John Kasich Says Republicans Are 'Afraid' Of Trump

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel about the GOP's
unwillingness to stand up to President Trump, who still refuses to accept
the results of the presidential election.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Last night, President Trump received another loss in court. A federal
judge in Pennsylvania dismissed the campaign's attempts to stop the
certification of Pennsylvania's votes. This is just the latest of more
than two dozen failed challenges brought by the Trump campaign to overturn
the election results. President Trump refuses to concede, and for the most
part, his party has supported his efforts to pursue legal challenges based
on false allegations of widespread voter fraud.

Very few high-profile Republicans have publicly acknowledged Joe Biden as
the winner, but one of them is John Kasich. He's the former governor of
Ohio and a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, and he joins us now.

Governor Kasich, welcome.

JOHN KASICH: Thanks, Leila. Glad to be with you.

FADEL: So you endorsed President-elect Joe Biden. He won this election.
What do you make of President Trump's attempts to overturn the results?

KASICH: (Laughter) It's just absurd. The whole thing is - it's just - it's
ridiculous. I mean, he has clearly won this election. And it is just sort
of amazing to me that Republicans just keep sitting on their hands. It
makes no sense.

And the concern I have about it is also involving the transition,
preparing for the vaccine that will come, you know, just really almost
momentarily. The ability to plan, to execute, to deliver all those things,
you know, are not going at the speed they ought to be because of the
unwillingness of the Trump administration to allow them to have access to
all the information they need when they come into office.

Secondly, there's a - maybe perhaps also a little bit of a military risk
in this, where you don't have a President-elect Biden getting the
intelligence reports that he ought to have. I know that Senator Harris
gets them, but, you know, there's just no excuse for this.

So, you know, to me, it's just silly politics. And in many respects, it
represents a cult of personality that the president has been able to
inflict on the Republican Party itself. They're either in complete
lockstep with him, or they're afraid of him. And it's extremely
disappointing for someone who has been a Republican all of my life.

FADEL: You mention that this is silly politics, and some people are really
pointing towards danger - that there is a danger of obstruction of
democracy. Why do you think your fellow Republicans, for the most part,
have either supported or stay silent in the face of Trump's legal
challenges and these repeated false claims?

KASICH: Yeah, I think two reasons. One is they either buy into this, and
they're part of the cult of personality, or secondly, they're afraid to
anger the Trump base - that they're afraid that, you know, they'll be
primaried, or they're afraid they'll be severely criticized. And, you
know, it's a pretty remarkable situation. But as I like to say, you
inherit the earth, and you lose your soul. So you win your political
office, but you don't stand for much, what's the point?

So it's very serious. And again, I say with - in respect to this pandemic,
there should be total and complete cooperation between the Trump
administration and the incoming Biden administration in any variety of
ways in which to deal with the distribution of the vaccine, a whole series
of issues going forward.

FADEL: Have you spoken to leaders in the party about your concerns of
silence or support? And frankly, does what you say hold weight with them
when you endorsed a Democratic candidate for president?

KASICH: Well, look - you know, I appear a lot on television, and my voice
has been very clear. And in terms of talking to Republican leaders, I
haven't done that. But I have talked to them through the television
because it's - I think is impossible for them to not hear what I've had to
say. I have talked to Republicans who are not currently holding public
office - a significant number - and some who are leaders. They have - they
basically hold the same view that I have.

But again, they seem in the Congress of the United States to be frozen in
place. Not all of them, but most of them - certainly, the leadership is
toeing the line. And it's a sad day. But, you know, I think it was the
Scorpions that wrote a song when the wall came down - "The Winds Of
Change" (ph) was the name of the song. And we will see winds of change.
They'll be blowing through shortly.

FADEL: Now, you wrote on Twitter a few days ago that, quote, "President
Trump's actions to impede President-elect Joe Biden's transition doesn't
make any sense. I can't imagine another president doing this, especially
during a pandemic. Think about the families who will pay a high price for
this kind of irresponsibility" - end quote. And I know you got at this a
little bit, but what are your concerns about the transition process
specifically if President Trump continues not to cooperate?

KASICH: Well, I mean, No. 1 is clearly around the issue of the pandemic
and the ability to figure out a very secure, solid and speedy plan for the
distribution of the vaccine. It appears as though the vaccines are right
on the horizon, and it's an incredible logistical challenge to be able to
distribute that to the - so many Americans that are going to be in a
position of - willingly accept the fact that they'd like the vaccine. You
should have total cooperation.

Also, I think better cooperation allows us to be in a position to get this
economy moving, to understand exactly what the Trump people are going to
do over the next couple of weeks so that the Biden administration can plan
and prepare for, you know, a significant, hopefully, economic recovery.

And then finally, you know, the idea that the administration, as they're
getting ready to go out the door, can try to implement some foreign policy
actions that I think, frankly, border on irresponsible. I've always been
one who's favored being able to negotiate a settlement and ultimately
leave Afghanistan, but to just start willy-nilly withdrawing troops at
this significant amount I frankly think is irresponsible.

But - so there's a foreign policy component to this as well - that there
needs to be coordination, that Joe Biden ought to have access to all the
intelligence like has happened in all of my lifetime when we've had a
presidential transition.