It seemed like some sort of joke when reports surfaced that Donald Trump Jr. reached out to John Kasich’s campaign in order to offer him the vice presidency. The terms of the deal reported that Kasich could be the most powerful VP in history and would “be in charge of domestic and foreign policy” while Trump was out there “making America great again.”
Well now we know that the report at least carries some truth to it. Kasich sat with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union, noting that no one directly offered him the position, but the former presidential candidate did confirm that Donald Trump Jr. reached out to one of his aides and put the offer on the table:
Kasich told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he didn’t receive a call himself. But he said one of his aides confirmed to him a New York Times report last month saying Donald Trump Jr. tried to entice Kasich with a position as the most powerful vice president in history — putting him in charge of all domestic and foreign policy — was accurate.
“That’s what one of them has told me, yes,” Kasich told Tapper in an interview aired Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Kasich also went into detail on why he decided to skip the convention and if it had anything to do with his refusal to back Trump as the nominee:
“If I wasn’t prepared to go there and get up and endorse a nominee, I just thought it was inappropriate to go into that convention hall,” Kasich said. “Some people are really furious with me about that. But I did what I thought I needed to do…
“I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end,”
The Ohio Governor noted that there’s too much “water over the dam” at the moment for him to throw his support behind Donald Trump, but he did note that he will not be voting for Hillary Clinton in the fall. He also called Trump’s reluctant support of John McCain and Paul Ryan “bizarre,” noting that McCain shouldn’t even have to run for his seat in the senate:
“He ought to be in the Senate as long as he wants to be.”
Will Kasich’s lack of support cost Trump Ohio? The entire thing seems to play against the governor’s own interests no matter which candidate gets the nod, so it’s really just another puzzling piece of a wild election. Who knows?
(Via CNN)