During Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” former Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) called it “dead wrong for President Donald Trump to ask for “dirt” in his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Host Jake Tapper asked why Republicans won’t say if it is wrong for a president “to use his office to ask a foreign country to investigate their domestic political rivals.”

Kasich said, “I don’t understand it. Of course, it is wrong. And I don’t know what they’re afraid of. Nobody is asking them, are you for impeachment inquiry or impeachment? Nobody is asking them. They just say it is this right or wrong, and they won’t answer it, and it is a mystery to me. When I went through re-election, I had expanded Medicaid. And so I was out there telling people, this is why I did it. I’m not afraid of things. I’m going to tell people what I’ve for. It is true I don’t hold office today. I suspected that this president was going to engage in this kind of behavior, and it is why I didn’t go to the Republican convention. It’s why I didn’t vote for him, and I don’t intend to vote for him again.”

He continued, “Look in the mirror and figure out how do you want to be remembered later. There is nothing wrong with telling the truth and sharing your real feelings. I have a couple of things the Democrats should do. There should be a vote on inquiry in the House. I don’t understand why they don’t do that. And I’m also looking forward to the testimony of Sondland, the especially envoy.

“I’m looking forward to all of that conversation, all about the text messages that we saw,” Kasich added. “Because I think we want to get established in our minds whether there really was a quid pro quo. Of course, it is dead wrong for the president to ever talk to another leader to bring up dirt on his political opponent.”

Tapper interjected, “With or without the quid pro quo.”

Kasich continued, “It is just dead wrong. But if you go to another level and there is establishment of a quid pro quo, maybe that many Republicans, if it is established, that Republicans would say, yeah, that is a step too far.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN