Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) said that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is “following the same format that he did in 2020,” predicting that Democratic rival Kamala Harris could win the White House race if Trump keeps singing the same old tune.
“If this gets to be a battle between personality, his personality versus hers, he’s going to lose that,” Kasich said in a Friday appearance on MSNBC. “If it’s a battle on ideology and records, he’s got a shot to win that.”
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Kasich — a Trump critic who once faced him in the 2016 Republican primaries — said that the former president is “so interested in all the cheers and everything from his people. But I just have never thought that you win elections by just going to your base and not being able to reach out to other people.”
When asked if the Trump campaign has an opportunity “to win this election by trying to appeal to the middle of America,” Kasich suggested that it “just makes total sense” to look beyond the GOP base.
“If all you’re trying to do is deal with your base, what about those undecided voters, particularly in these battleground states where the race is so close?” Kasich said.
A Cook Political Report survey released Wednesday shows Harris either leading or tied with Trump in six of seven battleground states.
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Kasich noted that Democrats, however, have a “vulnerability” in their messaging when it comes to pushing a vision for the future, asking, “Where’ve they been in the last three years?”
But he said that “Trump is not taking advantage of any of it.”
Kasich added: “He gets bored with things that are critical here. So that’s why he gets off script.”
