Colorado Politics

Gov. John Hickenlooper calls mass shooters terrorists, stays coy on higher office

When Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was in Washington Friday to restart the bipartisan health care plan he helped create, he talked school shootings, political aspirations and third-party politics for Sunday’s “This Week” on ABC News.

“Right now both parties don’t seem capable of having a coherent agenda,” the Democratic governor, joined by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, told interviewer Jonathan Karl.

Kasich said the two-party system is broken. “Our young people are fed up,” he said.

Kasich said Democrats are counting on Republicans to blow it with voters in the midterm elections, but the party has no platform.

“Let me tell you the truth about the Democrats,” he said. “I have no idea what they stand for.”

https://coloradopolitics.com/hickenlooper-proposes-new-health-care-reforms-washington-d-c-press-conference/

But as they’ve done all along, they wouldn’t commit to running for future office, together, on third-party ticket or otherwise.

“What I’m doing is I haven’t formed a PAC,” Hickenlooper said, referring to one of things a national candidate does. “I don’t have committees all over the country. I’m not doing those things,.

Kasich didn’t bite, either. “I’d like to have a voice, I’d like to be constructive, I like to rally people,” he said.

Earlier in the segment Kasich said he sees a different political landscape in the future.

“I’m starting to really wonder if we’re going to see a multiparty system at some point in the future in this country,” the moderate Republican said.

Hickenlooper opened the segment talking about guns and school shootings. He called mass shooters terrorists, suggesting they were enabled  by political gridlock.

“We’re allowing ourselves to terrorized by ourselves,” Hickenlooper said. “If you wanted to weaken this country what better way to do it than to make children afraid to go to school.”

He cited other locations that have been sites of open gunfire – “all the places where we create community are now being threatened by our inability to deal with this.”

Kasich said public officials should search their heart instead of the party politics.

“This is about how you’re going to look in the mirror,” he said.

You can watch the segment by clicking here.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper speaks during the panel Economic Development at the National Governor Association winter meeting Feb. 25 in Washington. 
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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