John Kasich reacts to Paris attacks with prayer and talk of ISIS
LACONIA, N.H. -- Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) had spent a typical day on the campaign trial on Friday, talking about tax policy and health-care costs and his lengthy record. He learned of the attacks in Paris as he stepped onto his campaign bus in Concord, after an afternoon of campaign events. He and aides clustered around a satellite television feed and watched early reports roll in on CNN. At several points, he shook his head and grimaced.
“Why Paris?” he mused aloud – a question he discussed with staff, and later posed to the crowd at his town-hall meeting here. Few of the hundred-plus attendees seemed to have heard of the attacks, and more than a few murmured "oh no."
"Apparently they tried to cause trouble in a stadium, where the president of France was," Kasich said. "He got out. There were people held hostage, 100 people being held hostage. It looked like there were three or four attacks. There are a lot of people who are dead. Families that..."
He trailed off and started again. "Imagine getting that call. So let's take a second, and if I may."
Kasich launched into an impromptu prayer. "Dear Lord, we keep the families in Paris in our prayers, the children who've been frightened to learn of the death of their mom or their dad or their brother or their sister," he said, eyes shut tight. "We know this evil can be all around us, but we know in the end it's the strength that you provide, the hope ultimately that you provide, that can help these folks deal with this terrible tragedy and recover. And we'll stand with them, Lord, here across the ocean and the United States. We'll do the best to hold them in our arms, to be with them in this time of terrible grief and terrible tragedy."
One by one, Kasich's rivals for the presidency were releasing terse, horrified statements on the attack. But Kasich went further, reminding the crowd that he served on the Armed Services Committee when he was in Congress.
"The way you prevent these kind of things from happening is that you know they're going to happen," he said. He turned to an aide, and asked if it was okay to share some information. "Has it been released publicly? Someone in our state is in custody who is linked to ISIS. Okay? I can't say any more, because I guess the U.S. attorney is in the middle of this."
In reality, the news had broken a day earlier that Terrence J. McNeil, 25, was arrested after posting multiple messages of support for ISIS on social media. But Kasich used it to make a larger point about the war against the terrorist state and its supporters.
"Look, it can really happen anywhere with some of these people who despise our way of life," he said. "Look, this is a war on our way of life. This is a war with people who can't be reasoned or negotiated with."
When Kasich started taking questions, an audience member brought the event back to the safer turf of Social Security reform. Only toward the end of the meeting did questioners bring up Paris again, leading Kasich to explain that Europe was allowing in more immigrants in the hopes of reversing a demographic slide.
"The root cause is this: People have to assimilate," said Kasich. "And what are we doing to create a situation where they must assimilate."
The governor also speculated that the attacks -- which ISIS has celebrated, but not taken credit for -- may have been carried out by external forces, and not by immigrants. It was a reason why any immigrants from Syria needed to be screened and vetted, he said.
"What you wonder is: Why France again? Why Paris again? Is it it because they have these banlieues?" asked Kasich. "I don't know yet, but I'm not sure these were migrants. I don't think this was planned overnight. This takes planning."