CHARLESTON, W.Va. — GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Cole hosted a visit in Charleston Tuesday afternoon from a prominent Republican on the national stage.
Rick Perry held a roundtable energy forum at the Charleston Marriott. The former Texas governor said in no uncertain terms that he is backing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in November’s election.
“There is a process that we go through in this country. I respect it; I don’t necessarily always agree that it’s perfection,” Perry said. “But Donald Trump is our nominee. This is really pretty simplistic for me: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump; Supreme Court appointments.”
Perry added that Trump would will his administration with the right people, saying that he was “all in.” Trump would regain the respect of America’s allies, Perry said criticizing President Barack Obama’s visit over Memorial Day weekend to Hiroshima.
“I think anytime you see a president go and say the things that he said, that is perceived by our allies as being an apology,” said Perry. “Did he go there and say ‘we are sorry for dropping the bomb’? No.”
The pending replacement of the late Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court was one of the main reasons Perry said he was backing Trump.
“The courts are going to rule on the legality of a whole bunch of these directives, executive orders that (Obama) has been involved with. I think there will be a wholesale turning over of them. There’s obviously great agreement that he has overstepped his bounds.”
Cole heard some criticism from Democrats and his opponent in the governor’s race, Jim Justice, for holding a campaign event during the special budget session.
“I will not take a salary as governor because I don’t want anything from the taxpayers,” said businessman Jim Justice. “Bill Cole should give every single dollar he raises tonight to the state. He’s wasted time and taxpayer money all to benefit his campaign for governor. Since Bill Cole charged taxpayers $385,000 on this budget session; the least he could do is own up to his failure to pass a budget.”
Cole made no apologies for the event, pointing out that it had been planned for several weeks, well before special session was called by the governor.
“I’m working from early to late, six, seven days a week, whatever I need to do to try and bring this budget in,” Cole said. “The budget process is not going to suffer one iota because we had a fundraiser tonight.”
The special session will enter day 12 on Wednesday.