Hidden away in the Washington Post Robert Costa article ‘Looking for a reason to attack’: How Trump seized on a Fox News broadcast to go after Cummings “ (fee site) are quotes which ought to concern Trump.
Every day, you shake your head,” said former Ohio governor John Kasich (R), who says he is considering a 2020 primary challenge of Trump. “Attacking a major city is like nothing we’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen this kind of behavior and rhetoric. And frankly, I’ve never seen so many people just ignore it. It’s shocking.”
Kasich was also critical of his fellow Republicans, almost none of whom publicly condemned the president for his latest round of racially charged tweets: “There is a culture of silence in the party,” he said. “I guess they just want to gulp and get through to tomorrow.”
The freshman Utah senator, who has little to loose unless he’s afraid of retribution from Mitch McConnell, was milquetoasty in his comment: “ ’Another act of political theater,’ Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said, declining to answer whether he agrees with Trump’s charge that Cummings is racist.”
However, he is still is positioned as the most high profile Republican who could be a major thorn in Trump’s side if he decided to primary him. As the 2012 presidential candidate there’s no doubt that Trump would call him “loser Romney” but if that’s the best he can do he would still be facing someone who, like Weld and Kasich who have absolutely no racism and pussy grabbing in their history and who are mentally stable, and to use a word that has lost much of it’s meaning, actually look presidential.
At present only former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld has announced that he is running against Trump in the Republican primaries. Despite having been governor Massachusetts, a blue state, he does not have a national profile.
From Wikipedia: “Kasich unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2000 and 2016 (against Trump), receiving one electoral vote from a faithless elector in Texas in 2016. Kasich refused to support the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and did not attend the 2016Republican National Convention, which was held in his state; he reported that he wrote-in the name of U.S. Senator and former 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain.”
If only Kasich decides to run against Trump along with Weld I can see how Trump will blow this off with a big ho-hum, barely worth a tweet. If Romney is prompted to run, possibly because Kasich has opened the door further, Trump will be forced to pay attention and be in the unseemly position of having to counter-attack moderate Republicans who are painting him as someone unworthy to represent the party of Lincoln and Reagan as they will no doubt do.
Who looks presidential?