John Kasich Was a Dick Eight Years Ago and He's Still a Dick Today
Before John Kasich was a presidential candidate, before he was the governor of Ohio, he was a managing director at Lehman Brothers. A lot of things have changed for Kasich since his days in the private sector, but one thing hasn’t. He was a jerk back then, and he’s still a jerk now.
In 2008, Kasich was pulled over by a Columbus police officer named Robert Barrett after he failed to move into the left lane as he passed a traffic stop, which is required by law in Ohio. He was pulled over and given an $85 ticket.
Three years later, Kasich was governor, and was giving a speech to Ohio employees of the Environmental Protection Agency. He talked about being pulled over that day, using it to make a vague point about how government employees should be more responsive to taxpayers. He also seemed to be airing out a grudge: he referred to the officer involved as an idiot multiple times and suggested that he was pulled over wrongly. (The video incorrectly dates the speech to January 8 2008; it was in fact given in January 2011.)
At some point soon after, dascham video of the stop made it to the internet. It turned out that Kasich did break the law, and that Officer Barrett was perfectly respectful when he pulled him over. Kasich looked dumb and was forced to apologize. In a weird twist of fate, when Kasich got into a fender-bender in 2012, Barrett was the investigating officer.
That video has been making the rounds again lately thanks to the sheriff of Milwaukee, an apparent Trump supporter who tweeted it out last week, calling Kasich a “rat bastard.”
https://t.co/IHR5wLWIev This rat bastard @JohnKasich lied about this cop's treatment of him as a lack of respect. Called the cop an idiot.
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) March 17, 2016
Quite a lot of people—the Atlantic reporter he berated last year, public schoolteachers in his state, the Grateful Dead—have good reason to agree.