Helping America maintain energy independence.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well with us today is the Governor Patrick Morrissey from West Virginia. A Brooklyn boy and born in Brooklyn, born in bay Ridge, lived in bay Ridge, his family moved to West Virginia twelve years the Attorney General of West Virginia and now Governor of West Virginia. Well, you miss Brooklyn at all.

0:25 Speaker 2 You know. I’ll tell you what it’s nice to be with you today.

0:28 Speaker 3 Every state, Brooklyn, New York, every state has some amazing things. I will tell you, though. West Virginia has unmatched beauty. So I love it pretty passionately, and I feel very fortunate to be the governor of the great state.

0:43 Speaker 1 And you just got elected, so you got four years to go to fix or do whatever in West Virginia. Tell me to tell Americans, because Sunday mornings we’re heard in fifty states. Tell Americans about West Virginia. What you used to be the coal mining state? Is there still any coal mining in West Virginia.

1:07 Speaker 2 There is still coal mining in West Virginia.

1:09 Speaker 3 And I think the best way to describe West Virginia is that we have some of the most tardy, incredibly kind, generous people. We live in arguably the most beautiful state in the nation. It’s incredible. I mean, imagine just walking into this beautiful outdoor playground.

1:28 Speaker 2 Where you come in.

1:29 Speaker 3 You have so many wonderful rivers and outdoor type of activities. You know, you think about West Virginia and the mountainous areas, you go back millions of years. West Virginia used to have the highest peaks in the world. And so I think that everyone knows about the kind generous spirit, the grit of West Virginia, the coal miners that worked that mine,

1:53 the coal that fueled the steel that really helped drive American energy for so many years. And now we get to a point where we still have coal, but we also have this amazing gas opportunity, and that all that is going to be really needed as we go into the next fight, which is with China for technological supremacy

2:16 for these data centers. And so West Virginia is really one of the best salt of the Earth places left. And I’m just very happy to be up here today and tell the story about West Virginia and what it’s done because we gave so much to the United States to help it rise, and now we’re ready to keep

2:35 giving and to make sure that America has energy independence.

2:39 Speaker 1 And America will have energy independence. So we got four years of a President Trump and he wants North America, Canada in the United States is going to be.

2:51 Speaker 2 A powerhouse without a doubt.

2:53 Speaker 3 I think that America is coming back, and West Virginia is coming back, and we have some things that we’re working on and to really supercharge all of our energy opportunities. Things were doing that we have never done before in West Virginia, and I think the people are excited for the new economic opportunities, you know, ready for Look a

3:13 president who’s finally going to be slaying inflation, and there’s so much of good that’s going to be coming out of the state. I just hope, you know, I want people to have patience with what’s going on. You had sleepy Joe Biden there for a while. It takes a little bit of time to clean up that mess. But

3:28 I think President Trump is doing that and we’ve been excited to work with him.

3:32 Speaker 1 Yes, you mentioned President Joe Biden. I don’t think you knew what was going on, and I hope we get down to the bottom of it. Who was really running the White House for four years and who was pressing the buttons up there. Yeah, well, we’ll see if we ever get down to it.

3:48 Speaker 3 But you know, I think we all know that the difference between Biden and Trump is night and day. And thank goodness for Donald Trump. He is wildly popular in West Virginia. He’s always been. This has been one of his biggest states in terms of electoral victories. So he gets sixty nine seventy percent of the vote. So we’re

4:10 looking forward to him coming back to West Virginia and we’re going to give him a big welcoming round of applause.

4:16 Speaker 1 In twenty twenty six, it’s going to be a big election year for the United States. Are you comfortable that West Virginia is going to go completely Republicans?

4:28 Speaker 2 I think so.

4:28 Speaker 3 I mean the state has moved over time, and so it’s a more Republican state than it was. You know, back when I first ran in twenty twelve, the Democrats had a massive registration advantage. That’s changed, and I think that Barack Obama’s unpopular he drove some of that. President Trump’s popularity drove that helping the Republicans, and certainly Joe

4:51 Biden didn’t do West Virginia any favors with a lot of the policies he put in place. So I think that West Virginia is going to hold strong for or President Trump and Republicans. You know, I also want to make sure we do very well nationally. I think the key is President Trump’s doing a lot of tough stuff

5:09 early on, and the key is can you get that turned around by the end of the year.

5:14 Speaker 2 I think he can, and we all need to be a little bit of.

5:17 Speaker 3 Patient as President Trump and their administration they take on the tough fights that quite frankly, other people wouldn’t take on in the best You.

5:24 Speaker 1 Were an Chinee General of West Virginia for twelve years, so you know law enforcement pretty well. It looks like we have the southern border under under control, the northern border is getting under control. What other problems do you see?

5:41 I mean, I’ve said to people that I feel like our country is being invaded.

5:46 Speaker 3 Listen, I think you can see the difference immediately in terms of what’s happening with our border, and not just in terms of the undocumented aliens that are not coming in, but you’re seeing in terms of drugs, right Because in a Virginia we really felt the immigration crisis through the massive amounts of fentanyl that was streaming across the border

6:08 and it would come into West Virginia and we would have the worst drug overdose rates in the nation. And they’re still pretty bad. You’re starting to see them come down a little bit. And I think part of what you’re going to see in the next few years is the supply is going to be much more limited, and

6:24 that’s directly related to President Trump.

6:26 Speaker 2 So we think this is a really big plus.

6:29 Speaker 3 We’ve been working to tighten things up in West Virginia to kind of limit that supply from flooding in. So I think the drug issue is still really big for us because we’re trying to drive up our workforce participation.

6:41 We have the lowest workforce participation rate in the country, but we are going to put able bodied people to work. We’re going to make sure that if you’re able to get up every day and you’re going to be getting any Medicaid benefits or any snap benefits, Hey, doesn’t it make sense that you should.

6:57 Speaker 2 Work twenty five hours a week. We think it does. You get more people to work West Virginia. We’re going to rise.

7:08 Speaker 1 Last message to the American people on a Sunday morning. What do you want to tell the American people on Sunday morning?

7:14 Speaker 3 What’s tell American people that West Virginia is really beginning, it’s comeback, and that this is a small red state with the flexibility to adapt As the federal government is starting to shrink in size because it was so bloated for all those years. States like West Virginia are going to pick up the baton and we’re going to help

7:34 drive American energy independence through our coal, through our natural gas, and we’re going to build data centers faster than any other state in the country. The time to build in West Virginia will be faster, stronger, better than anyone else from the new building we have, and West Virginia will rise through our energy leverage and our people.

7:56 Speaker 2 Well.

7:57 Speaker 1 Governor Patrick Morrissey A Brook, Governor of West Virginia, thank you for calling us on a Sunday morning. And God bless you and God bless America.

8:08 Speaker 3 You know, John, it’s great to be with you, and I love what you’re doing with WABC. It’s got an incredible national following. And I remember growing up, you know, listening to the station and listening to a lot of other stations here and it’s nice to see you in person.

8:23 Speaker 1 Thank you so much.