Speaker 1: One of the most powerful people in Washington today is
Speaker 1: Senator Joe Mansion, who is the Democratic center from a
Speaker 1: Republican leaning state, West Virginia. He really holds the key
Speaker 1: to how legislation is going to get through the Senate.
Speaker 1: I had a chance to meet with him recently and
Speaker 1: talk with him at the Economic Club of Washington about
Speaker 1: his views on a variety of important issues now facing
Speaker 1: the Senate and the country. Senator, thank you for coming
Speaker 1: anything new lately, not much. There's been reported in the
Speaker 1: press that you were spending the weekend in Delaware. Um,
Speaker 1: anything you can tell us about what happened A nice visit,
Speaker 1: and I really did. I had a nice visit. Prison.
Speaker 1: Buy and I've known each other for quite a while,
Speaker 1: but you know, knowing each other in the political arena
Speaker 1: and then knowing each other as a person is a
Speaker 1: different different settings. So since he's been president, we've got
Speaker 1: to know each other as who we are and who
Speaker 1: hopefully he knows who I am. And I just basically
Speaker 1: said to the President, nice and Mr President. My my
Speaker 1: philosophy of politics is this. When I got involved in
Speaker 1: I always thought government should be my partner, not my provider.
Speaker 1: But as a result of the session who had with
Speaker 1: the president, Um, you think you came away with understanding
Speaker 1: of where the country is going on all these bills. Well,
Speaker 1: and I've said this, I think all of you remember,
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of months ago, I said, I really
Speaker 1: thought long and hard about taking a strategic pause. My
Speaker 1: reason for saying that was a lot of the things
Speaker 1: that were that are in this Reconciliation bill, a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that we had covered in the a
Speaker 1: ORP American Rescue Plan at one point nine trillion. And
Speaker 1: if you look at the American Rescue Plan bill that
Speaker 1: we did, it covers a lot of the things they're
Speaker 1: talking about CUP through two and into twenty three. So
Speaker 1: I didn't see the urgency that someone is going to
Speaker 1: be left without any type of cover through coming out
Speaker 1: of the COVID pandemic. And the whole reason about what
Speaker 1: we did in twenty twenty to the extent we did,
Speaker 1: what we did was trying to prevent a country from
Speaker 1: going into a health crisis or financial crisis, and we
Speaker 1: did that. Now, I said, the unknown was this, we
Speaker 1: didn't know what the COVID was coming back, the vary
Speaker 1: ingt of the COVID, We didn't know what it was
Speaker 1: going to do, and we're still seeing, you know, spikes
Speaker 1: and valleys and spikes. We didn't know what if if
Speaker 1: inflation is transitory or not. Now we're finding out it
Speaker 1: might not be transitory. And then the biggest thing that
Speaker 1: I had concerns about, what you don't hear people talk
Speaker 1: about much, was the geopolitical fall out of how we
Speaker 1: left Afghanistan, because I know what my little cold, cold
Speaker 1: town I come from, just human nature was if there
Speaker 1: was a bully and you saw someone smack that bully
Speaker 1: and make that bully back down, and everybody else is
Speaker 1: ready to take their shot too. But the finish on
Speaker 1: the session in Delaware, Um, he's not gonna let this
Speaker 1: one go, is it? What? Um? Did you leave thinking
Speaker 1: that we're making progress and that you said that the president, Well,
Speaker 1: here's my bottom line and if you can deliver this,
Speaker 1: I you got my vote. I don't think you negotiate.
Speaker 1: You should know one should ever negotiate with the president,
Speaker 1: especially or anyone else if you're if you're negotiating in
Speaker 1: good faith. Yeah, I've always tried to put myself in
Speaker 1: the other person, but I want the other person to
Speaker 1: understand who I am. Too. So if they can put
Speaker 1: themselves to where I am and I put my we
Speaker 1: reverse roles and look at it. So when I left,
Speaker 1: I think it was a very positive meeting. We know
Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot of things we can
Speaker 1: do to make more a more perfect union. Um, when
Speaker 1: you go to President's house like that, I guess you
Speaker 1: can ask for anything you want to eat, and they
Speaker 1: serve anything right that goes. They want to make you happy. Right,
Speaker 1: So we had a good time. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: the thing we had a good time was, is you
Speaker 1: know how I kidded him? Uh, you know how he
Speaker 1: was always supposed to be the poorest senator. He had
Speaker 1: an eye for real estate, a right, so um, so
Speaker 1: I told you my semester, presdi do you didn't you're
Speaker 1: too bad for a poor senator. But let me tell
Speaker 1: you one thing. And we talked about that and you
Speaker 1: walked down. But he built the home, and I was
Speaker 1: very impressed. He did a heck of a job, and
Speaker 1: he designed the whole thing. We went through it. It's
Speaker 1: a very nice home in a very nice setting. And
Speaker 1: and he has some neighbors and one neighbor it's not
Speaker 1: of his political persuasion. And if he's four inches over
Speaker 1: for car parks four inches over the sometimes he hears
Speaker 1: about it. And even when he was President States right
Speaker 1: now more so when he's president. So when you're negotiating
Speaker 1: with him or meeting with him, Um, you are you
Speaker 1: kind of representing a senator of cinema or does she
Speaker 1: represent herself? No? One thing you learned about being a Senate.
Speaker 1: If you can take care of yourself, you're lucky. Okay,
Speaker 1: So all right, so she has her own views and
Speaker 1: you have her Okay. I respect her very much, and
Speaker 1: she's a friend of mine, but you know we uh,
Speaker 1: I think what we bonded. And because I was, I've
Speaker 1: been adamant. I've been there long enough to vote in
Speaker 1: against the nuclear bomb getting rid of the filibuster that
Speaker 1: when at that time Senator Harry Reid did uh, and
Speaker 1: then in seen when Mitch McConnell did it for Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: And I've been very steadfast on that. And then to
Speaker 1: find out I have another person who feels as strong
Speaker 1: as I do was welcome. Okay. So as all the
Speaker 1: attention you're getting pleasurable or actually a pain in the
Speaker 1: something or another, I wouldn't this this position I guess
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish it on anybody. And people keep talking
Speaker 1: about power, you never but I look at this room
Speaker 1: and all the power in this room, and you all
Speaker 1: been around, all of us have been long enough and
Speaker 1: watching life and watching how people, uh, basically navigate life.
Speaker 1: I've seen people with an awful lot of power that
Speaker 1: abused it, and I said, why would they do that?
Speaker 1: And I've seen people that sought power and destroy themselves
Speaker 1: trying to gain it. And then I've seen people took
Speaker 1: a moment of time and I'll tell all of you
Speaker 1: right now, a moment of time is this. We better
Speaker 1: bring our country together. We better figure out it's United
Speaker 1: States of America, united not divided States of America. And
Speaker 1: we better start working on that. But um, the like,
Speaker 1: in other words, you are the key vote in so
Speaker 1: many things going on in the Senate and the Center
Speaker 1: sentem as well. Is that is that fun to be that?
Speaker 1: There's not? There's nothing fun about it. But I always
Speaker 1: said this. I kept thinking because I was a governor
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine when they were doing American
Speaker 1: Rescue Plan, I mean the Affordable Care Act, and uh,
Speaker 1: I kept thinking, if I had been governor if I
Speaker 1: had been sentator that time to come down to a
Speaker 1: swing vote like you did with a couple of the
Speaker 1: modyrates at that time, I think you maybe I could
Speaker 1: have made a little bit of a difference there. And
Speaker 1: because I understood how it was delivered in the states
Speaker 1: and people that were going without and people that needed it,
Speaker 1: but also people that could have used it and take
Speaker 1: advantage of it, and I thought there's a better way
Speaker 1: to do it. Lo and behold, ten years later, I
Speaker 1: found myself in a position and about every vote fifty
Speaker 1: Senate who would have thought that had come down to this?
Speaker 1: Is that your view that we should keep the current
Speaker 1: Senate filibuster rule for the voting rights bill that you author.
Speaker 1: The only thing I know I watched the Democrats use
Speaker 1: it against Trump and a lot of things that we
Speaker 1: were able to stop, things that just didn't make sense
Speaker 1: to us. So how can we just two or three
Speaker 1: two years ago, three years ago, thirty nine Democrats senators
Speaker 1: led by our leader basically sign letters, please miss McConnell,
Speaker 1: do not do away with the fellowbuster. Now all of
Speaker 1: a sudden it becomes all please get rid of because
Speaker 1: it will help us more. Makes no sense to me,
Speaker 1: at all the voting rights bill you have authored, a
Speaker 1: I amended version of the Voting Rights Act that you
Speaker 1: thought would get for the Senate doesn't seem like it's
Speaker 1: getting through unless you change the Fellowbuster rules. What do
Speaker 1: you think is gonna happen on voting rights? Well, let
Speaker 1: me just tell you. They said I didn't author, Okay,
Speaker 1: I put I had input because I saw the for
Speaker 1: the people, and I knew it was aspirational, and I
Speaker 1: understand everything that you can imagine was in that bill.
Speaker 1: We're just trying to We're just trying to protect the
Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act of nine, which got shot down in
Speaker 1: the Shelby decision in we haven't even fixed that. We
Speaker 1: haven't even fixed that because basically it went from nine
Speaker 1: states to thirteen states and then they threw it out
Speaker 1: with a Shelby decision. And I said, really, all fifty
Speaker 1: states should be held responsible and accountable. And I couldn't
Speaker 1: in my mind. When I was Secretary State, we used
Speaker 1: to have a Secretary State Association meetings. We were always
Speaker 1: competing who could get the greatest turn out. I can't.
Speaker 1: And now I'm realizing that people were basically looking at
Speaker 1: the vantage they would get if people don't vote or
Speaker 1: certain people don't vote. That's beyond my comprehension. But it's
Speaker 1: the reality of what we're dealing with. It's got to
Speaker 1: be corrected. But I can't believe that. My my Republican friends,
Speaker 1: uh don't see it that way. I just I still can't,
Speaker 1: you know what. And they keep saying, well, Joe, how
Speaker 1: many Republicans you got? How many of this? And I'm
Speaker 1: working and talking to the Republican I keep looking at me, Sist,
Speaker 1: what have you done? Who was the last person you
Speaker 1: talked to on the Republican side? Have I need a
Speaker 1: little bit of help? The debt limit. We've extended it
Speaker 1: until December. Are you worried about the debt limit not
Speaker 1: being passed into Sember? It is crazy for us to
Speaker 1: use that as a as a political weapon. It is
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. I think that basically the thing that we
Speaker 1: should do is come to an agreement all the truce
Speaker 1: and David, what I would say, is the thing that
Speaker 1: bothers me more. I don't see our leadership working together.
Speaker 1: I don't see people talking, having dinner or coffee, or
Speaker 1: even having a conversation on the floor. You'll see a
Speaker 1: few of us going back and forth and this and that.
Speaker 1: If you're watching you know, if you are, you're you're, Uh,
Speaker 1: you're you're more troubled than I thought. If you're just
Speaker 1: watching c SPAN and seeing us going back and forth. Uh.
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is is no one's working and talking.
Speaker 1: So if you're not going to talk and communicate in
Speaker 1: an easy way to do, get rid of the field
Speaker 1: of us. That's easy. Sure, all this is easy. Would
Speaker 1: you be in favor of eliminating the dead limit? Just
Speaker 1: get rid of the dead liman should be fourteenth Amendment.
Speaker 1: But the president has the right to make that decision.
Speaker 1: We have the right to override if we think he
Speaker 1: went too far. That to me is as simple as
Speaker 1: it takes all the politicians out of him making a deal.
Speaker 1: The thing that we got caught in the conundrum right now,
Speaker 1: the Republican says, we'll fine, I want you to set
Speaker 1: the deadlom. It's gonna be thirty one trillion, thirty two.
Speaker 1: You know we're right, twenty nine trillion now, So who's
Speaker 1: gonna set the one? Set the one? The one we
Speaker 1: have right now is the eighth four and that's that's
Speaker 1: going to slide into December. And basically the only way
Speaker 1: we can do it right now is if if the
Speaker 1: Republicans would not agree and I don't think that, we
Speaker 1: should change the rules by ourselves, which is called the
Speaker 1: nuclear option. This should be something that's done, that's going
Speaker 1: to hold and saying okay, President has that authority, we
Speaker 1: have the authority to review and override. Based on your experience,
Speaker 1: you would expect that sometime in December they'll figure out
Speaker 1: how to extend it. Before that, I'm pushing it now.
Speaker 1: We should do it now. It should not come down
Speaker 1: to the limit again. So if we can't do it
Speaker 1: and they don't agree on that, the Democrats have the responsibility,
Speaker 1: being the majority party right now, to do it through
Speaker 1: reconciliation among new reconciliation. You've got to set a number,
Speaker 1: and that's our responsibility, and I would take that and
Speaker 1: do it. What about the continuing Resolution to fund the government?
Speaker 1: You think that will go to the last minute as well,
Speaker 1: For everything goes to last minute, and it is a
Speaker 1: shame because no one's talking up until the last minute
Speaker 1: and becomes a crisis. We were okay, we can still
Speaker 1: manage through a crisis. It's a shame that you have
Speaker 1: to run the greatest country on Earth crisis. Well, the
Speaker 1: Senate Democrats and the center of Publicans that they socialize
Speaker 1: or talk to each other very much, or just it's
Speaker 1: not considered appropriate to be talking to people from the
Speaker 1: opposite party very much. In the Senate. Well, it's a
Speaker 1: shame that that that you see some of that going on,
Speaker 1: that people just don't talk to people that much. And
Speaker 1: I make a point to have dinner with him or
Speaker 1: meet him somewhere or just you know, I always do
Speaker 1: that and try to and I think that's the way,
Speaker 1: and I think there should be there should be something
Speaker 1: to where at least the leaders have to have lunch
Speaker 1: one day a week. I would think that would be good.
Speaker 1: But you know what we do. We have caucus lunches.
Speaker 1: All the Democrats go over here, all Republicans go over there.
Speaker 1: And once a year we had Johnny Isingson would have
Speaker 1: all the people from Georgia come up and do a
Speaker 1: big pork thing, barbecue thing, and we'd all get together.
Speaker 1: But even then it didn't last much longer than now.
Speaker 1: So you have a Republican colleague in the Senate from
Speaker 1: West Virginia, Senator of Capital, a very good friend of mine.
Speaker 1: So how do you we get on good? One night
Speaker 1: we were I had to go back home. We were
Speaker 1: voting late and we missed the plane when you had
Speaker 1: one light at night going back. So I said, hey, Shelley,
Speaker 1: I said, I'm driving. She said okay, so you wanna
Speaker 1: ride with me? She thought about it for a minute
Speaker 1: or two. She says, okay, count me in. So about
Speaker 1: ten o'clock we take off for West Virginia. And I
Speaker 1: drive a little bit fast, and some night at night
Speaker 1: I drive a little bit faster because I know within
Speaker 1: the speeding by myself. Well, I won't say that. So
Speaker 1: we were driving and we were going through back. Then
Speaker 1: we got picked up for speeding. Oh he did. But
Speaker 1: when that, when you get picked up, I mean, they
Speaker 1: know who you are, So what do they do? State
Speaker 1: policeman comes to the Doorney Rosa. Oh my god, he says,
Speaker 1: he says, governor. He said, no, sender. He was one
Speaker 1: of the troopers that I had when I was governor.
Speaker 1: So I thought I was in pretty good shape. So
Speaker 1: you uh, I guess she didn't get a ticket. Then
Speaker 1: then when the funny part was this, he looked at
Speaker 1: me and said, oh my god, is both of you.
Speaker 1: Are you worried that the Senate and the House could
Speaker 1: flip to the Republicans in the mid term, because that
Speaker 1: often happens in these first year Well, we didn't have
Speaker 1: much of a buffer from going in, Okay, David Is
Speaker 1: It wasn't like we had a little bit of a
Speaker 1: bench strength here. I know. So are you worried about this? Sure?
Speaker 1: I mean you're worried if I'm a chairman right now
Speaker 1: of a committee which I enjoy very much. I've been
Speaker 1: ranking before on the committee which is a minority part
Speaker 1: which Lisa Murkowski was one of my dearest friends and
Speaker 1: a great partner, and we worked back and forth. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're it's much better off when you can control the
Speaker 1: agenda versus you have to follow but there's nothing you
Speaker 1: can do about it and tell anything about it, and
Speaker 1: you can have good sound policy. I've always said this,
Speaker 1: the best politics is good government, and today that's not
Speaker 1: we're practicing today. It's not about right now. And I
Speaker 1: said the Republicans are missing a golden opportunity not to
Speaker 1: jump on the infrastructure bill and be overwhelmingly bipartisan and
Speaker 1: taking credit. I've seen people take credit of good legislation
Speaker 1: to voted against it. I can't believe that happens in Washington.
Speaker 1: I can't. So is this making you more popular in
Speaker 1: West Virginia or less popular? And all this attention or
Speaker 1: it depends on what corner town you go to, so
Speaker 1: um and you go back. I go back all the time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I love my state. And I'm born and
Speaker 1: raised in a little coal mining town Farmington four or people.
Speaker 1: And uh, I just I just saw people that worked
Speaker 1: all the time and kind of shared what they had
Speaker 1: and took care of each other, and took care of
Speaker 1: those who couldn't take care of themselves if they were
Speaker 1: mentally or physically handicapped, the town always picked them up.
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw all the good in what we
Speaker 1: are small town America and what the United States is,
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, and be the old countries that way.
Speaker 1: West Virginia used to be a solidly democratic state when
Speaker 1: John Kenny ran from president was a very democratic state.
Speaker 1: It's democratic state till right, so now it's Republican state.
Speaker 1: What's changed West Virginia or the country. I couldn't believe,
Speaker 1: you know. I was very blessed with having good support
Speaker 1: from Republicans Democrats, independence. You know, I never got the extremes.
Speaker 1: I never got the far right or far left. And
Speaker 1: I can understand that, but we never ran our country
Speaker 1: or our states, or our politics from the far right
Speaker 1: or far left was always And I told people, I
Speaker 1: gave a speech one day, the first time we come
Speaker 1: back off the COVID to Bethany call Age Uh their graduation,
Speaker 1: a little beautiful or college up in northern northern West Virginia.
Speaker 1: And I walked on the stage. I didn't they gave
Speaker 1: me a speech, and I have good, good people here
Speaker 1: at work with me, and I had just nothing. Where
Speaker 1: do I say? You've been closer it in for one
Speaker 1: year and I had nothing on paper or nothing in
Speaker 1: my mind that I was going to say. As I
Speaker 1: walked to the podium, I'm thinking, man, I'm blank. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go to say. And I walked up
Speaker 1: there and I just apologized. I said, I want to apologize.
Speaker 1: I am sorry. I am sorry. I've been radicalized. And
Speaker 1: they looked at me and I don't know how that
Speaker 1: came out that way. So I've been radicalized. I said,
Speaker 1: your grandparents have been radicalized, your parents have been Our
Speaker 1: generation was radicalized because we don't understand what's going on.
Speaker 1: You understand I never had I never had computers, I
Speaker 1: never had cell phones, didn't have any of those growing up.
Speaker 1: So I got my news pretty much down the middle
Speaker 1: of CBS, ABC, NBC. I'm never free. At one time
Speaker 1: when John Kennedy was running for president in West Virginia
Speaker 1: was a swing state, and my parents were all excited.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know why they were all excited about politics,
Speaker 1: but the young the young person running and he was
Speaker 1: a Catholic, and we're a Catholic family, and it was
Speaker 1: there's not many Catholics in West Virginia, so they were
Speaker 1: all excited. So I got excited. So we're watching television
Speaker 1: one night and had to be Walter Cronkite. He said,
Speaker 1: it's been said that if John Kennedy becomes president of
Speaker 1: pope were running the country. I looked at my mom
Speaker 1: and says, boy, he don't know that. He don't know that.
Speaker 1: The Catholics we know. That's all. That's all I could
Speaker 1: come up with, because I can figure I never seen
Speaker 1: by tell Catholic or Protestant or jew anything. They're gonna
Speaker 1: make their own minds up. You're the only statewide office
Speaker 1: holder in Western here's a Democrat, right, Oh, yes, it's
Speaker 1: very lonely. Have you ever thought my life would be
Speaker 1: easier for you if you shifted to being a Republican?
Speaker 1: And somebody has said recently that, um, you know people
Speaker 1: have approached you about doing that every day? Wouldn't like
Speaker 1: be easier for you to do that? It will be
Speaker 1: much easier, my goodness? Is that the purpose of being
Speaker 1: involved in public services? No, I've never I've never thought
Speaker 1: from this I'm what I'm telling you now is who
Speaker 1: I am. Do you think by having a D or
Speaker 1: an I or an R is gonna change who I am?
Speaker 1: I don't think the RS be any more happier with
Speaker 1: me than d's are, right now, Okay, I mean that's
Speaker 1: about as bland as I can put it. So I
Speaker 1: don't know where in the hell I belong. So, um,
Speaker 1: it's being governor more fun than being Oh my god, yes,
Speaker 1: being governor. And I got involved in politics. I was
Speaker 1: upset because I saw a guy come in one time
Speaker 1: talk to my father. I was thirty five years old
Speaker 1: with three kids. I had no intention get involved politics,
Speaker 1: not at all. And the guy came in. He started
Speaker 1: talking about favors. This was a local politician, he says
Speaker 1: when he left. I said, Dad, he made it look
Speaker 1: like that he was doing you a favor to take
Speaker 1: care of people of his constituency. He's not doing his job.
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna I'm just
Speaker 1: got went through me like a knife. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna run. And Dad says, oh no, no, he don't
Speaker 1: get involved in politics. That's not a good, good profession. Boy.
Speaker 1: How prolific he was back then to understand that. And
Speaker 1: I said, I said, Dad, you're you're a hypocrite. I
Speaker 1: thought he was going to hit me. And he looked
Speaker 1: at me and he says, why would you call him?
Speaker 1: I said, Dad, you always said you want good people involved,
Speaker 1: have to get good values. They should get involved for
Speaker 1: the right reason. I said, I think I was raised
Speaker 1: right and you all, I mean, I think I feel
Speaker 1: pretty balanced. And he looked at me and he says,
Speaker 1: you're right. Let's go get him. So so I ran
Speaker 1: a one and that's how I got involved. I was
Speaker 1: one of a hundred when I was a House of Delegates.
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, if I was in the
Speaker 1: state Senate, i'd be one of thirty four, I have
Speaker 1: three times the ability to help more people. And then
Speaker 1: I said, boy, if I was governor, i'd be one
Speaker 1: oh one. I could really do something. So that's how.
Speaker 1: And now I'm back to one of a hundred. All right, um,
Speaker 1: but well you're up for re election in four so
Speaker 1: you're gonna run again. I'll be seventy seven years old.
Speaker 1: What do you think that's young? In the Senate? I
Speaker 1: mean you're young. I mean the President Night States older
Speaker 1: than that. So uh, I mean that's young. So you
Speaker 1: haven't decided yet or you want to announce that I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't decided. You know, if I think I can,
Speaker 1: if I think I can contribute and be productive, and
Speaker 1: I think this moment of time we're in right now
Speaker 1: that we can balance some things out and people understand.
Speaker 1: The thing that bothers me more than anything that I
Speaker 1: think I've ever had in my political life is I
Speaker 1: don't hear the word this will be good for our
Speaker 1: country when we're looking and thinking about fixing a problem
Speaker 1: until we start, and then someone tries to justify if
Speaker 1: you're on the right or the left, if you're a
Speaker 1: Democratic Republican, then saying we're gonna do this because it's
Speaker 1: good for the country. No, No, you're gonna do that
Speaker 1: cause good for the party. Well, in uh, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: there's another election president United States. You wouldn't think of
Speaker 1: running for president. Every one and one wouldn't it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it could be like a gomer Why not, I haven't.
Speaker 1: I haven't thought of that. You have been ruled it out,
Speaker 1: but you haven't thought about it. You're gonna be a
Speaker 1: campaign manager. Uh, you wouldn't win if I was a
Speaker 1: campaign manager. I'm not that good, But so no, I haven't.
Speaker 1: Now I'm want to support I support Joe Biden. I really,
Speaker 1: I really think he was the right person at the
Speaker 1: right time time. We just got to balance things. Do
Speaker 1: you think the Biden administration is doing nine months into
Speaker 1: it and they're having will struggle right now? I really
Speaker 1: think so. And we got to rethink this whole thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking that. You know, I agree with him
Speaker 1: getting out of Afghanistan. We should never happy with the
Speaker 1: way no no one could be happy the way we
Speaker 1: got out. No one could be happy about that. But
Speaker 1: there's not a good way to get out of these things.
Speaker 1: But there had to be. You think better than what
Speaker 1: we did, so you can look at it from that standpoint.
Speaker 1: But I think he understands foreign policy. He really does.
Speaker 1: On some of the things we're working. We've talked about
Speaker 1: some different concerns we have around the world, and uh,
Speaker 1: the United States has to be ready to do what
Speaker 1: we do defend democracy. If the election were held today,
Speaker 1: the presidential election was held a year or so ago,
Speaker 1: with West Virginia vote the same way, Westernia is still
Speaker 1: not that supportive of it. Yeah, I'd still vote for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but I'd be in a minority. And uh,
Speaker 1: in your view, West Virginia is likely to stay Republican
Speaker 1: for presidential purposes for the foreseeable future. West Virginia was
Speaker 1: a Republican, stayed up until the Depression and the depression
Speaker 1: changes to f DR state. But we were always a
Speaker 1: conservative Democrat state. We were the northernmost southern state in
Speaker 1: the nation because we're out in the Mason Dixon line.
Speaker 1: We never flipped. We flipped in twenty ten, and we flipped.
Speaker 1: We flipped harder than any southern state ever flipped. The
Speaker 1: most important issue in the mind of West Virginian's today
Speaker 1: is what I think the respecting dignity of who they
Speaker 1: are as a human being, in the society that we have,
Speaker 1: in the culture that we have, understanding us. We're the
Speaker 1: hardest working people. But but I don't have enough workers.
Speaker 1: So I can tell you my state grew in immigration
Speaker 1: back in the in the early nineteen hundreds. People came miracles.
Speaker 1: They wanted to work. I need workers. We need people
Speaker 1: that want a quality of life for themselves and their
Speaker 1: families and take care of the ones. I have a
Speaker 1: lot of elderly people, have a high percentage of elderly,
Speaker 1: and they talk about social reforms. I said, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: If Social Security and Medicare is not solvent, and the
Speaker 1: trust funds are not solvent, then you're taking away a
Speaker 1: lifeline that people have right now, Why should I expand
Speaker 1: all these so sal services. Well, I can't even pay
Speaker 1: for what we got. So do you enjoy it being
Speaker 1: a center with all this pressure on you? Is as
Speaker 1: fun or is there not? No? There's no fun. There's
Speaker 1: no I mean here, I don't you know. And neighbor said,
Speaker 1: how are you taking the pressure? I said, well, I
Speaker 1: have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to do my job,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do my job, and I'm gonna explain myself.
Speaker 1: I've always said, if I can't go home and explain,
Speaker 1: I can't vote for it, you might be my best friend.
Speaker 1: And if just As just said please, can you give
Speaker 1: me a pass on this? You know my dad always said,
Speaker 1: if you can say no with a tear in your eye,
Speaker 1: you might be okay. And I've been crying a lot lately.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
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