Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester)
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is responding to a report that he swore at Ohio Governor John Kasich and accused him of betraying the Republican Party over his support for a lawsuit challenging Wisconsin’s legislative redistricting.
Kasich said in a New York Magazine article that Vos confronted him this fall during a meeting in Ohio, and criticized him for signing on to a legal brief in a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. The challenge claims that Wisconsin’s 2011 redistricting amounts to an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Vos was asked whether he swore at the governor and responded that Kasich could “characterize it however he wants.”
Vos also said he didn’t think he used the “exact words” in saying Kasich had betrayed Republicans by siding with those fighting Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn maps. “I don’t think I used those exact words,” Vos said. “It might have been his implication, from the standpoint that…if you’re going to do something that has an impact on one side of the aisle that you happen to be associated with, it would be nice if you talked to people that are actually involved in the process.”
Vos said he was disappointed that Kasich got involved in an issue he felt the former presidential candidate did not know much about. “All I wanted to do was to make sure he understood that there were real world consequences for decisions that he makes.”