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Sen. John McCain JOHN MCCAIN Senate votes to elevate Cyber Command in military Senate sends annual defense bill to Obama's desk Trump really can't do much to reduce tensions with Putin's Russia MORE (R-Ariz.) is pledging to break his silence on President-elect Donald Trump next year. "On the first of January, I promise to start answering these stupid, idiotic questions," he told reporters on Tuesday. McCain has largely refused to talk about Trump for months, despite a constant stream of questions from Capitol Hill reporters. A reporter on Tuesday again began to ask McCain about Trump, but McCain interrupted him,...

Washington (CNN)Ohio Gov. John Kasich doesn't want to take Donald Trump's place as President-elect of the United States. The former Republican presidential candidate, who ran against Trump in the primary, tweeted Tuesday asking that electors in the Electoral College not cast their votes for him when they meet December 19. Kasich tweeted a statement that said, "I am not a candidate for president and ask that electors not vote for me when they gather later this month. Our country had an election and Donald Trump won. The country is divided and there are certainly raw emotions on both sides stemming...

Former Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is hitting back against the claim that the election is “rigged” -- an allegation that GOP nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly made in recent days. When asked in an interview with “CBS This Morning” early Wednesday whether he believed Trump’s assertion of a cooked election was correct, Kasich replied with an emphatic “no.” “Look, to say that elections are rigged and all these votes are stolen -- that’s like saying we never landed on the moon, frankly,” said Kasich. “That’s how silly it is.” The Ohio governor further criticized Trump’s position...

John Kasich has a simple message for Republicans who are struggling with how to respond to the 2005 tape that leaked last week of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump boasting about using his celebrity status to grope women. "Lead by example," he told Business Insider in a Thursday interview. The Ohio governor and onetime 2016 presidential hopeful, who was the last Trump challenger to drop out of the GOP primary, released an extended response to the tape over the weekend. In that response, he said the tape was not "surprising to me or many others." "Many people were angry and...

U.S. Senator John McCain said on Tuesday he would use his power to block the confirmation of a key cybersecurity official if necessary to prevent any Obama administration move to separate the U.S. Cyber Command from the National Security Agency. "I do not believe rushing to separate the 'dual hat' in the final months of an administration is appropriate, given the very serious challenges we face in cyberspace," McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a hearing. "Dual hat" refers to one individual holding both positions. Current and former U.S. officials told Reuters in August...

Tuesday on CNN’s “The Lead,” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told a reporter that ObamaCare was “unraveling and at a rapid rate.” McCain said, “It’s clear that Obamacare is unraveling, and at a rapid rate. We’re going to have to go back to square one. We’re going to have to go back and not only repeal, but replace and make health care available to every American.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – John Kasich will return this month to New Hampshire, site of one of his brightest moments as a Republican presidential candidate earlier this year. The Ohio governor will be in the state Aug. 28-29 for a reunion with his supporters there and to campaign and raise money for GOP gubernatorial hopeful Chris Sununu. Sununu is competing in a September primary. His brother, former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, was one of the highest-profile surrogates for Kasich's unsuccessful White House bid. "It's been too many years since New Hampshire has had a Republican governor and Chris Sununu is...

Of the 17 candidates who ran for the Republican nomination, perhaps only two can honestly say they ran the races they intended to run. Donald Trump, the victor, is certainly one of them. John Kasich's aides argue that he's the other. Following his unceremonious departure from the presidential primary in May, the Ohio Republican governor is carrying forward with a sense of vindication, embracing his new role as the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for vulnerable swing-state Republicans. On Thursday, that found Kasich in Chicago, helping to raise money for Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is in a tough re-election...

Hillary Clinton received the backing of Rep. Richard Hanna of New York on Tuesday. Hanna is the first Republican member of Congress to say explicitly that he will vote for Clinton in the fall rather than just expressing opposition to Trump. Hanna may not be the last elected Republican to jump to Clinton, but he illustrates the contours of anti-Trump Republicans nicely: The most anti-Trump GOP voters look a lot more like John Kasich’s supporters (and Hanna) than Ted Cruz’s.1 There seem to be two main camps of Republican opposition to Trump. One, embodied by Kasich, objects to Trump on...

Washington (CNN)Sen. John McCain accused Donald Trump of defaming Khizr Khan and argued the Republican presidential candidate does not represent the GOP. "While our Party has bestowed upon him the nomination, it is not accompanied by unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us," McCain said in a statement Monday. Did Trump go too far? Trump's criticism of Khan after he spoke from the stage of the Democratic convention last week resurrected the billionaire developer's past comments accusing McCain of not being a war hero because he was captured in Vietnam.

There are many prominent Republicans who have stayed away from the Republican National Convention this week. Prominent among them is former GOP nominee, Sen. John McCain, who says he's not even watching the convention and is focused instead on winning re-election.

Gov. John Kasich has been notably absent from the main events at the Republican National Convention being held in his home state of Ohio this week, and on Tuesday he took a thinly-veiled swipe at the presumptive nominee. Kasich seemed to offer a rebuttal of Donald Trump's campaign, rejecting what he called a "stew" of nationalism, isolationism, and anti-trade sentiments. "What does that stew look like? What does that mean for the world? What does it mean for stability, for peace, for relationships? I'm very concerned about it," the Ohio governor said during an address for the International Republican Institute....

Cleveland (CNN)John Kasich may be the most intensely courted man in the Buckeye State. With just seven days until the GOP convention, the quest to convince Kasich to back Donald Trump -- or even participate in the convention he campaigned to bring to Cleveland -- has been quiet but feverish. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has pressed Kasich allies, even promising that donors will spring to aid Kasich's future endeavors if he cooperates now. Trump's top aide, Paul Manafort, has touted their increasingly professional campaign operation in the hopes of winning over the Ohio governor. Even vice presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich...

Has John Kasich really left the race for the presidency? In recent days, the words and actions of the Republican Ohio governor and his political staff have made the question worth asking. In early April, Barron’s ran a cover story on Kasich, arguing that his “policy prescriptions, experience, and temperament make him the GOP’s best bet to reassure a nervous marketplace.” The Barron’s piece also pointed out that Kasich, unlike Trump and Ted Cruz, was handily beating Hillary Clinton in the polls. A month later, on May 4, Kasich “suspended” his race for the GOP nomination after it became clear...

John Kasich suspended his run for president nearly two months ago, but his campaign is still arguing that he, and not Donald Trump, would be the best candidate to take on Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, the Ohio governor's top political adviser trumpeted a new round of polls that showed Kasich besting Clinton in swing states — and showed Trump getting decimated. “Under a modeled electorate, Trump loses every swing state by 6-12 points. Governor Kasich wins 6 out of 7 swing states. Speaker Ryan wins 2 out of 7 swing states,” wrote John Weaver, Kasich’s former senior campaign adviser, in...

As a group of Republican delegates continue their push for the freedom to vote their conscience when casting presidential nominating ballots at the Republican National Convention, John McCain said Tuesday that it's within their rights to vote how they see fit. "I think it's up to every delegate to make up their own minds," McCain told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in the Capitol. "I do not tell them what to do, I never have." Although McCain said he wasn't expressing an opinion on what delegates should do, the former GOP presidential nominee's words of support for the delegates' freedom of conscience...

John Kasich reiterated last week that he’s still not sure of his formal role at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that is to nominate Donald Trump in a month. But that doesn’t mean the Ohio governor won’t be visible. He is quietly putting together both public events and private meetings during the four-day gig in his home state. “What he does publicly will be focused on his vision of a Republican Party based on conservative principles that brings everyone together and gives all Americans a chance to rise,” said spokesman Chris Schrimpf. “It could be a combination of his...

Most of the time, major political figures try to stay on the good side of the nation’s leading veterans’ organizations, but Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is comfortable going in a different direction. The Republican senator appeared on his daughter’s radio show late last week – just a few days before Memorial Day – and Meghan McCain asked about the need for improvements in the VA system. The GOP lawmaker, facing a tough re-election fight this year, didn’t hold back. JOHN MCCAIN: I blame some of the old veterans’ service organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American...

International human rights organization Free Tibet is urging Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz to end their financial investment in a Chinese-owned company that operates in Tibet. In a May 17 letter to Kerry, Free Tibet Director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren called the Kerry family investment in a Chinese company, called Tibet Water Resources, Ltd. “inappropriate” and encouraged Kerry to “ensure that this investment comes to an end.” The company bottles and sells premium “luxury water” in competition with brands like Evian and Fuji.

Back when John Boehner was Speaker, he was the unpopular establishment figure fighting against a passionate Republican base that adhered strictly to conservative orthodoxy. Today, in a surprising turn of events, Boehner—who supports Donald Trump—finds himself in a more enviable position. Boehner has nothing to lose. He has no Speakership from which to be ousted. Meanwhile, many of his old adversaries—you know, the Ted Cruz  97% wing of the House GOP—suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of a passionate base that prizes Trumpian strength over ideological purity. The tables, it seems, have turned. Which brings us to this...