You needed a pollster to count how many times he said "hell."
But one thing was for sure – John Kasich was getting real during a town hall Monday night.
In the event televised by CNN, the Ohio governor and presidential candidate asked "what the hell" was happening in the U.S. after Mississippi passed a law allowing businesses to deny services to gay and transgender customers.
"I read about this thing they did in Mississippi, where apparently you can deny somebody service because they're gay?" Kasich said. "What the hell are we doing in this country?"
Kasich said while he may not choose that lifestyle, it doesn't mean he has to "go write a law and try to figure out how to have another wedge issue."
The governor also told CBS News last weekend that he would not have signed North Carolina's bathroom law, which designates bathrooms for people based on their biological sex.
But most of his home state of Ohio already has laws that allow businesses to refuse service to gay or transgender people, according to ABC News.
"While some cities and counties in Ohio prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, no similar statewide protection exists there," the station reported.
Kasich dodged a question earlier in the day about conversion therapy, a controversial treatment banned in multiple states that attempts to change someone's gender identity or sexual orientation, ABC reported.
The governor instead talked about gay marriage and said, while he personally does not agree with it, he thinks it's time to move on now that the Supreme Court has guaranteed it as a right, according to the station.
'What the hell are we doing in this country?': Did John Kasich just defend LGBT rights?
The law being compained about have nothing to do with gay rights. The issue is wher people should be compelled to perform acts that could be interpreted as approval or enabling to the gay life style. The design and creation of gay wedding cakes is an example. I don't expect myself to start to undergo inspection and asked at supermarkets whether I am homosexual, homophobe or straight. The cans are on the shelves. Anyone walk in and can buy them.
