Colbert rips Don Blankenship
Talk show host/comedian Stephen
Colbert savaged Don Blankenship on his CBS show, “The Late Show With
Stephen Colbert,” the successor to David Letterman.
Colbert had plenty of ammunition to
work with.
Blankenship
is the former chief executive of the Massey Energy Company where an explosion
in the Upper Big Branch coal mine killed 29 men in 2010. Massey was cited for
hundreds of violations while Blankenship was its CEO.
In
2016 Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison, the maximum allowed by law,
for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards that contributed to the
Upper Big Branch calamity, the deadliest mine toll in 40 years.
Previously, Blankenship admired China’s
state-controlled economy and expressed an interest in gaining Chinese
citizenship.
Blankenship says McConnell isn’t falling in
line deeply enough with President Trump’s foreign policy.
Establishment Republicans do not want
Blankenship to win the primary in West Virginia. A super PAC with ties to
McConnell has spent nearly $745,000 on TV and digital ads to oppose him.
While
running in West Virginia, Blankenship’s primary residence is a $2.4 million
villa near Las Vegas. As he says, he’s lived in West Virginia most of his life.
The Marshall University graduate was born in Stopover, Kentucky, was reared in
Delorme, West Virginia and graduated from Matewan High School not far from
Williamson.
Incumbent Senator Joe Manchin, of the
Farmington family, is running for reelection and has been photographed
alongside President Trump over some GOP-favored issues in the aftermath of
Trump winning in West Virginia so handily.
Despite those moves, Trump blasted
Manchin in White Sulphur Springs this month while flanked by Rep. Evan Jenkins,
R-WV, and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — candidates in the
Republican Senate primary — for opposing
Republican plans to overhaul the tax code and repeal the Affordable Care Act
(Obamacare).
To watch Colbert’s savaging of
Blankenship, go to
No comments:
Post a Comment