As Donald Trump continues to lead the Republican field, fellow presidential candidate Governor John Kasich (R-OH) is focusing his fire back on the real estate mogul. In a campaign ad released last week, Colonel Tom Moe paraphrased the famous poem, “First they came.” The poem was written by German Pastor Martin Niemöller about the Nazis’ targeting of select groups and the lack of response by others. The poem asks who will save the reader if everyone else is gone.
Col. Moe adapted the poem for the various groups Trump has gone after– black protesters, journalists, Hispanics, and Muslims. On ABC’s This Week, Kasich defended the ad, saying, “These are his words. He feels very strongly about a man who divides us.”
However, Kasich jumped around the issue of making the Trump-Nazi comparison himself. When host Martha Raddatz asked, Kasich said, “Well, but it’s his [Moe’s] words.”
Kasich then went on to say that Trump will not win the endorsement when Raddatz asked him about supporting a potential nominee Trump. “Well, he’s not going to be the nominee, Martha, because, at the end, look, he may have 20 percent of the vote. But he’s got 80 percent of Republicans who don’t support him,” Kasich said.