John Chambers: 'I'm a moderate Republican - an endangered species'

Cisco chairman and outspoken Republican John Chambers cracked a joke on Wednesday that indicates even loyalists like himself think the Republican party has gone a little nuts these days.

"I'm a moderate Republican - an endangered species - who likes Democrats, so that's even worse," Chambers quipped on stage to Box CEO Aaron Levie, a guest at the Boxworks tech conference in San Francisco.

For instance, Chambers often praises Democrat President Bill Clinton and his actions in the 1990s that created a free and open internet, like the the Clinton Administration's Telecommunications Act of 1996. That free and open internet helped turn Cisco into the huge IT company it is today, not to mention help spawn things like Google, Facebook, smartphones, cloud computing ...

When Levie jokingly asked Chambers if he's a"big Donald Trump fan right now" Chambers' response was a pretty funny long silence.

Instead he said, "Let's be very candid. Americans like to be led from the middle. We like to be led by people who have experience. What I'd like to see from the Republican party is a moderate Republican who's really in touch on the social and the immigration issues who has had tremendous track record in their state ... I'd like to see a moderate Republican governor."

With moderate Republicans so hard to find these days, who does he think fits the bill? Ohio governor John Kasich.

"I wouldn't count out Kasich," he told the crowd. "He's got a 76% approval rating. Huge support from all aspects of society."