Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Friday that the wiretap storm is "to some degree a learning experience" for President Donald Trump.
"As the governor of this state, my words matter," the former Republican presidential candidate told Anderson Cooper on CNN. "As the president of the United States, the president's words matter.
"This is to some degree a learning experience for the president.
"I'm not interested in being in a war of words with the president," Kasich continued. "I'm going to praise him when he's right — and when I don't think he's right, I'll criticize if I don't think I'm out of line."
Trump doubled down Friday on his claims that his Trump Tower telephones were tapped by the Obama administration during last year's election.
Turning to the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, Kasich slammed the American Health Care Act because it would leave millions of citizens under state Medicaid expansions without care within a year after it became law.
"You don't want to just kick them off," he said. "Where do they go? They're supposed to go to the exchange.
"Here's the problem with exchange: The most you can get is a $4,000 tax credit to buy health insurance.
"What would you buy for $4,000 for a health insurance policy?" Kasich asked. "Most people are spending $2,000 a month — and we'll give you $4,000?
"You won't get primary care. You'll have a catastrophic policy with a deductible you can never pay.
"What I'm fearful of," he told Cooper, "is if Republicans jam this through without working with Democrats and reaching some sort of real good compromise, we will be right back where we were in five or six years before we started with Obamacare."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.