After delivering the State of the State address in written form due to his COVID-19 illness, Governor Jim Justice gave an update to the West Virginia Legislature on Thursday, January 27.
“I can tell you that I am extremely grateful that you are allowing me to come late,” Justice said. “I absolutely promise you with all my soul that I couldn’t believe what happened, to tell you the truth.”
Recognizing his cabinet, the West Virginia Supreme Court, the Greenbrier East High School Lady Spartans Basketball team, and more, Justice also paused to honor the West Virginians lost to COVID-19 and its variants.
“Okay, it’s been two years, the pandemic has been tough and you know the toll it has taken on every single last one of us,” Justice said. “I have read every name. It has been really, really bad. That is just all there is to it. You know, we are great people and we are a resilient people, West Virginians, and I know in my heart we are going to get through this. We still need to all stay together and pull the rope together as much as we can and I want to talk to you just a second about that. But I would like to all of us bow in a moment of prayer. We have now lost 5,697 people. We will just do this in silent prayer, but please, please, remember all of those that we have lost.”
Justice highlighted several ongoing programs and initiatives before noting “I have brought you a flat budget again, record low unemployment, broadband becoming a reality, tourism exploding, proud to never, ever forget our coal miners and our gas workers and all of the fact that we all should be so proud of who we are, record pay raises, Communities In Schools doing phenomenal work, streamlining and eliminating waste, combating drugs, feeding the hungry, very, very just the essential ingredients who we ought to be, building road after road and surplus after surplus and made education our priority and did so and the world began to know that we are that diamond in the rough that everybody knew.”
At the end of the speech, Justice also referenced an ongoing back and forth with celebraty Bette Midler, holding his dog’s, Babydog, hind end up to the cameras.
“Absolutely people doubted us,” Justice said. “They never believed in West Virginia. They never believed in West Virginia, that we could do it. They never believed that the Nucors or the GreenPower or Owens & Minor, they never believed. They never believed they would be here. They told every bad joke in the world about us. And so from that standpoint, Babydog tells Bette Midler and all of those out there, kiss her hiney.”
The full transcript is available online at governor.wv.gov.
To see coverage of the governor’s written State of the State speech, see “Due To COVID Diagnosis, Justice Delivers Written ‘State Of The State’” on wvdn.com.
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