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Even as he said Pope Francis has “brought more sense of hope and more about the dos in life than the don’ts, Republican presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Thursday the United States has “a right to build a wall” across the Mexican border to curb illegal immigration.
On a day in which Pope Francis provoked a political firestorm when he suggested New York billionaire Donald Trump could not be a Christian while simultaneously building a wall across the border, Kasich said while he would control the border with either a wall or other technologies, he said “there are too many walls between us.”
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KASICH MEETS NIXON
During Thursday's debate, John Kasich talked about meeting Richard Nixon when he was a student at Ohio State in 1970. Here's our story on that classic meeting, with photos.
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“We need bridges between us if we’re going to fix the problems in Washington because all they do is have walls,” Kasich said a CNN town hall meeting in South Carolina two days before the state holds its Republican presidential primary.
Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Trump appeared separately to be questioned by CNN commentator Anderson Cooper and people in the audience. A day earlier in South Carolina, CNN hosted a separate event for the other three Republican presidential contenders – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
The town hall meetings were the last time voters in this crucial primary state had a chance to see all the candidates on stages. Although Trump is heavily favored to win the state, Kasich hopes a strong finish will propel him forward to next month’s primaries in Michigan and Ohio.
Trump, as he has throughout the campaign, was the dominant theme because of his heated exchange earlier in the day with the pope. On a plane flight returning to Rome from a visit to Mexico, the pope, in a clear reference to Trump, said “a person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not in the Gospel.”
By injecting himself in the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis placed Kasich and other GOP contenders in an awkward position of either disagreeing publicly with the pope or defending Trump for proposing a wall.
In the town hall meeting, Kasich tried to walk a delicate line, saying “I’m pro-pope. Put me down in the pro-pope column.” But he also made clear the next president will have to deal with controlling the Mexican border.
Earlier in the day at Clemson University, Kasich told reporters while he loves the pope, said he heard the pope’s “whole quote” about Trump and “I don’t think that’s what he said.”
“The pope’s made a lot of controversial statements like, ‘Who am I to judge?’ ’’ Kasich said. “I don’t know under the context of which he said it, but he’s not a guy who’s been running around wondering who’s pure and who’s not. So if he said that, I’m sure he would regret having said that. Because it’s not up to any of us to judge who’s good and who’s bad.”
“The pope, in terms of his overall message, has been one of love and compassion,” Kasich said. “I don’t take anything away from the pope. And frankly in many respects I’m not even sure I’m qualified to criticize or comment on remarks from this man. He’s been a remarkable man in bringing lots of people together in this world.”
As people in the hall posed questions to Kasich, he replied to questions about the Islamic State militants, sexual violence against women, and mixing religion and politics with his customary command of the facts.
At one point, he was asked if would nominate a Supreme Court justice who ruled on “their moral convictions,” Kasich said he would seek a conservative who would “interpret the law” as opposed to making law.
But Kasich also said if he has to “decide something, I’m not turning to the Scripture to figure it out,” although he acknowledged his faith could “influence some of the ways you look at things. For example, with the women … who have been human trafficked, or the issue of mental illness.”
“But, at the end, when you’re in public office you’re not really there to be a preacher, you are there to be a public official, and that’s the way it ought to be if you’re on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Kasich said.
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