COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)– In a reversal from what he said 24 hours ago, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has asked the state legislature to repeal and replace 2019’s House Bill 6, the legislation at the center of the Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder bribery scandal.

“The process by which this bill was passed is simply not acceptable,” DeWine stated. “That process, I believe, has forever tainted the bill and now, the law itself. This policy, while the policy in my opinion is good, the process by which it was created stinks. It’s terrible. It’s not acceptable.”

I ask the legislature to repeal and replace House Bill 6 through a process, an open process, that the public can have full confidence in.

Gov. Mike DeWine, (R) Ohio

Lt. Governor Jon Husted agreed with DeWine.

“No policy is bigger than public trust, and public trust was violated,” said Husted. “There are a lot of good things in [HB6], but the process just undermines public trust. You can’t have a law on the books that was done in a way that the public can’t trust the process, and so it has to be done the right way.”

DeWine started Thursday’s coronavirus press briefing talking about Householder, urging the legislature to start looking for a House Speaker replacement. The governor and most other top republican officials in the state have called upon Householder to resign after he and four associates were arrested by federal officials for allegedly receiving $60 million in kickbacks to pass and uphold the bill that funneled state funds to two failing nuclear power plants run by FirstEnergy. Household has yet to comment on the incident or resign.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle at the statehouse have presented plans to repeal HB6 over the past few days.