Appearing as a guest on Thursday's Jimmy Kimmel Live, CNN contributor John Kasich showed off his liberal Republican credentials that make him fit in at the Cable News Network as he talked up liberal policy on issues like global warming and gun control.
After Kasich began by making an argument in favor of the Democratic-led impeachment against President Donald Trump otherwise opposed by all Republican members of Congress, host Jimmy Kimmel brought up Kasich's book and the issue of climate change as he posed: "Your book is about changes that we can make. I want to talk about the biggest change of all, which is climate change, and another thing that I find hard to understand is why the Republican party line is that we are not causing it."
Kasich recalled his current collaboration with fellow liberal Republican Arnold Schwarzeneggar and liberal Democratic former Senator John Kerry pushing an initiative to allegedly curtail global warming.
JOHN KASICH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, there is no way we should put our heads in the sand. We -- I work with John Kerry -- with my great buddy Arnold Schwarzeneggar to try to develop a consensus in this country that we can't just sit still. And, right now, we're not making great progress, but if we keep at it and keep at it -- develop renewables, do research into batteries -- we can get to a point -- support electric vehicles. I drive a Tesla or it drives me -- I can't figure out which. But that is a critical issue.
Kimmel then jumped in to observe: "I don't feel like you're a Republican at all."
Giving Kimmel's history of mocking women over the issue of women's suffrage when he used to co-host The Man Show on Comedy Central, it was ironic that Kasich then worked in a reference to women's suffrage as he continued his analysis of how politics works:
KASICH: The politicians don't make the rules. The public demands the rules. And when we think about civil rights, it came from the bottom up. It came from the marches -- it came from the protests. And the politicians couldn't ignore it, and they passed civil rights laws. Women's suffrage -- women out here, you don't think guys ever wanted to give you power? You demanded it, and finally you got women's suffrage.
About 20 years ago, Kimmel and Man Show co-host Adam Corolla famously aired a segment in which they took advantage of the fact that many people do not know what the word "suffrage" means and tricked a number of women into signing a fake petition calling for an end to "women's suffrage."
Kasich then vaguely brought up his support for more gun control as he continued: "The environmental movement is the same way, and I'll give you one more: responsible, reasonable gun control. People need to get behind it, and they need to show up."
Below is a partial transcript of the relevant portion of Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC:
Jimmy Kimmel Live
12/20/19
JIMMY KIMMEL: Your book is about changes that we can make. I want to talk about the biggest change of all, which is climate change, and another thing that I find hard to understand is why the Republican party line is that we are not causing it.
JOHN KASICH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Look, there is no way we should put our heads in the sand. We -- I work with John Kerry -- with my great buddy Arnold Schwarzeneggar to try to develop a consensus in this country that we can't just sit still. And, right now, we're not making great progress, but if we keep at it and keep at it -- develop renewables, do research into batteries -- we can get to a point -- support electric vehicles. I drive a Tesla or it drives me -- I can't figure out which. But that is a critical issue.
KIMMEL: I don't feel like you're a Republican at all.
KASICH: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, look, we all worry about the politicians. The politicians don't make the rules. The public demands the rules. And when we think about civil rights, it came from the bottom up. It came from the marches -- it came from the protests. And the politicians couldn't ignore it, and they passed civil rights laws. Women's suffrage -- women out here, you don't think guys ever wanted to give you power? You demanded it, and finally you got women's suffrage. The environmental movement is the same way, and I'll give you one more: responsible, reasonable gun control. People need to get behind it, and they need to show up.
