Tuesday at the Women’s National Republican Club in New York, without naming names but emphasizing policy, Republican presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) targeted his rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Donald Trump’s campaigns as both a “path to darkness.”
Kasich said, “From the fog of anxiety, the seemingly endless choices can be reduced and then reduced again and reduced again and they eventually are whittled down to just two. And here they are. Will we turn our backs on the ideals of America that have seen us through for more than two centuries; or, are we going to reaffirm that America is, in Ronald Reagan’s words, ‘This last best hope for man on Earth?’”
He continued, “Some who feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us and exploit it feed their own insatiable desire for fame or attention. That could drive America down into a ditch, not make us great again. Just as disturbing are the solutions they offer, we have heard proposals to create a religious tests for immigration, to targeted neighborhoods for surveillance, to deport eleven-and-a-half million people, to impose draconian tariffs which would crush trade and destroy American jobs. We have heard proposals to drop out of NATO, abandon Europe to Russia, possibly use nuclear weapons in Europe, end our defense partnerships in Asia and tell our Middle East allies that they have to go it alone. We have been offered hollow promises to impose a value added tax, balance budgets through simple and whimsical cuts of waste, fraud and abuse. There is no office that has the title of waste, fraud and abuse. We have been promised that unpopular laws shall be repealed simply through the will of a strong man in the White House. I have stood on a stage and watched with amazement as candidates wallowed in the mud, viciously attacked one another, called each other liars and disparaged each other’s character. Those who continuously push that type of behavior are not worthy of the office they are seeking,”
He added, “I say to you—this path to darkness is the antithesis of all that America has meant for 240 years.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN