Judge Merrick Garland speaks after being nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama on Wednesday. Cruz, Kasich reveal subtle split over Obama’s Supreme Court pick The governor continues his bid to be a happy warrior, while the senator hopes his hardliner approach will best another rival.

John Kasich offered a mild, nuanced rebuke of President Barack Obama for nominating a Supreme Court justice on Wednesday. Ted Cruz just blasted him.

During a town hall at Villanova University, Kasich sidestepped mention of federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland entirely, instead arguing Obama shouldn’t have sent anyone to the Senate because the pick would only be grist for the gridlock gripping the federal government. “The president has failed in this: You cannot stiff the legislative body that you have to work with,” he said. “I didn’t think the president should send anybody up now, because it’s not gonna happen.”


He added, however, that it’s not inherently wrong for a president to nominate a justice in the last year of his term. In fact, Kasich said, as president he’d put a premium on building the relationship with Congress needed to get things done.

But to Cruz, that’s the talk of a “Washington dealmaker,” the type of compromising — and compromised — conservative he has run against for years.

In a lengthy statement, Cruz ripped both Garland and the president who picked him, praising his Senate colleagues to hold a hard line on refusing to consider the nominee — and he even managed to get a shot in at the GOP front-runner he’s looking to reel in: Donald Trump.

“Merrick Garland is exactly the type of Supreme Court nominee you get when you make deals in Washington, D.C. A so-called 'moderate' Democrat nominee is precisely the kind of deal that Donald Trump has told us he would make — someone who would rule along with other liberals on the bench like Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor,” the Cruz campaign said. “We cannot afford to lose the Supreme Court for generations to come by nominating or confirming someone that a dealmaker like Donald Trump would support. Washington dealmakers cannot be trusted with such crucial lifetime appointments … The People will decide.”

The candidates’ reactions illustrate the different bets they’re making ahead of their final-round showdown to be the candidate of the “never Trump” movement. Kasich is betting the answer to Trump’s anger-fueled movement is civility, solutions and a relentless optimism.

Cruz, meanwhile, is betting his party still wants to go to battle, they just want to do it behind a standard bearer who’s a consistent conservative.

But even as Cruz works to nudge Kasich out of the race — a must if he’s to build a unified anti-Trump front — he can’t spare a moment from attacking Trump. With Trump’s delegate lead growing again Tuesday night, and with more states now behind the campaign than in front of them, the Texas senator is already short on time to wrestle the nomination away.

As for Trump, his campaign was thus largely quiet on the Garland nomination. Before the pick was announced, Trump said he supported Senate Republicans’ position that the nominee should get neither hearings nor votes, but since the pick, he has focused elsewhere.

His public moves Wednesday were to announce he’d deliver a speech instead of participating in the next Republican debate. Additionally, he retweeted a photo of mustachioed Fox News pundit John Stossel celebrating Trump’s stewardship of a New York City ice rink.

As of press time, his most recent tweet said only: “Wow. Just won Missouri.”

Kyle Cheney contributed.