Kasich Scolds Republicans for Lack of Response to Trump-Ukraine Call: ‘What Are They, Hiding?’
Former Ohio governor and presidential candidate John Kasich wondered aloud in an interview Monday why Republicans weren’t doing more to pressure President Trump to reveal details regarding a whistleblower complaint against him.
“This needs to be investigated: if in fact the President of the United States pressured the leader of another country to investigate his [Trump’s] political enemy,” Kasich said in the interview with CNN.
John Kasich calls out GOP for not pressuring President Trump to hand over the whistleblower complaint to the House Intel Committee and says he’s very concerned. “If we don’t deal with this we become like a banana republic and where are the Republicans? "What are they — hiding?” pic.twitter.com/WevF7yXZEk
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) September 23, 2019
The complaint, news of which has rocked Washington D.C. for the past week, involves purported commitments Trump made to a foreign leader. The speculation is centered on whether Trump improperly pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelentsky to investigate possible corruption on the part of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, who has ties to a wealthy natural gas company in Ukraine.
Trump and his allies have suggested that Biden used his influence as vice president to quash an investigation into a Ukrainian energy company in order to protect his son Hunter, who was sitting on the company’s board of directors at the time.
Kasich excoriated Republicans for failing to help the release of information regarding the complaint.
“If we don’t deal with this we become like a banana republic,” he continued. “And where are the Republicans? What are they, hiding?”
Kasich also called on Republicans to focus on making all the facts of the case available instead of retreating into partisanship.
“You have to make sure that you’re not putting your party, and your own little hide, ahead of what is correct in this case,” he said.
Kasich did not advocate impeachment, saying that at this point too little is known about the details of the case to make an informed decision.
The possibility that the contents of the complaint will reveal misconduct on the part of the president has reinvigorated Democratic calls for impeachment.
