John Kasich on Impeachment: ‘Sad’ Party Loyalty Means More Than Anything Else

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” former Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said it was “sad” that “party loyalty meant more than anything else, referring to the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

When asked about Republicans supporting Trump after the public hearings, Kasich said, “Let’s think about our country now. It’s a much different time than when I was in Congress, and I was there for 18 years, a long time. We’ve just become more tribal. You know, back in the days when I was there, and it was not when we were using candles to light the room, it wasn’t that long ago, actually, you know, the situation was you always had outliers in our party. Always there were three or four or five that would go their own way. Sometimes I might even be one of those people at times, but you don’t see much of that now. It’s odd to me. Because if you put a lot of people on an island, there’s always somebody who is an outlier. Right now we’re not seeing an outlier, and it seems as though a party affiliation, a party loyalty means more than anything else, but constituents can disrupt that and people’s consciences can disrupt that. We just have to wait and see.”

He continued, “We’ve become so tribal. At some point, people will say I’ve got to be my own person. I can’t tell you when it would happen, but I think at some point it will.”

He added, “It’s sort of like a football game. you watch Alabama and LSU, some are on one side, others on the other. Politics is reminding me more and more of that kind of a football game approach. I hate to say it and again, it makes you sad.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN