Politics - News Analysis

Americans Furious After West Virginia Governor Says Obama Isn’t Welcome in His State

File this under: “You might be a racist when:” You hold a press conference as governor of a state and note that, of course, your state will welcome every president, except perhaps the black one, aka Barack Obama.

From the Star Tribune:

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday said he would welcome any president to the state besides former President Barack Obama.

The unprompted comment came during a coronavirus news conference in which the Republican governor took a phone call from President Donald Trump and sought to highlight his relationship with the commander-in-chief ahead of the coming primary election.

We should absolutely welcome all but, you know, maybe not Barack Obama,” he said, smiling.

Ha, that guy’s funny. He is also perhaps a little racist, or a little evil, which is sort of the same thing. But in West Virginia – apparently – there’s little difference between joking and throwing a racist little tag line in there. All in good fun.

He needed to let his Republican supporters know that he’s dialed into their “jokes.” He didn’t say “Democrats,” he didn’t say “Clinton,” he didn’t say “Carter,” and didn’t say “Bush.” Nah, he picked out one guy.

Smile. “You know, maybe not Barack Obama.”

Yes, Governor Justice, we do “know.”

But because we know, he realized he said something quite dumb and immediately started to walk it back, even though he was on an island of his own making:

His office later walked back the remarks in a statement, saying they were “in jest” and “in regard to the effect that the Obama Administration’s War on Coal had on the West Virginia economy from 2008-2016.”

“I want to love everybody, and by that, I mean everybody, including President Obama,” Justice said in the statement. “But, at the end of the day, what happened to West Virginia during his time in the Oval Office will take us decades and decades to recover from, if ever.”

Hey, hey, hey!! Trump said he “loved clean coal.” He promised to bring mining jobs back! Trump has had 3.5 years to get this done. So he was lying?

We should probably let the governor know that it wasn’t Obama that destroyed the coal industry. It was changing world conditions, including global warming, along with natural gas (cleaner and cheaper than coal), wind power, and more efficient grids. So, that wasn’t Obama’s fault. That explains why Trump hasn’t fixed it.

But we drifted. It wasn’t about coal. It was about Obama.

Twitter is rightfully furious:

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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