Headed to brooklyn. Well see you tomorrow. Until then, we say to you, sayonara. Donald trumps biggest rival is ted cruz. Only one campaign has beaten donald trump over and over again. But john kasich may be trumps biggest problem. Nobody is going to have enough delegates to go to the convention and win on the first ballot. Kasich shouldnt be allowed to continue. The ar the rnc shouldnt allow it. Donald trump has created a toxic environment. Could it give kasich momentum. These people think im going to drop out. Are they nuts . Can be more than a spoiler at the convention. Great leaders dont divide people. They respect the difference that exist in one another. This is an msnbc exclusive
town hall with Governor John Kasich, from the jericho, new york. Here now is chris matthews. Good evening, and welcome to an msnbc exclusive town hall. Please welcome tonight for the full hour, Ohio Governor and republican president ial candidate, john kasich. Thank you. Thank you, governor. Two days ago in new york, with the republican womens club, you talked about fear and anger out there and how certain candidates, you have been exploiting it for their own fame to gain attention. What were you talking about . Who were you talking about . I was talking about trump and cruz primarily. Well, i mean thats what i was
talking about. You werent saying that then, but now youre saying it. Here, look, here is some of the menu theyve offered. Surveillance over neighborhoods. Ban on a religious test. Nuclear weapons in europe and were going to, you know, get rid of nato, let russia kind of run europe, where i mean, and here is the problem. Chris, what bothers me, do we have problems . Yeah. Of course we do. People worried about their jobs, worried they dont have good wages. They dont get interest in the bank. Their kid went to school and still living with them. Cant find a job. I mean, seriously, cant find a job. And now are those a serious problem as the depression . Is the second world war, the attacks 9 11, i dont think so. Theyre serious. But you can either get people
and drive them into a ditch and feed on their anxiety, gnashing of teeth, you know, this person did this to me, or you can walk into a room and you can acknowledge the problems, and you can try to give people an answer. Have a little hope. Tell them they can be solved. They can be fixed. Theyre not even that difficult to fix. Its just people have to remember, theyre americans before republicans and democrats, and we have to fix the country. Thats all. So the fear is real. The anger is real. Why are they all voting 15 million people, if you count up all the votes in the primaries, cruz and trump. Why are they getting the votes . Look, i grew up in a blue collar neighborhood as you know. I understand these fears. Frankly, people think if a politicians lips are moving, theyre lying. And so its been incumbent on
me, people say why does he keep talking about his record. I talk about my record, because i think if you can show you did it a couple of times, you actually fixed things, then you have credibility for doing it the third time. And but i think people have just kind of had it. Here is another thing they say. I hate political correctness. I get that. But we dont want to like get rude. You know, thats not where the country should head. And i tell you, theyve got all the publicity too. Trump, are you kidding me . He was up there all the time. He just caught a wave. I think it was the first debate. I said dont dismiss what this guy says. Its serious. But, but, i think now that people are beginning to hear a little bit of a message that we have, we continued to do better. And they still, here is the way it looks like now on the three man race, coke, pepsi and kasich, okay. Whats selling . Well, youre not supposed to
clap for that. Youre supposed to cry when i say that. The other part of it is now like coke, pepsi, kasich, and youre shopping with your spouse, and youre looking at what youre going to buy, and people are beginning to realize, there is this uncola called kasich, but they still dont know enough about me. And so ive been playing from behind the whole time. Its amazing, im still standing. There were 17 of us and were down to three. Lets talk about were not going to get rid of fear or anger. Its justified. How does john kasich, the third brand, deal with lets talk about a couple of things. Is illegal immigration, mainly from latin america, is that a real problem or not . I think it is. What are you going to do about it . We need to make sure in 86, reagan had a plan. I know. It was never enforced. It wasnt enforced. Weve got to ep force it. Weve got to say you cant walk into the country willynilly. We lock our doors at night. They shouldnt be able to walk into our country. It is an issue it is an issue of law. It is also becoming more a National Security issue. Lets control the border. Then we can have a guest worker program, people come in, work and go back. And for the 11. 5 million here, were not going to yank them out of their homan e and deporting them. Were probably not going to deport 12 million people. There is probably a fellow down there, he hears about a job, i got a job up here in chicago. You get up here, you get a job. Its below the counter, off the books. As long as people hire people illegally in this country, people will come here i will he will illegally. You get here. Thats right. What are we going to do about the businessman . Are we going to put him in jail . Hold him accountable. How do we do that . I tell you what you do, you fine them. You think that is going to stop them . Let me tell you something, Small Businesses, construction industry, service industry, there is not big margins. They work on small margins. And we just have to have a system that says do you like e verify. From what i know about it. Let me tell you this. We pay our taxes, i already paid my last week, okay. Were going to pay our taxes. Why do people pay their taxes. They have a sense if they dont, they might get caught. Theyre honest. Im saying were driving at, what would keep people why would you have compliance. There is a sense i dont want the irs coming after me. People feel they have to pay their taxes. Most employs dont want to hire illegals. You put a consequence. They dont want to hire illegals. Most dont. Come on. They dont . Why do they do it . Msnbc, do you hire illegals . No, im asking you. Im asking. Is that a charge . Is that i a charge . Yeah, its a charge. What is your basis for making that charge. I talked to people, they told me thats whats going on. Lets get back to serious. Most employers wouldnt want to do that. Some do. Compliance, where they know there is a why did your party not pass the reform bill, which had everify in it, a whole good stuff, senators backed it and the House Speaker wouldnt bring it up . Boehner wouldnt even bring it to a vote. Can i answer . Because im not president. Because im not president. If i were president , they would bring it up. If you were speaker would you
have brought it up. Would you bring up votes if most people wanted to vote for it . I would say look, im not speaker, but i was budget chairman. No, i want to know why we cant get stuff done. You know why . Because everybody is polarized. Including your party. So the president does these executive orders, bypasses congress, bad idea. Maybe because he cant get a vote in congress. Can i finish this train of thought . Blame the other party. When in fact, your party wont bring the matters to a vote. You didnt let me finish. I think you did, but go ahead. Here is what i was saying. The president did these things, but then we had a republican, who went to the state of the union, and when the president of the United States was talking, he shouted, you lie, okay. I know. Its on both houses. You know, first of all, i said were americans before republicans and democrats. You know one of my 16yearold
daughter said the other night. We live in the United States of america, not in the divided states of america. The fact is, its leadership, chris. Its leadership. Lets get the sequence right. Im not here to defend obama on this. But he did it after the republican speaker wouldnt bring up a comprehensive immigration bill. So we get this thing behind us. Chris, look, ive got to tell you. For a long time now, they have not been able to communicate. I agree with that what happened . Why did it stop . Im going to tell you a good story that has never been told before. I got a called from boehner. He said i want you come play golf with the president and Vice President. Biden has been out there for two hours practicing, and he is all lathered up and everything. Boehner takes obama, i take biden. After the first hole, i never saw joe. He is in the woods the whole time. See what youre doing here . I love biden, okay. He is a good guy. I dont agree with him, but i
like him. Say this about him, that guy has been through some hell with the loss of his son. I know. With the accident where he lost his wife. And i think a child, i mean, and he has been a great public servant. I dont agree with him, but i like him. So we get done playing, and were supposedly having a soft drink, but we were drinking beer. Lets be clear about it. I looked at john boehner, i said boehner, can you believe it . Youre the speaker of the house. Your dad owned a bar. You had like, i dont know how many brothers and sister, and youre the speaker. Give me a break. I said joe, you, Vice President , are you kidding me . Then i looked at i said, and me, you know, im the governor of ohio. Me . The governor . You, you, mr. President , you. Come on. I said clearly, the lord wanted us to be here. So we better do something while were here. And the president looked at boehner and he said you come down to the white house and well Start Talking about the
budget. Right after that, they started talking. Now, the thing fell apart. I dont know why it fell apart. But there was a moment there where there was a connection. And you know what, chris . You know this from the experience you had where there is a will, there is a way. We have to get people to rise their performance to a level where they want to help america. They want to fix social security, create economic growth. Thats what you do. Youve been very clear in the last two days, especially with the republican womens group about their two paths to the party they could take, one is the dark path and one is your path. It reminded me of robert frost, we all learned that in school. But the problem is, youre taking the road less traveled by. Youre taking a road of openness and negotiation, and most of the voters out there in your party, 15 million i said, 3 million voted for you so far, how do you come out ahead at the convention . How do you get out and become
the nominee between now and july . Im studying how lincoln got there. He was fourth and he got picked, but. I know. I knew lincoln. Gotcha. I almost sold that on ted, but i stopped. I knew reagan. But chris, look. We keep talking about the primary. Now, you win a primary, you lose a general, whats the point . Do you hang a certificate on your wall . Im the only one that consistently beats hillary. Yesterday, did you see the little thing they did, 40,000 people they surveyed and did the electorate college. Hillary beat cruz and trump and i beat her. You know the reason. Look, the reason is, you know, look, the reason, i can appeal to the blue collar workers, and i can appeal to the independents or my team can. And we have a proven record of success of solving problems. I dont want to operate in the negative. Look, you go into claef laev its in your state. Without ohio, it wont happen. Youre obviously the road to that. But you get to the convention, suppose trump doesnt get 1,100, he is nowhere near, he doesnt get the gimme. He is not going to. Okay, thats the first step for you getting the nomination. You get there, and trump makes speeches, which he has already begun to make. It has been fixed or im walking. Third party, we dont know what hell do. Hell blow his stack. Ill say it to you now. Democracy. He got the most votes. Shun shouldnt he be the nominee. Great point. How do you fight democracy. Only one problem with that. We know that to get an a, you immedia need to make a 90. Someone makes an 83, i should get an a. You didnt get to 90. Why do you apply that rule when in every sport we fight in the country, the team who gets the most point wins. The Baseball Team wins. Once you finish the 4 quarter, were not done yet. How do you explain because because every election has been held in this country, they dont say you didnt get 33 million. All you have to get is one more vote than the other guy. You heard of this thing called the electoral college. Yes. I can throw that argument right back oon you. You think you can beat the word democracy. Thats al gores argument. Bush won. I think the democrats are more docile than the people for trump. We lost, were going home. I dont think theyre going to be like that. Look, let me tell you something. There are people who are trump
who are really not for trump, you know that, here in new york, you know. I dont know that. Yeah, you do. What . What is this big conversion . You get to cleveland, all the delegates got there because of trump or cruz, theyre going to Say Something has come over here, kasich. Kasich. Im going to vote for kasich. How is that going to happen . Im going to tell you how its going to happen. First of all, the trump voters are comfortable with me and the more they know me, the more they like me. I grew up more like them than trump did. Thats an argument. No. You havent convinced them. They dont know me yet, chris. When are they going to know you . Its april were getting close. Remember, the coke, pepsi, kasich. People are getting to say, lady came up to me in new york last saturday, i need to take a picture with you. I said why is that. She said well, i was for kasich before it was cool to be for kasich. And thats starting to turn. Now, let me tell you what happens up there. When people become delegates, they assume there is a gravity that sets in. They realize theyre picking someone who can be president and somebody who has to win. Yeah. And i think at the end of the day, when theyre there, they take on a different role, and who are the delegates going to be . A lot of them who work the in the party vineyards for 40 years. And so i think its very possible. Now, it would be up to me to overrule the voters. Were not overruling anybody. Youve got to get the magic number. What are you kidding me. I made my point. You answered the question. You didnt make a very good point. I made a better point. You know im ready to do this. Im letting you do this. Lets go to the first question. Lets go from the audience, the people here. Hi, my name is steve young, welcome to jericho. I am a local resident. Chris matthews has trump, i dont want too say trump, but he has trump, by what i was going to ask, because youre talking a lot about the number of votes. Process. And all of that, and you know, i hate to say it, but a lot of us coke drinkers are not going to switch to the uncola, and thats why coke is so popular. Dont you feel at some point that you have responsibility to voters to be to recognize the fact that theyre not voting for you . I know you keep saying and im listening to you say people jumping on your bandwagon. What if they dont . Are you going to be comfortable going into a convention, it looks like it will be chaotic, a problem. Who told you that . The media. They havent been right about one thing theyve said since the election got going. But any way, look, let me answer the question. Im watching primary results. I will tell you, i was very interested in your campaign from day one, youre not new to this. And it just hasnt resonated. And at some point, i mean, who told you, you know, that all that popular now, when the vote, were looking at the new york polls and your voters really not is where it needs to be at some point, are you going to recognize that, because i do think that there is some responsibility to democracy. Let me tell you what the responsibility is. It is to run for an office and give People Solutions and lift them. The responsibility is not to talk about dividing people, gnashing teeth, turning them against one another. I will not participate in that, okay, sir. Now, now, now, let me tell you this. If i dont win, ill be a gentleman. Im not going to say to my people are going to walk out. Im not going to say any of the things that ive heard said,
either by him or by other people. You see, are its important that people hear the message that they matter. That they have a god given purpose. They need to solve problems in their neighborhoods. Come to the town halless as and what happens there. A message of negativity, i want to give them a message of hope. You know what . Were in new york. There was this guy, he once said one time, it aint over until its over. His name happened to be yogi berra, but thank you. Thank you. I think you made your point. I just want to tell you, i really appreciate the way youre approaching this. However, we also need to look at the vote. So thank you. God bless you. I appreciate you. See you in cleveland. How did you like that . Much more ahead, including questions from the audience here at the town meeting, town hall
with governor kasich continues here on msnbc. Stay with us. Ive been wbr id wbr12708 blind since birth. I go through periods where its hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. Learn about non24 by calling 8448442424. Or visit my24info. Com. How fast is it . Plenty fast. But wbr id wbr13006 its not how fast you mow, its how well you mow fast. Its not how fast you mow, its how well you mow fast. b
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