John Kasich ripped Wall Street Sunday, in a move that highlights the populist rhetoric dominating the fight for the Republican presidential nomination
“Sometimes on Wall Street the pendulum swings towards greed,” the Ohio Gov. said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Kasich’s rhetoric comes as GOP front-runner Donald Trump attacks him for his position as a managing director at Lehman Bros., prior to the bank’s 2008 collapse, which helped trigger the so-called great recession. Trump has also faulted Kasich’s past support for the free trade agreements, like the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993, which contributed to lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio.
In a bid to defeat Trump in Ohio’s primary Tuesday, Kasich is emphasizing his working class origins and what he calls a record of job creation as governor.
“Greed is really a leading reason for why we’re having problems,” Kasich said. He said he supports a strong role for federal financial regulation, which is unpopular in segments of the right.
“The regulators have to do their job,” he said. “We absolutely have to keep a handle on this.”
Kasich has defended his time at Lehman by saying he did not hold a senior role.
“I wasn’t involved in the inner workings of Lehman,” he said. “I was a banker. I didn’t go to board meetings or go and talk investment strategy with the top people. I was nowhere near that. That’s like, it’s sort of like being a car dealer in Zanesville and being blamed for the collapse of GM,” Kasich said in 2010.
Kasich nonetheless netted annual compensation well into six figures, and served on several corporate boards in the last decade.
