Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) admitted in a recent podcast that he cried following his loss to then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
“I was really hoping that we would block [Trump] and then people would come to their senses,” Kasich said on the Kasich & Klepper podcast, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “But when it was over, we got off the plane…I went behind this building, and I cried. I had one cry. Then I went to my daughter’s school – and that was really hard – and they had gotten wind of it and then they came out and gave me a big hug.” But then it was over. It was a wonderful experience.”
Kasich also discussed his time as governor, saying that while he enjoyed the job, he does not miss it.
“People say, ‘Do you miss being governor?’ It is a powerful position in the 7th-largest state,” he stated. “And I said no because I knew what was going to come, and the job doesn’t define me.”
Kasich, who now serves as a senior contributor to CNN, has repeatedly attacked Trump in recent years, taking aim at the former president for his America First politics and brash personal style.
US President Donald Trump speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, February 29, 2020 (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images).
In February 2021, Kasich claimed that the Republican Party will die if it continues to be the party of Trump.
“If it stays a Trump party in the long term, it will not be successful. It will begin to die. Frankly, it’s dying already, because a lot of people have left the party. There is a chance for them to get back on their feet,” he said to host Dana Bash at the time.