Kasich: Alabama Loss Shows ‘People Are Not Happy’ With GOP ‘Being Small, Angry and Narrow’

Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said the loss of Roy Moore to Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) showed “people are not happy with us being small, angry, and narrow. “

Partial transcript as follows:

TODD: Is the party in a better place than it was at the start of this year or in a worse place, and where are you? are you prouder to be a republican today than you were at the start of this year?

KASICH: Well, I’m always proud to be a Republican, but the party is my vehicle, never been my master. Chuck, when you look at Alabama, there’s some very interesting things. 20,000 — they think 20,000 Republicans voted for somebody that wasn’t on the ballot. I would also say Senator Shelby, he spoke out and said he was not for the candidate down there. In other words, we’re beginning to see more of a tug-of-war pulling people towards a better position on the party. That’s my sense. And in terms of — so, I’m kind of optimistic with some of the things, but here’s the thing, two paths. There are some in the party that look at problems, and they’re negative and they’re angry and they’re small, and there’s other people that look at the problems and say we can fix them.

So, instead of losing the future, which is what we’re doing today, turning off Millennials. Let me just give you an example. can you explain to me why the Republican party that’s a majority in the House and the Senate with a Republican president don’t tell the DREAMers, the DACA kids that they’re going to be able to stay in the United States? That makes no sense. And the idea that they were just going to get rid of Obamacare, which needs to be reformed, and then people were going to lose their health insurance, what are they thinking? And they need to do something to make sure that program doesn’t go away. They need reform it and shore it up. Immigration. what are you, kidding? I mean, immigrants have helped our country. Trade, we’re not antitrade. And the Millennials believe we have a global place in the world and we’re losing them, Chuck. But look, I keep thinking, I look at Alabama, and I say people are not happy with us being small, angry, and narrow. They’re starting to say no. That means that those of us who believe in a positive party are beginning to win, but we have a long way to go.

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