BIPARTISAN

Obama Recruits Kasich to Help Sell TPP

The Republican governor of Ohio visited White House on Friday.

President Obama reached across party lines on Friday to step up the push for his Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which has struggled amid recent opposition from members of both parties. Among those invited to the White House to discuss strategies for selling the trade deal were former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio. Kasich, who was a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s protectionist populism on trade during the GOP primary, told reporters after the meeting that “I don’t recognize this town much anymore. When politics is the order of the day and partisanship trumps country, we drift. We drift as a nation.” He added that he’d like to see a congressional vote on the deal soon because “These are fledgling countries in Asia, and we want to pivot to Asia? We have to do this.”