Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign did reached out to his aides about being Trump’s running mate but Kasich said, “I was never interested in being anybody’s vice president.”
Partial transcript as follows:
TAPPER: There was a report in “The New York Times” that Donald Trump Jr. called you and tried to suss out your feelings, your interest in being the vice president and said you would be able to run domestic and foreign policy. Is that report true?
KASICH: I never got a call. Apparently, my aides did.
TAPPER: Donald Trump Jr. did call one of your aides and have that conversation?
KASICH: That’s what the reports are. But, you know…
TAPPER: But is that — but, I mean, your aide said that that’s accurate?
KASICH: That’s what one of them has told me, yes.
TAPPER: Yes, that it was accurate.
KASICH: Yes. But I never got a call. And that’s yesterday, you know? And, again, I said during the campaign, and nobody — none — nobody in the press believed it — you know, I might have been — I might have agreed to be George Washington’s vice president, but I got the second best job in the country, president, governor of Ohio. So, I was never interested in being anybody’s vice president.
TAPPER: It wasn’t tempting at all?
KASICH: No. You know, isn’t that amazing? Never considered it.
TAPPER: Really?
KASICH: No.
TAPPER: Interesting.
KASICH: Why would I want to be vice — I would be the worst vice president. I have too many opinions, Jake.
TAPPER: You have a lot of opinions.
KASICH: Yes.
TAPPER: That’s for sure.
KASICH: So…
TAPPER: Well, because you get to run foreign policy and domestic policy. If that was the pitch, it sounds like a pretty…
KASICH: Well, I am running foreign policy in Ohio. You have got to remember, we have got Michigan on our border, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: You’re going to build a wall, I’m sure.
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