Culture

An Exasperated John Kasich Implores America ‘To Take A Deep Breath And Think About Your Children’

An animated John Kasich (R-OH) got all fired up during his Sunday visit with Jake Tapper on State of the Union. The conversation spanned several subjects but culminated with Kasich’s wildly gesticulating arms as he told America to stop all the squabbling after Charlottesville. The Ohio governor had already described Trump’s “both sides” response to deadly violence as “pathetic.” Yet here, Kasich seems conflicted. On one hand, he argues that Trump (“if he can maintain discipline”) could possibly pull things off (“he has it within him, I think, to overcome this”) and move forward. Yet he hints that this might not happen, so he urges everyone else to get it together first:

“You are all asking the question, how does the country make it with all this fighting? This is ridiculous at this point. Everybody in America needs to take a deep breath and think about your children and think about our country. We don’t do well when all we do is fight. Let’s all take a deep breath and let’s think about what we can do to heal some of the basic issues in this country, which are still out there.”

This particular segment followed Tapper’s inquiry about whether Trump was doing the right thing by refusing to cancel next week’s Phoenix rally (for his 2020 campaign). Multiple legislators in Arizona have echoed Democratic Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton’s request that Trump cancel the event in light of the polarization wrought by the president’s Charlottesville comments. Some people also feel that it’s inappropriate for Trump to hold a campaign-style rally so soon after the death of Heather Hayer, whose mother refuses to speak to the president.

In this next clip, Kasich does give Trump credit for not saying anything awful about the Boston demonstrations — where anti-hate protesters outnumbered white supremacists — on Saturday. Sadly, we can’t see whether Tapper kept a straight face here, although he probably did.

And below, Kasich addresses the firing of Steve Bannon while noting that General Kelly must be trying to clean up the “chaos,” which makes it “hard to get anything done.” However, Kasich declares that the revolving doors must stop: “You can’t keep putting new people in the lineup and think you’re gonna win a world championship.” Fair enough.

(Via CNN)