John Kasich: In Politics, ‘You Can’t Root for Your Own Team’ Come ‘Hell or High Water’

Monday on MSNBC’s “Live,” Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) said to avoid the tribalism in politics, one couldn’t “root for your own team” in every circumstance.

Discussing Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) bipartisan legacy, Kasich said, “John was a guy who fought really, really hard, but at the end it never was personal. He was a guy that had certain principles and ideals about our country, both domestically and internationally. It took a lot to really get him to think negatively about anybody. You know, you think about the outpouring now in the United States Senate, and the amazing thing here is it normally takes some sort of a catastrophe in the country to bring people together, but through the death of this man, the country is united. I was struck by Senator Schumer saying that they should name one of the buildings there on Capitol Hill after John.”

He continued, “I share Senator McCain’s view. If you get in to talk about John, what, five and a half years in a prison tortured, beaten, after he was injured once he was recovered, he believed so strongly in the principles that make America great, which is the strength of the judiciary, the strength of the Congress, the strength of the court, the strength of the press. These are the institutions. These are the institutions that are the foundation of a free society. And people get frustrated with the press. I just had a friend tell me the other day, he goes, ‘well, you know, they’re all liberal.’ Well, in some sense if you’re in the media, you tend to be more liberal. If you’re building bridges, you tend to be more conservative. That’s okay as long as the bridge is safe. And I understand the news, so we can’t get too cranked up about this. Part of it is, you can’t root for your own team. You can be for your team but to root for my team come hell or high water, McCain would be the first one to tell you no.”

He added, “I happen to believe in the decency of every individual, every human being, even with those that I can have strong feelings about. I don’t wish them harm. My responsibility as a man of faith, as hard as it is sometimes to always have that faith, is to look for the basic decency in others, to search for it, even when sometimes it’s hard to find.”

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