Gov. Jim Justice has a message for singer and actress Bette Midler, who in a tweet after Sen. Joe Manchin declined to back President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, termed West Virginians “poor, ignorant, and strung up.”
After West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice ordered Bette Midler to kiss his dog’s “heinie” at his State of the State speech on Thursday, Midler claimed the butt of Justice’s dog would make a better governor than him.
The 70-year-old Republican governor closed his televised State of the State speech Thursday night by raising his English bulldog and showing its back end to the cameras and audience.
Bette Midler Degraded West Virginia In A Now-Deleted Tweet
Justice had spent almost an hour boasting the state’s achievements, which included two newly announced economic development initiatives.
Members of the high school girl’s basketball team Justice coaches were among those in the House of Delegates gallery, which included politicians, state Supreme Court judges, agency leaders, and members of the high school girl’s basketball team Justice coaches.
Justice’s great gesture came after Midler — an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award-winner – labeled West Virginians “poor, ignorant, and strung up” in a now-deleted tweet.
Midler retaliated with a tweet from an anonymous source showing West Virginia at the bottom of the rankings in health care, education, and the economy. The dog’s heinie, said Bette Midler, would make a better governor, albeit she used a worse word.
Justice did not delight everyone. Shawn Fluharty, a West Virginia Democrat, termed the governor’s decision “embarrassing and beneath the position” in a tweet.
Manchin, a Democrat, essentially killed his party’s main $2 trillion domestic policy program, which would have invested billions in child care, health care, and other services.