[Tapper:] And we're back with Ohio Governor John Kasich. Governor, Vice President Pence said on Friday that disabled people in your state of Ohio were struggling because of Obamacare. Take a listen.
[Mike Pence, Vice President Of The United States:] I know Governor Kasich isn't with us, but I suspect he is very troubled to know that in Ohio alone, nearly 60,000 disabled citizens are stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the care they need for months or even years.
[Tapper:] What's your response to that, Governor?
[Kasich:] Well, we know he's wrong about that. Everybody has said it and the fact is there is no connection between our developmental disabilities. By the way, we have put historic amounts into that. There is no connection between that and Medicaid. And, frankly, these waiting lists are things that people we had a three-month-old baby, the parents of a three-month-old baby, put him a waiting list that will come, who knows, 10, 15 years down the road. There is just no connection. I think they've tried to back off. But this is not the time for me to be in a back and forth with Mike Pence. I think it's all been clarified, and look, we just move on. I don't I don't like to get in those kind of squabbles, but that information was false.
[Tapper:] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked this afternoon about Republicans keeping their frequent promise to repeal Obamacare. Take a listen to this exchange.
[Reporter:] How would explain this to voters next year who
[Sen. Mitch Mcconnell , Majority Leader:] Well, we have a new Supreme Court justice. We have 14 repeals of regulations and we're only six months into it. The last time I looked, the Congress goes on for two years.
[Tapper:] So, there is Mitch McConnell being asked, what are you going to say to voters failing to deliver this? He talked about Gorsuch and regulations being defeated. But the big question is, why did Republicans not have a plan? They've been making this promise for years.
[Kasich:] Well, Jake, I think when you get in the middle look, all these folks that run for office, many of them, and I said this during the presidential campaign. I said, did you ever notice how many people make promises and then when they get elected they don't deliver on them? It's because once you get there and you understand the gravity of the situation, it's difficult. And again, I don't want to have somebody saying, oh, well, the Republicans failed, no? I think what they're doing now is saying that we don't have the best solution. And when we looked at everything here, we didn't have anything that really made sense. But I think it's very clear, two points. One is the insurance markets need to be stabilized. And there are efforts that can be made to do that. It should be done on a bipartisan basis. I think there are senators willing to do it. Number two, on the issue of entitlements. We can't continue to have entitlements grow and eat up greater and greater portions of the budget, and Jake, here's the thing. I think our debt is about 80 percent of our gross domestic product, GDP. When it gets up higher and higher, it means we have slower economic growth. But in order to reform, you have to reform entitlements, you don't have to go and cut them. You need to get them on a glide path, just like we did when we balanced the budget in the late '90s. So, this whole business look, if Republicans go home and they say, we did our darn best, but here's the thing. We don't want to cut people off who really need health care, we will fix this, we will slow the growth of health care, I think it's a winner. I don't think they need to go around apologizing for it, just say what they found. It's OK. Life is short.
[Tapper:] Governor John Kasich of Ohio, thanks so much for your time, sir. As always, good to see you.
[Kasich:] Jake, always good. Thank you.
[Tapper:] New details about Donald Trump's meeting with that Russian lawyer. We now know who the eighth person in the room is. Stick around.