Kasich takes on range of issues
Newspaper publishers and general managers from around the United States got the full John Kasich treatment for nearly an hour Tuesday afternoon in a Downtown hotel.
Ohio’s governor talked of having to turn off Oprah Winfrey’s debut on TV’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday, unable to stomach the yelling match between Donald Trump supporters and opponents. He spoke of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos making him breakfast at the billionaire’s home, while pooh-poohing other states’ efforts to lure the company.
The governor also counseled the newspaper executives from GateHouse Media, the owner of 125 daily newspapers including The Dispatch, to see the movie “Detroit” for an illustration of the racial divide and the still-lingering gap between rich and poor.
The unsuccessful 2016 Republican presidential candidate also addressed a host of policy issues, from North Korea to his welcome-to-Ohio stance on immigration, while indicating that he has tired of responding to the oft-controversial tweets of President Donald Trump.
“I’m sort of done talking about this tweet or that. I’m done with it. I don’t want to keep reacting,” said Kasich, who refused to endorse or vote for Trump last year. “I want to spend my time thinking about what I can do to use my voice to try to bring people together.”
Kasich also revealed that while in New York City on Monday, he met with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Portuguese diplomat’s request to discuss the role that U.S. governors can play internationally.
“You have to find the right leaders,” Kasich said he told Gueterres, offering no other details of the meeting before moving on to another topic.
Kasich turned passionate when asked to address immigration. He concedes that America’s borders need to be protected, but he opposes efforts to deport law-abiding undocumented immigrants and their children now protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“I want them to come to Ohio. Send them here. We want them. Our population is not growing,” he said. “If I were living in Mexico in an area where the drug cartels could harm my family, where do you think I would go? I would come here.” Kasich said. “I think immigrants bring a real vitality to our country.”
Kasich would permit undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. and pay a fine. He dismissed Trump’s suggestion to deport DACA-protected children as “craziness,” calling them “contributors.”
Kasich called the saberrattling over North Korea’s nuclear program “probably the most vexing problem we have.”
“This regime needs to be removed,” he said, not through the assassination of President Kim Jong Un, but perhaps through pressure from China, Pyongyang’s primary ally, to “move them to nice villas in the middle of China where he and his people should go.”
The governor suggested that there are secret “things we can do militarily to put pressure on them” while continuing to pressure China to be part of a solution to remove Kim, with the “ultimate goal of denuclearization” of North Korea combined with a U.S. pledge not to invade.
“I don’t think you get this done in shouting matches,” the governor said. While some of Trump’s rhetoric has been helpful, Kasich said, “there’s a point at which bluster is not useful.” Megan/ Michael: girl, Sept. 24 Maryland and Brian: girl, Sept. 23 Krista and Andy: boy, Sept. 23 Imane/ boy, Sept. 23 Amanda and Kevin: boy, Sept. 26 Leslie and Griffin: girl, Sept. 25 Rabeh: Lindsey and Alec: boy, Sept. 25 Laura and Daniel: boy, Sept. 25 Blood drives are open today at:
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5600 Post Road, Dublin, 1:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. 555 Lancaster Ave., Reynoldsburg, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
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