(John Ransom, Headline USA) West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Jim Justice got a standing ovation after holding up his dog’s butt at the end of his State of the State address and inviting liberal critics, including Hollywood actress Bette Midler, to kiss it.
“Justice concluded his address by bringing up his bulldog, named Babydog, picking her up, turning her rear-end to the audience, and saying ‘Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there, kiss her hiney,’” said Storyful via Yahoo News.
Governor Jim Justice had a message for those who doubted West Virginia in his State of the State address.https://t.co/uhY6pjRra7
— WVNS 59News (@WVNS59News) January 28, 2022
Midler received a storm of protest in December after she unwisely took to Twitter to slam West Virginia’s citizens as “backward” after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., scuttled president Biden’s multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better social program.
“What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible,” said Midler.
“He sold us out” she wrote, and then she added the glancing blow: “He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out.”
What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible. He sold us out. He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) December 20, 2021
Midler was, to some extent, just using a talking point for Democrats who have argued that smaller states like West Virginia have been holding up the types of reforms that the larger states like California and New York want impose on the country.
“Right now, the Senate is split evenly in half, but the 50 Democratic senators represent 41.5 million more people than the 50 Republican senators,” said NPR.
That would be true if all the people in New York and California were Democrats, but a look at the presidential election shows narrower margins with spreads of 2-3 million votes or less between Republicans and Democrats in tightly contested contests since 2000.
Midler was later forced to apologize to the people of West Virginia for her tweet.
“I apologize to the good people of WVA for my last outburst,” she tweeted in part according to CNN. “I’m just seeing red.”
Which is an interesting color to see, because she just sold her New York home for $50 million, where, presumably, she was only surrounded by blue state voters.
