Ohio Gov. John Kasich sought to stay above the fray Saturday night at yet another GOP primary debate, avoiding ugly and heated fighting and yelling from his fellow Republican presidential contenders.
Over the course of the debate, GOP front-runner Donald Trump fought with both Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz. Cruz also got into an argument with fellow Sen. Marco Rubio — even fighting in Spanish over their stance on amnesty for undocumented (and largely Spanish-speaking) immigrants. Donald Trump called all five of his rivals "liars," and yelled at Cruz, "why do you lie? Why do you lie?"
But throughout all the shouting, interruptions and arguments, Kasich stood at his podium and expressed dismay over his opponents' tone.
"What I've been watching here is this back and forth, and these attacks, some of them are personal, I think we're fixing to lose the election to Hillary Clinton if we don't stop this," Kasich said, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
John Kasich laments negative tone of #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/Qb4Sn7Ny8n— Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 14, 2016
Kasich is on the rise in the race for the Republican nomination after a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary last week.
Kasich came in a second to Trump — largely by appealing to moderate Republicans and independents by expressing the same frustration with the negative tone of the GOP primary.
The fighting that bothered Kasich?
First, there was the Trump attack on Bush for his family's role in the Iraq War.
Trump brings up Jeb's threat to take his pants off and moon everybody so there's that. #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/ClskK5Erkt— Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 14, 2016
Then there was the shouting match between Rubio and Cruz over their stances on immigration reform.
It got so heated between Cruz and Rubio, there was a Spanish-language challenge #GOPDebate pic.twitter.com/LB5kEQl0gp— Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 14, 2016
And finally there was the explosive exchange between Trump and Cruz, where the billionaire businessman called Cruz the "single biggest liar" on the stage.
Trump and Cruz continue sparring: "Why do you lie?!" pic.twitter.com/qnAtp7GZrY— Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 14, 2016
Kasich was having none of it.
We are all John Kasich #GOPDebate https://t.co/uTChEXIyFz— Mashable News (@MashableNews) February 14, 2016
Still, debate moderator John Dickerson asked whether Kasich was hurting his chances by appealing to moderates — and even Democrats — in a year when anger is dominating the political climate.
Can @johnkasich get away with going ruthlessly positive?#GOPDebate— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) February 14, 2016
That's where Kasich demurred, saying he's a man of "hope" and leaving it at that.