Kasich to Meghan McCain: Concern over abortion ‘dwarfed’ by need to beat Trump

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) argued Friday that concerns among GOP voters about new abortion protections in a hypothetical Biden administration are “dwarfed” by the need for a president who can unite the country.

Kasich, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who now serves as a CNN analyst, made the remarks during a conversation with co-host Meghan McCain on ABC’s “The View,” arguing that former Vice President Joe Biden “can pull us together” as a country.

“I was raised with a certain set of values and principles, and I was raised conservative,” McCain told Kasich as they began to discuss abortion. “I’ve only gotten more conservative as I’ve gotten older, and I’m almost nine months pregnant.”

“I hate President Trump, and I think everybody else knows that,” McCain continued. “But there are some policies on the left, specifically with Kamala Harris right now, having to do with abortion. She co-sponsored a bill doing away with any limits at all, also running on taxpayer funding for abortions. I was surprised at this.”

“You’re pro-life, and I know that. You were pro-life in politics, as am I,” she told Kasich. “It’s a big part of who I am and my platform, and I don’t think taxpayers should be funding abortions for women who are as pregnant as I am right now. How would you push back against a voter like me who’s concerned about things like this in a possible Biden-Kamala administration?”

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich says that though he may disagree with the Biden/Harris campaign on policies such as abortion and capital gains taxes, “the issues are dwarfed… by the fact that [Biden’s] a person that can pull us together.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/sK7CkCHxNd

— The View (@TheView) September 11, 2020

Kasich responded by telling McCain “I agree with you on your position” while making the case Biden was still worth supporting over President Trump.

“I disagree with Joe Biden in a number of areas. I don’t agree with him in capital gains taxes. But the issues here are dwarfed, in my opinion, by the fact that he’s a person that can pull us together,” he said.

“So do I think that if he wins, that all of a sudden, all these things are going to happen that are negative? No, I don’t believe that at all because that’s not his character. That is not who he is,” he added.

Kasich invoked Biden’s relationship with McCain’s father, the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), with whom Biden served for many years in the Senate.

“Your father and Joe were great friends,” Kasich said. “Why? Not because they agreed on everything, but they could find common ground. So do I think we’re going to end up in some cataclysmic place if [Biden] wins? I don’t, but I do believe four more years of this division is wrecking the very soul of our country, and we continue down this path, I don’t know how we come back.”

Kasich spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month to endorse Biden while slamming Trump.

“Joe Biden is a man for our times,” Kasich said while standing in front of crossroads not far from his Ohio home. “Times that call for all of us to take off partisan hats and put the nation first for ourselves and of course for our children.”