Front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are not fit to be president, former 2016 GOP candidate George Pataki said Monday.
"They are both horribly flawed candidates," the former New York governor said a day before the primary in his state.
Trump and Clinton are way ahead of their rivals in polls in New York, where they both live. They also have high negatives among voters.
Trump got a 24 percent positive rating and a 65 percent negative for a net-negative 41 percent, a historic low for a major presidential candidate in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. Clinton's net-negative rate was 24 percent, reflecting a 32 percent positive rating and a 56 percent negative score.
The solution in both cases, said Pataki, "nominate somebody else."
On the Democratic side, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got a net-positive rating of 9 percent. Sanders also identifies with New York because he grew up in Brooklyn.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, polling second in New York but way behind Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz overall in the race, was the most likable among Republican candidates, according to the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, with a net-positive rating of 12 percent. Cruz's net-negative was 23 percent.
"The race isn't over. I'm hopeful Donald Trump does not get the nomination locked up before the convention," Pataki said.
It's actually looking increasingly likely Trump won't get the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch before the July convention. That would force a contested convention, which would free-up more and more bound delegates should there be more than one ballot to choose the nominee.
"I think the delegates are going to say ... this is awful how a majority of Americans are going to hate the next president," said Pataki, who supports Kasich for president. "I think he's the type of candidate who the American people could say, Republicans and Democrats, here's a problem-solver and he's someone who's going to put us, instead of his political party or self-interest, first."