Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Senator Joe Manchin

Transcript

Senator Joe Manchin · The David Rubenstein Show

0:02
Speaker 1: One of the most powerful people in Washington today is
0:05
Speaker 1: Senator Joe Mansion, who is the Democratic center from a
0:08
Speaker 1: Republican leaning state, West Virginia. He really holds the key
0:12
Speaker 1: to how legislation is going to get through the Senate.
0:14
Speaker 1: I had a chance to meet with him recently and
0:16
Speaker 1: talk with him at the Economic Club of Washington about
0:19
Speaker 1: his views on a variety of important issues now facing
0:22
Speaker 1: the Senate and the country. Senator, thank you for coming
0:26
Speaker 1: anything new lately, not much. There's been reported in the
0:31
Speaker 1: press that you were spending the weekend in Delaware. Um,
0:35
Speaker 1: anything you can tell us about what happened A nice visit,
0:38
Speaker 1: and I really did. I had a nice visit. Prison.
0:40
Speaker 1: Buy and I've known each other for quite a while,
0:42
Speaker 1: but you know, knowing each other in the political arena
0:44
Speaker 1: and then knowing each other as a person is a
0:47
Speaker 1: different different settings. So since he's been president, we've got
0:51
Speaker 1: to know each other as who we are and who
0:54
Speaker 1: hopefully he knows who I am. And I just basically
0:57
Speaker 1: said to the President, nice and Mr President. My my
1:00
Speaker 1: philosophy of politics is this. When I got involved in
1:04
Speaker 1: I always thought government should be my partner, not my provider.
1:08
Speaker 1: But as a result of the session who had with
1:11
Speaker 1: the president, Um, you think you came away with understanding
1:14
Speaker 1: of where the country is going on all these bills. Well,
1:18
Speaker 1: and I've said this, I think all of you remember,
1:19
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of months ago, I said, I really
1:22
Speaker 1: thought long and hard about taking a strategic pause. My
1:25
Speaker 1: reason for saying that was a lot of the things
1:27
Speaker 1: that were that are in this Reconciliation bill, a lot
1:31
Speaker 1: of the things that we had covered in the a
1:33
Speaker 1: ORP American Rescue Plan at one point nine trillion. And
1:36
Speaker 1: if you look at the American Rescue Plan bill that
1:38
Speaker 1: we did, it covers a lot of the things they're
1:41
Speaker 1: talking about CUP through two and into twenty three. So
1:45
Speaker 1: I didn't see the urgency that someone is going to
1:48
Speaker 1: be left without any type of cover through coming out
1:53
Speaker 1: of the COVID pandemic. And the whole reason about what
1:56
Speaker 1: we did in twenty twenty to the extent we did,
1:59
Speaker 1: what we did was trying to prevent a country from
2:02
Speaker 1: going into a health crisis or financial crisis, and we
2:05
Speaker 1: did that. Now, I said, the unknown was this, we
2:09
Speaker 1: didn't know what the COVID was coming back, the vary
2:11
Speaker 1: ingt of the COVID, We didn't know what it was
2:12
Speaker 1: going to do, and we're still seeing, you know, spikes
2:15
Speaker 1: and valleys and spikes. We didn't know what if if
2:20
Speaker 1: inflation is transitory or not. Now we're finding out it
2:23
Speaker 1: might not be transitory. And then the biggest thing that
2:26
Speaker 1: I had concerns about, what you don't hear people talk
2:29
Speaker 1: about much, was the geopolitical fall out of how we
2:32
Speaker 1: left Afghanistan, because I know what my little cold, cold
2:36
Speaker 1: town I come from, just human nature was if there
2:39
Speaker 1: was a bully and you saw someone smack that bully
2:42
Speaker 1: and make that bully back down, and everybody else is
2:44
Speaker 1: ready to take their shot too. But the finish on
2:47
Speaker 1: the session in Delaware, Um, he's not gonna let this
2:52
Speaker 1: one go, is it? What? Um? Did you leave thinking
2:56
Speaker 1: that we're making progress and that you said that the president, Well,
3:00
Speaker 1: here's my bottom line and if you can deliver this,
3:02
Speaker 1: I you got my vote. I don't think you negotiate.
3:05
Speaker 1: You should know one should ever negotiate with the president,
3:07
Speaker 1: especially or anyone else if you're if you're negotiating in
3:10
Speaker 1: good faith. Yeah, I've always tried to put myself in
3:13
Speaker 1: the other person, but I want the other person to
3:16
Speaker 1: understand who I am. Too. So if they can put
3:18
Speaker 1: themselves to where I am and I put my we
3:20
Speaker 1: reverse roles and look at it. So when I left,
3:22
Speaker 1: I think it was a very positive meeting. We know
3:25
Speaker 1: there's a lot of a lot of things we can
3:27
Speaker 1: do to make more a more perfect union. Um, when
3:32
Speaker 1: you go to President's house like that, I guess you
3:35
Speaker 1: can ask for anything you want to eat, and they
3:37
Speaker 1: serve anything right that goes. They want to make you happy. Right,
3:39
Speaker 1: So we had a good time. Let me tell you
3:40
Speaker 1: the thing we had a good time was, is you
3:42
Speaker 1: know how I kidded him? Uh, you know how he
3:45
Speaker 1: was always supposed to be the poorest senator. He had
3:48
Speaker 1: an eye for real estate, a right, so um, so
3:54
Speaker 1: I told you my semester, presdi do you didn't you're
3:57
Speaker 1: too bad for a poor senator. But let me tell
3:59
Speaker 1: you one thing. And we talked about that and you
4:01
Speaker 1: walked down. But he built the home, and I was
4:03
Speaker 1: very impressed. He did a heck of a job, and
4:05
Speaker 1: he designed the whole thing. We went through it. It's
4:07
Speaker 1: a very nice home in a very nice setting. And
4:10
Speaker 1: and he has some neighbors and one neighbor it's not
4:13
Speaker 1: of his political persuasion. And if he's four inches over
4:17
Speaker 1: for car parks four inches over the sometimes he hears
4:19
Speaker 1: about it. And even when he was President States right
4:22
Speaker 1: now more so when he's president. So when you're negotiating
4:25
Speaker 1: with him or meeting with him, Um, you are you
4:28
Speaker 1: kind of representing a senator of cinema or does she
4:31
Speaker 1: represent herself? No? One thing you learned about being a Senate.
4:35
Speaker 1: If you can take care of yourself, you're lucky. Okay,
4:37
Speaker 1: So all right, so she has her own views and
4:40
Speaker 1: you have her Okay. I respect her very much, and
4:42
Speaker 1: she's a friend of mine, but you know we uh,
4:46
Speaker 1: I think what we bonded. And because I was, I've
4:48
Speaker 1: been adamant. I've been there long enough to vote in
4:51
Speaker 1: against the nuclear bomb getting rid of the filibuster that
4:54
Speaker 1: when at that time Senator Harry Reid did uh, and
4:57
Speaker 1: then in seen when Mitch McConnell did it for Supreme Court.
5:01
Speaker 1: And I've been very steadfast on that. And then to
5:04
Speaker 1: find out I have another person who feels as strong
5:06
Speaker 1: as I do was welcome. Okay. So as all the
5:10
Speaker 1: attention you're getting pleasurable or actually a pain in the
5:13
Speaker 1: something or another, I wouldn't this this position I guess
5:16
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish it on anybody. And people keep talking
5:18
Speaker 1: about power, you never but I look at this room
5:20
Speaker 1: and all the power in this room, and you all
5:22
Speaker 1: been around, all of us have been long enough and
5:24
Speaker 1: watching life and watching how people, uh, basically navigate life.
5:30
Speaker 1: I've seen people with an awful lot of power that
5:32
Speaker 1: abused it, and I said, why would they do that?
5:34
Speaker 1: And I've seen people that sought power and destroy themselves
5:37
Speaker 1: trying to gain it. And then I've seen people took
5:40
Speaker 1: a moment of time and I'll tell all of you
5:42
Speaker 1: right now, a moment of time is this. We better
5:44
Speaker 1: bring our country together. We better figure out it's United
5:47
Speaker 1: States of America, united not divided States of America. And
5:50
Speaker 1: we better start working on that. But um, the like,
5:57
Speaker 1: in other words, you are the key vote in so
6:00
Speaker 1: many things going on in the Senate and the Center
6:01
Speaker 1: sentem as well. Is that is that fun to be that?
6:05
Speaker 1: There's not? There's nothing fun about it. But I always
6:07
Speaker 1: said this. I kept thinking because I was a governor
6:10
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine when they were doing American
6:12
Speaker 1: Rescue Plan, I mean the Affordable Care Act, and uh,
6:17
Speaker 1: I kept thinking, if I had been governor if I
6:19
Speaker 1: had been sentator that time to come down to a
6:21
Speaker 1: swing vote like you did with a couple of the
6:23
Speaker 1: modyrates at that time, I think you maybe I could
6:26
Speaker 1: have made a little bit of a difference there. And
6:27
Speaker 1: because I understood how it was delivered in the states
6:31
Speaker 1: and people that were going without and people that needed it,
6:33
Speaker 1: but also people that could have used it and take
6:35
Speaker 1: advantage of it, and I thought there's a better way
6:36
Speaker 1: to do it. Lo and behold, ten years later, I
6:38
Speaker 1: found myself in a position and about every vote fifty
6:42
Speaker 1: Senate who would have thought that had come down to this?
6:45
Speaker 1: Is that your view that we should keep the current
6:47
Speaker 1: Senate filibuster rule for the voting rights bill that you author.
6:50
Speaker 1: The only thing I know I watched the Democrats use
6:53
Speaker 1: it against Trump and a lot of things that we
6:57
Speaker 1: were able to stop, things that just didn't make sense
6:59
Speaker 1: to us. So how can we just two or three
7:04
Speaker 1: two years ago, three years ago, thirty nine Democrats senators
7:07
Speaker 1: led by our leader basically sign letters, please miss McConnell,
7:12
Speaker 1: do not do away with the fellowbuster. Now all of
7:14
Speaker 1: a sudden it becomes all please get rid of because
7:17
Speaker 1: it will help us more. Makes no sense to me,
7:19
Speaker 1: at all the voting rights bill you have authored, a
7:23
Speaker 1: I amended version of the Voting Rights Act that you
7:25
Speaker 1: thought would get for the Senate doesn't seem like it's
7:27
Speaker 1: getting through unless you change the Fellowbuster rules. What do
7:30
Speaker 1: you think is gonna happen on voting rights? Well, let
7:31
Speaker 1: me just tell you. They said I didn't author, Okay,
7:34
Speaker 1: I put I had input because I saw the for
7:36
Speaker 1: the people, and I knew it was aspirational, and I
7:38
Speaker 1: understand everything that you can imagine was in that bill.
7:41
Speaker 1: We're just trying to We're just trying to protect the
7:43
Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act of nine, which got shot down in
7:47
Speaker 1: the Shelby decision in we haven't even fixed that. We
7:51
Speaker 1: haven't even fixed that because basically it went from nine
7:54
Speaker 1: states to thirteen states and then they threw it out
7:56
Speaker 1: with a Shelby decision. And I said, really, all fifty
8:00
Speaker 1: states should be held responsible and accountable. And I couldn't
8:03
Speaker 1: in my mind. When I was Secretary State, we used
8:05
Speaker 1: to have a Secretary State Association meetings. We were always
8:08
Speaker 1: competing who could get the greatest turn out. I can't.
8:11
Speaker 1: And now I'm realizing that people were basically looking at
8:15
Speaker 1: the vantage they would get if people don't vote or
8:17
Speaker 1: certain people don't vote. That's beyond my comprehension. But it's
8:21
Speaker 1: the reality of what we're dealing with. It's got to
8:23
Speaker 1: be corrected. But I can't believe that. My my Republican friends,
8:28
Speaker 1: uh don't see it that way. I just I still can't,
8:31
Speaker 1: you know what. And they keep saying, well, Joe, how
8:33
Speaker 1: many Republicans you got? How many of this? And I'm
8:36
Speaker 1: working and talking to the Republican I keep looking at me, Sist,
8:38
Speaker 1: what have you done? Who was the last person you
8:40
Speaker 1: talked to on the Republican side? Have I need a
8:42
Speaker 1: little bit of help? The debt limit. We've extended it
8:46
Speaker 1: until December. Are you worried about the debt limit not
8:49
Speaker 1: being passed into Sember? It is crazy for us to
8:51
Speaker 1: use that as a as a political weapon. It is
8:54
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. I think that basically the thing that we
8:57
Speaker 1: should do is come to an agreement all the truce
9:01
Speaker 1: and David, what I would say, is the thing that
9:04
Speaker 1: bothers me more. I don't see our leadership working together.
9:07
Speaker 1: I don't see people talking, having dinner or coffee, or
9:10
Speaker 1: even having a conversation on the floor. You'll see a
9:13
Speaker 1: few of us going back and forth and this and that.
9:15
Speaker 1: If you're watching you know, if you are, you're you're, Uh,
9:19
Speaker 1: you're you're more troubled than I thought. If you're just
9:21
Speaker 1: watching c SPAN and seeing us going back and forth. Uh.
9:25
Speaker 1: But the bottom line is is no one's working and talking.
9:28
Speaker 1: So if you're not going to talk and communicate in
9:30
Speaker 1: an easy way to do, get rid of the field
9:31
Speaker 1: of us. That's easy. Sure, all this is easy. Would
9:34
Speaker 1: you be in favor of eliminating the dead limit? Just
9:36
Speaker 1: get rid of the dead liman should be fourteenth Amendment.
9:38
Speaker 1: But the president has the right to make that decision.
9:40
Speaker 1: We have the right to override if we think he
9:42
Speaker 1: went too far. That to me is as simple as
9:44
Speaker 1: it takes all the politicians out of him making a deal.
9:47
Speaker 1: The thing that we got caught in the conundrum right now,
9:50
Speaker 1: the Republican says, we'll fine, I want you to set
9:51
Speaker 1: the deadlom. It's gonna be thirty one trillion, thirty two.
9:54
Speaker 1: You know we're right, twenty nine trillion now, So who's
9:57
Speaker 1: gonna set the one? Set the one? The one we
9:58
Speaker 1: have right now is the eighth four and that's that's
10:02
Speaker 1: going to slide into December. And basically the only way
10:06
Speaker 1: we can do it right now is if if the
10:07
Speaker 1: Republicans would not agree and I don't think that, we
10:10
Speaker 1: should change the rules by ourselves, which is called the
10:13
Speaker 1: nuclear option. This should be something that's done, that's going
10:15
Speaker 1: to hold and saying okay, President has that authority, we
10:19
Speaker 1: have the authority to review and override. Based on your experience,
10:23
Speaker 1: you would expect that sometime in December they'll figure out
10:26
Speaker 1: how to extend it. Before that, I'm pushing it now.
10:28
Speaker 1: We should do it now. It should not come down
10:30
Speaker 1: to the limit again. So if we can't do it
10:32
Speaker 1: and they don't agree on that, the Democrats have the responsibility,
10:35
Speaker 1: being the majority party right now, to do it through
10:37
Speaker 1: reconciliation among new reconciliation. You've got to set a number,
10:41
Speaker 1: and that's our responsibility, and I would take that and
10:43
Speaker 1: do it. What about the continuing Resolution to fund the government?
10:47
Speaker 1: You think that will go to the last minute as well,
10:48
Speaker 1: For everything goes to last minute, and it is a
10:50
Speaker 1: shame because no one's talking up until the last minute
10:52
Speaker 1: and becomes a crisis. We were okay, we can still
10:55
Speaker 1: manage through a crisis. It's a shame that you have
10:58
Speaker 1: to run the greatest country on Earth crisis. Well, the
11:00
Speaker 1: Senate Democrats and the center of Publicans that they socialize
11:04
Speaker 1: or talk to each other very much, or just it's
11:06
Speaker 1: not considered appropriate to be talking to people from the
11:08
Speaker 1: opposite party very much. In the Senate. Well, it's a
11:10
Speaker 1: shame that that that you see some of that going on,
11:12
Speaker 1: that people just don't talk to people that much. And
11:16
Speaker 1: I make a point to have dinner with him or
11:19
Speaker 1: meet him somewhere or just you know, I always do
11:21
Speaker 1: that and try to and I think that's the way,
11:23
Speaker 1: and I think there should be there should be something
11:26
Speaker 1: to where at least the leaders have to have lunch
11:28
Speaker 1: one day a week. I would think that would be good.
11:31
Speaker 1: But you know what we do. We have caucus lunches.
11:33
Speaker 1: All the Democrats go over here, all Republicans go over there.
11:36
Speaker 1: And once a year we had Johnny Isingson would have
11:39
Speaker 1: all the people from Georgia come up and do a
11:41
Speaker 1: big pork thing, barbecue thing, and we'd all get together.
11:43
Speaker 1: But even then it didn't last much longer than now.
11:47
Speaker 1: So you have a Republican colleague in the Senate from
11:49
Speaker 1: West Virginia, Senator of Capital, a very good friend of mine.
11:52
Speaker 1: So how do you we get on good? One night
11:56
Speaker 1: we were I had to go back home. We were
11:57
Speaker 1: voting late and we missed the plane when you had
11:59
Speaker 1: one light at night going back. So I said, hey, Shelley,
12:02
Speaker 1: I said, I'm driving. She said okay, so you wanna
12:04
Speaker 1: ride with me? She thought about it for a minute
12:05
Speaker 1: or two. She says, okay, count me in. So about
12:08
Speaker 1: ten o'clock we take off for West Virginia. And I
12:11
Speaker 1: drive a little bit fast, and some night at night
12:13
Speaker 1: I drive a little bit faster because I know within
12:15
Speaker 1: the speeding by myself. Well, I won't say that. So
12:20
Speaker 1: we were driving and we were going through back. Then
12:21
Speaker 1: we got picked up for speeding. Oh he did. But
12:25
Speaker 1: when that, when you get picked up, I mean, they
12:27
Speaker 1: know who you are, So what do they do? State
12:28
Speaker 1: policeman comes to the Doorney Rosa. Oh my god, he says,
12:32
Speaker 1: he says, governor. He said, no, sender. He was one
12:34
Speaker 1: of the troopers that I had when I was governor.
12:36
Speaker 1: So I thought I was in pretty good shape. So
12:39
Speaker 1: you uh, I guess she didn't get a ticket. Then
12:41
Speaker 1: then when the funny part was this, he looked at
12:43
Speaker 1: me and said, oh my god, is both of you.
12:47
Speaker 1: Are you worried that the Senate and the House could
12:50
Speaker 1: flip to the Republicans in the mid term, because that
12:53
Speaker 1: often happens in these first year Well, we didn't have
12:56
Speaker 1: much of a buffer from going in, Okay, David Is
12:58
Speaker 1: It wasn't like we had a little bit of a
13:00
Speaker 1: bench strength here. I know. So are you worried about this? Sure?
13:03
Speaker 1: I mean you're worried if I'm a chairman right now
13:06
Speaker 1: of a committee which I enjoy very much. I've been
13:08
Speaker 1: ranking before on the committee which is a minority part
13:11
Speaker 1: which Lisa Murkowski was one of my dearest friends and
13:14
Speaker 1: a great partner, and we worked back and forth. But yeah,
13:17
Speaker 1: you're it's much better off when you can control the
13:18
Speaker 1: agenda versus you have to follow but there's nothing you
13:21
Speaker 1: can do about it and tell anything about it, and
13:24
Speaker 1: you can have good sound policy. I've always said this,
13:26
Speaker 1: the best politics is good government, and today that's not
13:29
Speaker 1: we're practicing today. It's not about right now. And I
13:33
Speaker 1: said the Republicans are missing a golden opportunity not to
13:36
Speaker 1: jump on the infrastructure bill and be overwhelmingly bipartisan and
13:39
Speaker 1: taking credit. I've seen people take credit of good legislation
13:43
Speaker 1: to voted against it. I can't believe that happens in Washington.
13:47
Speaker 1: I can't. So is this making you more popular in
13:50
Speaker 1: West Virginia or less popular? And all this attention or
13:52
Speaker 1: it depends on what corner town you go to, so
13:56
Speaker 1: um and you go back. I go back all the time. Yeah,
14:00
Speaker 1: you know, I love my state. And I'm born and
14:02
Speaker 1: raised in a little coal mining town Farmington four or people.
14:06
Speaker 1: And uh, I just I just saw people that worked
14:09
Speaker 1: all the time and kind of shared what they had
14:11
Speaker 1: and took care of each other, and took care of
14:13
Speaker 1: those who couldn't take care of themselves if they were
14:15
Speaker 1: mentally or physically handicapped, the town always picked them up.
14:18
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw all the good in what we
14:21
Speaker 1: are small town America and what the United States is,
14:23
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, and be the old countries that way.
14:26
Speaker 1: West Virginia used to be a solidly democratic state when
14:28
Speaker 1: John Kenny ran from president was a very democratic state.
14:32
Speaker 1: It's democratic state till right, so now it's Republican state.
14:36
Speaker 1: What's changed West Virginia or the country. I couldn't believe,
14:39
Speaker 1: you know. I was very blessed with having good support
14:42
Speaker 1: from Republicans Democrats, independence. You know, I never got the extremes.
14:46
Speaker 1: I never got the far right or far left. And
14:49
Speaker 1: I can understand that, but we never ran our country
14:51
Speaker 1: or our states, or our politics from the far right
14:53
Speaker 1: or far left was always And I told people, I
14:56
Speaker 1: gave a speech one day, the first time we come
14:58
Speaker 1: back off the COVID to Bethany call Age Uh their graduation,
15:01
Speaker 1: a little beautiful or college up in northern northern West Virginia.
15:05
Speaker 1: And I walked on the stage. I didn't they gave
15:07
Speaker 1: me a speech, and I have good, good people here
15:10
Speaker 1: at work with me, and I had just nothing. Where
15:12
Speaker 1: do I say? You've been closer it in for one
15:14
Speaker 1: year and I had nothing on paper or nothing in
15:18
Speaker 1: my mind that I was going to say. As I
15:19
Speaker 1: walked to the podium, I'm thinking, man, I'm blank. I
15:22
Speaker 1: don't want to go to say. And I walked up
15:24
Speaker 1: there and I just apologized. I said, I want to apologize.
15:27
Speaker 1: I am sorry. I am sorry. I've been radicalized. And
15:30
Speaker 1: they looked at me and I don't know how that
15:32
Speaker 1: came out that way. So I've been radicalized. I said,
15:34
Speaker 1: your grandparents have been radicalized, your parents have been Our
15:38
Speaker 1: generation was radicalized because we don't understand what's going on.
15:41
Speaker 1: You understand I never had I never had computers, I
15:45
Speaker 1: never had cell phones, didn't have any of those growing up.
15:47
Speaker 1: So I got my news pretty much down the middle
15:49
Speaker 1: of CBS, ABC, NBC. I'm never free. At one time
15:52
Speaker 1: when John Kennedy was running for president in West Virginia
15:55
Speaker 1: was a swing state, and my parents were all excited.
15:58
Speaker 1: And I didn't know why they were all excited about politics,
16:00
Speaker 1: but the young the young person running and he was
16:04
Speaker 1: a Catholic, and we're a Catholic family, and it was
16:06
Speaker 1: there's not many Catholics in West Virginia, so they were
16:09
Speaker 1: all excited. So I got excited. So we're watching television
16:12
Speaker 1: one night and had to be Walter Cronkite. He said,
16:14
Speaker 1: it's been said that if John Kennedy becomes president of
16:17
Speaker 1: pope were running the country. I looked at my mom
16:19
Speaker 1: and says, boy, he don't know that. He don't know that.
16:22
Speaker 1: The Catholics we know. That's all. That's all I could
16:27
Speaker 1: come up with, because I can figure I never seen
16:29
Speaker 1: by tell Catholic or Protestant or jew anything. They're gonna
16:32
Speaker 1: make their own minds up. You're the only statewide office
16:35
Speaker 1: holder in Western here's a Democrat, right, Oh, yes, it's
16:38
Speaker 1: very lonely. Have you ever thought my life would be
16:41
Speaker 1: easier for you if you shifted to being a Republican?
16:45
Speaker 1: And somebody has said recently that, um, you know people
16:48
Speaker 1: have approached you about doing that every day? Wouldn't like
16:51
Speaker 1: be easier for you to do that? It will be
16:53
Speaker 1: much easier, my goodness? Is that the purpose of being
16:56
Speaker 1: involved in public services? No, I've never I've never thought
17:00
Speaker 1: from this I'm what I'm telling you now is who
17:03
Speaker 1: I am. Do you think by having a D or
17:05
Speaker 1: an I or an R is gonna change who I am?
17:08
Speaker 1: I don't think the RS be any more happier with
17:10
Speaker 1: me than d's are, right now, Okay, I mean that's
17:13
Speaker 1: about as bland as I can put it. So I
17:15
Speaker 1: don't know where in the hell I belong. So, um,
17:19
Speaker 1: it's being governor more fun than being Oh my god, yes,
17:25
Speaker 1: being governor. And I got involved in politics. I was
17:27
Speaker 1: upset because I saw a guy come in one time
17:29
Speaker 1: talk to my father. I was thirty five years old
17:31
Speaker 1: with three kids. I had no intention get involved politics,
17:33
Speaker 1: not at all. And the guy came in. He started
17:35
Speaker 1: talking about favors. This was a local politician, he says
17:39
Speaker 1: when he left. I said, Dad, he made it look
17:41
Speaker 1: like that he was doing you a favor to take
17:44
Speaker 1: care of people of his constituency. He's not doing his job.
17:47
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm gonna run. I'm gonna I'm just
17:49
Speaker 1: got went through me like a knife. I said, I'm
17:51
Speaker 1: gonna run. And Dad says, oh no, no, he don't
17:53
Speaker 1: get involved in politics. That's not a good, good profession. Boy.
17:55
Speaker 1: How prolific he was back then to understand that. And
17:59
Speaker 1: I said, I said, Dad, you're you're a hypocrite. I
18:02
Speaker 1: thought he was going to hit me. And he looked
18:04
Speaker 1: at me and he says, why would you call him?
18:06
Speaker 1: I said, Dad, you always said you want good people involved,
18:08
Speaker 1: have to get good values. They should get involved for
18:10
Speaker 1: the right reason. I said, I think I was raised
18:12
Speaker 1: right and you all, I mean, I think I feel
18:15
Speaker 1: pretty balanced. And he looked at me and he says,
18:17
Speaker 1: you're right. Let's go get him. So so I ran
18:20
Speaker 1: a one and that's how I got involved. I was
18:22
Speaker 1: one of a hundred when I was a House of Delegates.
18:25
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, if I was in the
18:26
Speaker 1: state Senate, i'd be one of thirty four, I have
18:28
Speaker 1: three times the ability to help more people. And then
18:31
Speaker 1: I said, boy, if I was governor, i'd be one
18:33
Speaker 1: oh one. I could really do something. So that's how.
18:36
Speaker 1: And now I'm back to one of a hundred. All right, um,
18:38
Speaker 1: but well you're up for re election in four so
18:45
Speaker 1: you're gonna run again. I'll be seventy seven years old.
18:48
Speaker 1: What do you think that's young? In the Senate? I
18:50
Speaker 1: mean you're young. I mean the President Night States older
18:52
Speaker 1: than that. So uh, I mean that's young. So you
18:56
Speaker 1: haven't decided yet or you want to announce that I haven't.
18:59
Speaker 1: I haven't decided. You know, if I think I can,
19:03
Speaker 1: if I think I can contribute and be productive, and
19:05
Speaker 1: I think this moment of time we're in right now
19:07
Speaker 1: that we can balance some things out and people understand.
19:10
Speaker 1: The thing that bothers me more than anything that I
19:12
Speaker 1: think I've ever had in my political life is I
19:15
Speaker 1: don't hear the word this will be good for our
19:17
Speaker 1: country when we're looking and thinking about fixing a problem
19:20
Speaker 1: until we start, and then someone tries to justify if
19:23
Speaker 1: you're on the right or the left, if you're a
19:25
Speaker 1: Democratic Republican, then saying we're gonna do this because it's
19:28
Speaker 1: good for the country. No, No, you're gonna do that
19:31
Speaker 1: cause good for the party. Well, in uh, twenty twenty four,
19:35
Speaker 1: there's another election president United States. You wouldn't think of
19:39
Speaker 1: running for president. Every one and one wouldn't it. Yeah,
19:41
Speaker 1: it could be like a gomer Why not, I haven't.
19:44
Speaker 1: I haven't thought of that. You have been ruled it out,
19:46
Speaker 1: but you haven't thought about it. You're gonna be a
19:48
Speaker 1: campaign manager. Uh, you wouldn't win if I was a
19:51
Speaker 1: campaign manager. I'm not that good, But so no, I haven't.
19:55
Speaker 1: Now I'm want to support I support Joe Biden. I really,
19:57
Speaker 1: I really think he was the right person at the
19:59
Speaker 1: right time time. We just got to balance things. Do
20:01
Speaker 1: you think the Biden administration is doing nine months into
20:04
Speaker 1: it and they're having will struggle right now? I really
20:05
Speaker 1: think so. And we got to rethink this whole thing.
20:07
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking that. You know, I agree with him
20:11
Speaker 1: getting out of Afghanistan. We should never happy with the
20:14
Speaker 1: way no no one could be happy the way we
20:16
Speaker 1: got out. No one could be happy about that. But
20:18
Speaker 1: there's not a good way to get out of these things.
20:21
Speaker 1: But there had to be. You think better than what
20:22
Speaker 1: we did, so you can look at it from that standpoint.
20:25
Speaker 1: But I think he understands foreign policy. He really does.
20:29
Speaker 1: On some of the things we're working. We've talked about
20:31
Speaker 1: some different concerns we have around the world, and uh,
20:35
Speaker 1: the United States has to be ready to do what
20:37
Speaker 1: we do defend democracy. If the election were held today,
20:40
Speaker 1: the presidential election was held a year or so ago,
20:44
Speaker 1: with West Virginia vote the same way, Westernia is still
20:47
Speaker 1: not that supportive of it. Yeah, I'd still vote for
20:49
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but I'd be in a minority. And uh,
20:52
Speaker 1: in your view, West Virginia is likely to stay Republican
20:54
Speaker 1: for presidential purposes for the foreseeable future. West Virginia was
20:57
Speaker 1: a Republican, stayed up until the Depression and the depression
21:01
Speaker 1: changes to f DR state. But we were always a
21:03
Speaker 1: conservative Democrat state. We were the northernmost southern state in
21:07
Speaker 1: the nation because we're out in the Mason Dixon line.
21:10
Speaker 1: We never flipped. We flipped in twenty ten, and we flipped.
21:13
Speaker 1: We flipped harder than any southern state ever flipped. The
21:15
Speaker 1: most important issue in the mind of West Virginian's today
21:18
Speaker 1: is what I think the respecting dignity of who they
21:21
Speaker 1: are as a human being, in the society that we have,
21:24
Speaker 1: in the culture that we have, understanding us. We're the
21:27
Speaker 1: hardest working people. But but I don't have enough workers.
21:30
Speaker 1: So I can tell you my state grew in immigration
21:33
Speaker 1: back in the in the early nineteen hundreds. People came miracles.
21:36
Speaker 1: They wanted to work. I need workers. We need people
21:39
Speaker 1: that want a quality of life for themselves and their
21:42
Speaker 1: families and take care of the ones. I have a
21:44
Speaker 1: lot of elderly people, have a high percentage of elderly,
21:47
Speaker 1: and they talk about social reforms. I said, wait a minute.
21:50
Speaker 1: If Social Security and Medicare is not solvent, and the
21:53
Speaker 1: trust funds are not solvent, then you're taking away a
21:55
Speaker 1: lifeline that people have right now, Why should I expand
21:59
Speaker 1: all these so sal services. Well, I can't even pay
22:01
Speaker 1: for what we got. So do you enjoy it being
22:03
Speaker 1: a center with all this pressure on you? Is as
22:05
Speaker 1: fun or is there not? No? There's no fun. There's
22:07
Speaker 1: no I mean here, I don't you know. And neighbor said,
22:09
Speaker 1: how are you taking the pressure? I said, well, I
22:12
Speaker 1: have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to do my job,
22:15
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do my job, and I'm gonna explain myself.
22:17
Speaker 1: I've always said, if I can't go home and explain,
22:19
Speaker 1: I can't vote for it, you might be my best friend.
22:21
Speaker 1: And if just As just said please, can you give
22:23
Speaker 1: me a pass on this? You know my dad always said,
22:26
Speaker 1: if you can say no with a tear in your eye,
22:27
Speaker 1: you might be okay. And I've been crying a lot lately.
22:33
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
22:36
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
22:40
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.