John Kasich: ‘The Republican party is my vehicle and not my master’

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Wednesday he isn’t going to be told what to do on issues like immigration and that people need to realize that they are Americans and can’t be “just pure ideologues and partisans.”

“See, what we gotta do is people gotta realize that they’re Americans — they can’t be just pure ideologues and partisans,” Mr. Kasich said at an appearance in the early presidential primary state of Iowa. “I like to say the Republican party is my vehicle and not my master. I mean, they’re not gonna tell me what to do. And so I think in the issue of immigration, we need to get things moving on this, and we gotta get it goin’ soon. Protect the border, find out who these folks are who are here, make ’em register, if they’re law-abiding, they can stay, [they’ll] probably pay a penalty, and then I think that we’re going to be in a much better position with that.”

Mr. Kasich, who is thinking about jumping into the crowded 2016 GOP field, drew some applause after he concluded the line while speaking in Des Moines at the first of what is supposed to be a series of Iowa Caucus Consortium candidate forums.

He also said of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States that we’re “not going to ship all these people out.”

“But they ditched the line and they’re gonna have to pay a penalty and we’ve got to make sure that they haven’t engaged in criminal activity and we have to protect our border,” he said. “I mean, the idea that we’re not protectin’ our border would be like me just walking into your house tonight, right? You control your own home — we ought to control our country.

“But I think at the same time, we’re not [going to] just take 12 million people and just say, ’you’re outta here,’” he continued. “We need the Congress to work together to resolve this immigration thing and they gotta stop fighting all the time and get something done here.”

Republicans running for president in 2016 have tried to strike a balance on the sensitive issue in the wake of 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s famously advocating for a policy of “self-deportation” during a debate in the last presidential cycle. But many in the conservative grassroots still staunchly oppose granting illegal immigrants so-called “amnesty” and have hammered President Obama for taking unilateral action on the matter.

“My view is, should they become citizens? I wouldn’t favor that, but I said I wouldn’t take it off the board because if you’re gonna solve this problem, you’re gonna have to have both parties involved,” Mr. Kasich said. 

He said in most cases, one political party cannot solve major problems.

“Obama tried to do this Obamacare … even people in his own party are walkin’ away from it,” he said. “You cannot do these big things — you can’t do social security without talkin’ to the AARP, without talkin’ to the young people, and without havin’ both parties involved.”