Gov. Jon Kasich (R-Ohio) slammed GOP leadership on Thursday, saying the “Republican Party has gone dormant” and criticizing its lack of action on helping young immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Kasich on CNN praised the group of Republican lawmakers who are bypassing leadership to force a floor vote on immigration bills.
“What you’re seeing happening now is that there are a group of Republicans who are getting fed up with inaction for these young people,” Kasich said. “What you’re seeing is a group of people saying, ‘We’ve had enough, we don’t care about the political, we want to achieve something that we think is justice,’ and it’s really cool thing.”
Kasich added that Republicans shouldn’t care if a measure to protect DACA recipients does not have President Trump’s support.
“It doesn’t matter whether the President Trump is going to sign it or not,” Kasich said. “Send it to him. Let him veto it. Let him say that he wants 800,000 people to be shipped out of the country. Eight hundred thousand people that — there’s no reason to ship them out of the country.
“I like [House Speaker] Paul [Ryan]. On this issue, I just think he’s dead wrong. I think the Republican Party has gone dormant,” Kasich added.
Kasich’s comments come as the immigration fight heats up in Congress.
President Trump has said that he would not approve of any immigration legislation that doesn’t fund a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile, Republican moderates are reportedly nearing the 218 signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote on a set of immigration bills.
The critical statements from Kasich also echo comments from former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday.
“There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump party,” Boehner said at the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan.