West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael (R-Jackson) said House of Delegates candidate Bibi Hahn (D-Morgan County) doesn’t belong on the November ballot because of what he called “stupid” comments Hahn posted to Facebook about Carmichael, President Donald Trump, capitalism and socialism.
Mitch Carmichael
Carmichael appeared this morning on WRNR’s Eastern Panhandle Talk with Rob Mario and David Welch. (Audio here at 42:40)
Carmichael had written an opinion piece in the August 30 Charleston Daily Mail titled West Virginia Won’t Be Great Again Through Socialism.
Hahn responded with an August 31 Facebook post addressed to Carmichael.
“Mr. Carmichael – Trump won because he appealed to the fears of West Virginians – immigrants taking their jobs, Muslim Sharia invading our culture, the demise of the white man’s majority, the unhinged anger over having an intelligent black man as their President for 8 years,” Hahn wrote.
“Sadly, this wouldn’t have worked if West Virginians had the prosperity that most states voting against Trump enjoy. He blames everything on immigrants, minorities, anyone with a different belief or skin color. Just like Hitler.”
Bibi Hahn
“The blame falls on ‘leaders’ like you that continue to exploit our workers with your ‘right to work’ law, the way you allow the fossil fuel industry to pimp our state, the way you fought the teachers on a tiny little pay raise,” Hahn wrote.
Eastern Panhandle Talk co-host Welch read the Hahn post aloud to Carmichael to get his comment.
Carmichael initially thought Hahn was referring to him as a racist and responded with anger.
“That is the first time I’ve heard that,” Carmichael said. “That is a pathetic, ridiculous, stupid comment on her behalf. You walk into my office, the Senate President’s office in the state capitol here, it is a tribute to non discrimination. There is Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech on my wall. There is the Diary of Anne Frank portrait on my wall. There is Rosa Parks on my wall. I have been 100 percent against discrimination.”
“Anybody who would say something like she said in that article does not deserve to be on a ballot. That is just stupid what she said. And I’m getting a little bit angry just even hearing it. I have stood hard 100 percent against any form of discrimination.”
We rang up Carmichael after the show, read him the Hahn comment in full – emphasizing the fact that Hahn was referring to President Trump blaming everything on “anyone with a different skin color.”
We asked Carmichael if he still stood by his statement that Hahn’s post was “stupid” and that Hahn doesn’t deserve to be on the ballot.
“It’s even more stupid than when I heard it first,” Carmichael told Morgan County USA. “It’s ridiculous to say West Virginians don’t have the intellect, that somehow Trump exploited the fact that there was a black man in the White House – that is beyond ridiculous.”
“When a candidate seeks to divide people along race, sexual orientation — they need to re-evaluate whether they ought to be a candidate,” Carmichael said.
Doesn’t President Trump do that?
“I don’t get that from him,” Carmichael said. “But I don’t follow the national level as much as the state level. I don’t think so. He’s trying to lift everyone to a higher level. I was at his national convention. He had people of different sexual persuasions giving keynote addresses. Trump was representing the worker class.”
As for socialism, would Carmichael get rid of the socialistic single payer systems for older Americans (Medicare) and for poor Americans (Medicaid)?
“No,” Carmichael said.
“Medicare and Medicaid serve populations that are in vital need,” Carmichael said. “Programs that assist the needy are not antithetical to capitalism. They are a moderation of the excesses that can occur in a completely dominated capitalist society. You need to help each other.”
Hahn is running a hard hitting campaign against House Majority Leader Daryl Cowles (R-Morgan) for the House of Delegates seat in the 58th District – with the focus on public corruption.
Independent Brooks McCumbee is also in the race for District 58, which includes the northern part of Morgan County and the eastern part of Hampshire County.
In a campaign video released today, Hahn is seen smashing a piggy bank labeled “government corruption.”
The video features Cowles speaking at a December 18, 2017 meeting of the Maryland Department of the Environment expressing his support for a proposed Trans Canada pipeline that would transport fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania under the Potomac River into Morgan County. A grassroots movement in Morgan County and around the region is working to stop that project.
The Hahn campaign video reports that on December 26, 2017 – one week after Cowles went to Maryland to express his support for the Trans Canada project – “Mr. Cowles received a $500 check from the Trans-Canada USA PAC.”
“This is perfectly legal,” the Hahn video says. “Politics as usual. But it is not right.”
“We need to smash government corruption,” the video says. “Get money out of politics.”