Kasich: GOP should not put ‘your own little hide’ above what’s ‘correct’ in whistleblower case

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) on Monday said that Republicans need to join Democrats in calling on the Trump administration to release the information from a whistleblower complaint. 

“You have to make sure you’re not putting your party and your own little hide ahead of what is correct in this case,” Kasich said in an interview with CNN.

{mosads}”All you should be calling for is for all of this to be sent to the [House] Intelligence Committee. That’s what the law says and that is what you should be advocating.”

A member of the U.S. intelligence community filed a complaint last week about Trump’s interactions with the leader of Ukraine. 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) requested the Trump administration hand over the complaint, a request that’s been backed by congressional Democratic leaders.

“I am waiting for one or two Republicans to strongly say that this is wrong, but let’s investigate, maybe there’s some excuse out here that we don’t know. I’m fine with that. But we need to know what happened,” Kasich said. 

Kasich also defended the whistleblower’s credibility, which President Trump attacked Monday on Twitter. 

“This was not made by somebody living in outer space. This was somebody who was very concerned about what they heard on a communication, turned it over to the inspector general, who declared it a major problem. And now the administration won’t follow the law. That’s what they need to do, follow the law,” Kasich tweeted. 

Trump has questioned whether the whistleblower is “on our Country’s side.” 

Multiple outlets reported Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a call to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son. Biden is leading Trump in a number of polls in hypothetical 2020 match-up. 

Trump did not deny that he raised the topic of Biden with Zelensky, but rather defended the call, saying it was “perfect” and appropriate. He has not released a transcript of the call but said Sunday he would consider it.