West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice Tells Bette Midler To Kiss His Dog’s ‘Heinie’

When West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) delivered his State of the State speech on Thursday, he used his bulldog as the prop for an off-color joke in response to a tweet criticizing the state that Bette Midler wrote last year.

Midler’s tweet was primarily aimed at Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), a key swing vote in Congress who has blocked several pieces of legislation championed by the Biden White House from going through without Republican votes.

“What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward not backward, like his state, is horrible. He sold us out. He wants us to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate, and strung out,” Midler Tweeted in late December.

Midler has apologized for the language of the tweet and it has since been deleted, but that didn’t stop Gov. Justice from making an attack of his own. With his dog at the podium, Justice turned the dog around and said “Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there, kiss her heinie.”

You can watch the video below:

While Gov. Justice was cheered on by some onlookers in the video, others criticized his crude response for, well, proving her point a little bit. West Virginia House delegate Shawn Fluharty called the stunt “beneath the office” and followed up that “Jim Justice habitually lowers the bar of our state.”

Midler herself responded to the video, saying “his dog’s a–– would make a better Governor than him!” She also shared a U.S. News & World Report ranking for West Virginia that showed it extremely low ranks in such categories as “Education,” “Health Care” and “Infrastructure.”