Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday took former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to task for comments she made Thursday on voting rights, and also blasted legal action against his state’s voting laws her campaign lawyer has joined.
“Today, Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying to stop millions of American citizens from voting,” Mrs. Clinton, the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, said Thursday at Texas Southern University.
“First of all, I think it’s demagoguery, and secondly, if she wants to sue somebody, let her sue New York,” Mr. Kasich, who is weighing a run for president in 2016, said on Fox News. “In Ohio, we got like 27 days of early voting, OK? Twenty-seven days, a couple hundred hours, and in New York, the only early voting — there is none. The only voting that occurs is on election day — what is she talking about?”
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Marc Elias, is part of lawsuits against voting laws in Ohio and Wisconsin. The Clinton camp itself is not a party to them, though aides have said her team supports them, according to The New York Times.
“I like Hillary, but I got to tell you, the idea that we’re going to divide Americans and we’re going to use demagoguery, I don’t like it,” Mr. Kasich said. “Now I haven’t said a word about Hillary, but to come into the state of Ohio and say we’re repressing the vote when New York has only election day and we have 27 days … come on, that’s just silliness, you know? I’m disappointed in her, frankly.”
Mr. Kasich said he likes Mrs. Clinton personally but obviously is not supporting her for president — and went on to addressed her directly.
“Don’t be comin’ in and saying we are deliberately trying to keep people from voting when her own state has less opportunity for voting than my state, and she’s [going to] sue my state?” he said. “I mean, come on — that’s just silly … come on, Hillary, you know better than that.”
In her speech on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton called out by name former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on the issue.
Mr. Perry hit back on Friday, and Mr. Walker’s team released a statement from the governor late Thursday: “Hillary Clinton’s rejection of efforts to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat not only defies logic, but the will of the majority of Americans. Once again, Hillary Clinton’s extreme views are far outside the mainstream.”
