CLEVELAND ― Donald Trump on Monday suggested he was in part responsible for bringing the Republican National Convention to Ohio ― something decided months before he launched his presidential campaign.
Trump made the comments on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News while discussing Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who has said he wouldn’t speak at the convention. Kasich told NBC’s Lester Holt that Trump would have to change “everything that he says” before he would consider speaking at the event.
Trump said Kasich was neglecting his own state by not showing up.
“From a standpoint of honor, I think he should show up,” Trump said. “I also think this: If this were the Democratic convention, I think he should show up because it’s good for Ohio. I wanted it to be in Ohio, I wanted it to be here. We had lots of choices. I wanted it to be in Ohio. I recommended Ohio. People fought really hard that it be in Ohio. It’s a tremendous economic development event.”
The RNC announced the convention site in August 2014 ― 10 months before Trump even launched his campaign for president. Cleveland beat out Dallas, which was also a finalist. Cleveland officials began pressing the case for the city with Republican officials in February 2014.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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