CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Laid up with a viral infection much of this past week, Gov. Jim Justice had a lot of time to think.
During a Saturday night telephone conversation meant to provide assurance that his health is all right, Justice wound up expanding on a variety of topics, including the firing of his chief of staff, rumors about himself and President Donald Trump and more potential staffing moves for his administration:
The firing of Nick Casey, Democrat
Justice said he hadn’t initially intended to fire chief of staff Nick Casey, a former state Democratic Party chairman, after the governor switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
But Justice said that as he and Casey interacted after the party switch announcement it became clear that something had to give. Justice said Casey’s home life played a part in what happened.
“The entire reason there is just one thing and one thing alone,” Justice said Saturday night. “Nick’s home life, his home; his wife is a rock solid Democrat. I respect that, completely. It makes life a little tougher. I asked Nick a month before this announcement, and I said ‘Nick if it’s going to make anything uncomfortable in anyway, you’re going to have to go.’
“For a month, Nick was ‘No governor I’m with you all in, all in.’ When it got to D-Day you could tell there was concern. And when I saw there was concern, I saw it was over. Nick said that about his wife. And he said ‘You know I was the chairman of the Democratic Party for a while.’ It had to be over.”
In an email response to questions posed by MetroNews last week, Casey said he did not expect to be fired.
“He asked me to stay and I kept working until he fired me,” Casey wrote. “I did not expect to be fired. I received encouragement from state leaders in education, business, labor and R’s and Ds across the board to stay because they saw me doing a good job for the state and I was committed to staying.”
Justice announced his party switch August 3 at a rally for President Donald Trump in Huntington. After that, Casey kept a low public profile and went out of town the middle of the following week for a lawyers’ conference.
Casey didn’t immediately return to the Capitol last week and, when Justice called him midway through Monday, he was celebrating his 42nd wedding anniversary with his wife in New York, intending to return within a couple of days. During their telephone conversation, Justice fired him.
Justice said he hadn’t realized Casey would be gone that Monday. He thought he was returning from the lawyers’ conference Sunday evening and would be at the Capitol on Monday.
“I checked with our office repeatedly and said ‘Has anybody heard from Nick?’ Finally when Monday came, it’s high time to get on with what we’re doing. When I called Nick and he said he wasn’t going to come back until Tuesday it’s high time to get on with what you’re doing.”
That was the second day, according to the governor’s timeline of events from his recent illness, that he was feeling feverish. The day after that, he flew to receive testing and treatment at Johns Hopkins Medical Center and wound up being out for the rest of the week.
Justice praised Casey on Saturday night, but said they had to part ways. He came to believe Casey would have been beholden to Democratic Party interests.
“As good a man as Nick is, and as hard as he tried, it’s hard to carry the trail of stuff. Everyone saying ‘What about me? What about me? What about me?’ It would have been hard on him.
“From my standpoint I don’t have time for that. I didn’t want things to become difficult for him. Because then they’d be difficult for me. I really feel like we got a real superstar in Mike Hall; I’m just really excited about that and all the things we’re going to do moving forward.”
More staffing moves — and discussion of Bray Cary
Justice intends to return to work Monday, and that’s also the first day for his new chief of staff, former Senate Finance Chairman Mike Hall.
Justice hinted that this isn’t the end of the moves on his administration team. That stands to reason because some key members of his team, like spokesman Grant Herring, have left already as the administration transitions from Democratic to Republican.
“I’ve been working on some other things and potential other new introductions, but I don’t have them quite put together yet. We’re just going to bear down and get at this and get on with everything together,” Justice said.
That prompted a question about former media executive Bray Cary and former U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner, both names that came up in the rumor mill last week after Casey’s firing.
Justice didn’t say a lot about Warner, except that he likes him. But the Cary response was interesting. Cary ran the West Virginia Media television stations and hosted the policy program “Decision Makers.” The Justice campaign was upset last fall over perceived bias on that program.
“Bray beat on me every day in the world, but I don’t harbor bad feelings like that. I like Bray. I like Kasey. I don’t feel like anything is going to happen there at all. If Bray can contribute or if anybody can contribute I’d welcome anybody’s contribution. All I want to do is just get something done,” Justice said.
He then transitioned into a long discussion about how Democratic delegates let him down during budget negotiations.
MetroNews called Cary last week for response. Cary said, simply: “I just don’t comment on all that. I have nothing to say about any of it.”
Senate President Mitch Carmichael was asked earlier about rumors about Cary and the chief of staff job. Carmichael is friendly both with the governor and with Cary.
“I think he’s more on the policy initiatives. But the day-to-day operations of the governor’s office, it’s not something I heard his name floated about,” Carmichael said then.
Trump and more rumors
The governor’s party switch — and the fact that it was announced in-person by President Donald Trump — fueled rumors that more moves were afoot.
One scenario, reported by Bloomberg, had a domino effect in which the Trump administration would move Energy Secretary Rick Perry to Homeland Security and offer the Energy Secretary position to West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
That, under the scenario, would have allowed the newly-Republican Justice to pick West Virginia’s newest senator, potentially to break a Senate deadlock on the Affordable Care Act.
Manchin threw cold water twice on that in the past few days, first during a Friday appearance at the West Virginia State Fair, where he said “That’s not going to happen.”
His office then put out a full statement Sunday afternoon:
“I know there has been a lot of speculation that I am being considered for the position of Energy Secretary in President Trump’s cabinet. I have dedicated my life in public service to doing my very best for the people of West Virginia and I will continue to do so — Whether it be as Delegate, State Senator, Secretary of State, Governor and now Senator,” Manchin stated.
“I believe that right now, the best way I can continue to serve the people of West Virginia is as United States Senator working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues and this Administration to repair our health care system, address our growing opioid epidemic, secure the pension for our miners, rebuild our national infrastructure and reform our broken tax code. I still believe that for our country and West Virginia to succeed we must come together as Americans, not as Republicans or Democrats and put partisan differences aside and address the challenges we face.”
What would have been in that deal for Justice? One rumor was a Trump purchase of The Greenbrier resort, owned by Justice and his family.
Justice said he got a call from his own daughter, Jill, current president of The Greenbrier, asking for confirmation of that one.
“Jill called me from The Greenbrier. Jill did. And she said ‘Are you selling the Greenbier to Donald Trump?’ She said it’s all over ‘The Greenbrier.’ I said ‘Jill for Gods sakes, are you crazy?’ It’s something all the time. What I’m saying is, it’s OK, I understand that. It’s all OK, but at the end of the day we have to dial in to what is really important and get stuff done.”
He said he understands that in his position both as governor and West Virginia’s richest man, people are going to talk about him. But he said he wishes some talk — such as gossip describing a recent shouting match with Democratic strategist Larry Puccio — would just settle down.
“Did I get into an argument with Larry Puccio or am I going to sell the Greenbrier? People get running with that stuff and it upsets people,” Justice said.
Justice has acknowledged that he discussed the party switch idea with Trump, but he said it was his idea alone.
He said people are saying, “‘You know, Donald Trump, because he was in such bad shape he’s the one who came up with this idea with Justice.’ That’s worse than saying I got in a fight with Larry Puccio. I single-handedly am the only person on the planet that brought this idea to Donald Trump.”