'It's painful': Kasich gives candid interview explaining why he still can't support Trump

Screenshot/MSNBC

John Kasich.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich candidly explained in an interview that aired Thursday why he was still unable to support Donald Trump.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Kasich was asked by host Joe Scarborough about his failure to provide the New York businessman with an endorsement. Kasich previously signed a pledge promising to support the Republican nominee.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it's painful," said Kasich, noting that he's been a lifelong member of the GOP. "You know people even get divorces. Sometimes things come about. Look, I'm sorry that this has happened. I'm not making any final decision yet. But at this point, I just can't do it."

"Either their needs to be a dramatic change, or I can't find myself there," he said.

Kasich quoted NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who served time in prison for running a dogfighting ring, as a way of alluding to Trump's small window to make changes to his campaign. 

"Michael Vick said one time that we 'only have one chance to make a good second impression,'" the one-time 2016 presidential hopeful said. "But, unless it changes, I'm not going to be able to get there."

The renewed push for the indefinite ban on Muslim immigration from Trump and the presumptive Republican nominee's attacks on a federal judge based on his Mexican heritage were just two of the reasons Kasich said the real estate magnate's candidacy is "trending all the wrong way." 

"It's not just one thing," the governor said. "It's going to be a number of things. The list is getting bigger." 

Kasich referenced recent comments Trump made that "somehow the president is somehow sympathetic to an act of terrorism."

"I mean those are outrageous things," he said.

Asked about how Trump was able to surge in the 2016 race, Kasich placed blame on the press for giving Trump billions in free media.

"I mean I could be having a press conference and they'd have an empty podium with Trump speaking there," he said. "I mean, look, you guys have a lot of responsibility for this, you know it too. You all know it!"

Scarborough interjected to say that he would've accepted Kasich calling into the show at any time, just as he did for Trump. 

"I call in, you get no ratings," Kasich said. "He calls in, you get red ratings."

"Was there not a fixation on him by the media?" he asked.

During a Wednesday campaign rally in Atlanta, Trump delivered a strong message to prominent elected Republicans who have publicly rebuked policy positions and sometimes controversial statements made by the billionaire. 

"Just please be quiet," he said. "Don't talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet ... because they have to get tougher, they have to get sharper, they have to get smarter. We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself."

Watch Kasich's interview below: