do damage to America.”

He’s tried since Chicago to shift focus to Ohio, where he faces a late push from the popular governor, John Kasich. The outcome will help determine whether Trump can reach the 1,237 delegates required for nomination and avoid a contested GOP convention this summer in Cleveland.

“If we can win Ohio, we’re going to run the table, folks,” Trump said in West Chester, Ohio, his second event Sunday.

At an earlier stop this weekend, Trump aimed directly at Kasich, calling him “a baby” and deliberately mispronouncing the governor’s Czech surname.

“He’s not the right guy to be president. He’s not tough enough, he’s not sharp enough,” Trump said at an event outside Dayton.

In line with his protectionist economic pitch, Trump noted Kasich’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement as a member of Congress in the 1990s.

He went on to incorrectly identify the governor as KASE-itch. “Like, most people don’t even know how to pronounce his name. Kase-ick! Kase-ick!” Trump mocked. “He cannot do the job, folks. He’s not your president.”

Kasich, meanwhile, reversed his months-long practice of avoiding the topic of Trump.

Speaking with The Associated Press aboard his campaign bus between stops in Ohio, Kasich brandished his iPad and read a list of Trump quotes compiled by an aide.

The quotes included Trump’s comments that his audiences should “hit back” a little more and a statement that he’d like to punch a protester in the face. In all, he read roughly a dozen quotes.

Kasich says the “toxic” tone Trump has created makes it even more important for him to win Ohio, adding of Trump, “this is not what Ohio goes for.”