{"id":3057,"date":"2017-10-25T11:52:05","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T15:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3057"},"modified":"2017-10-25T18:36:08","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T22:36:08","slug":"manchin-to-hold-town-hall-in-berkeley-springs-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3057","title":{"rendered":"Manchin to Hold Town Hall in Berkeley Springs on Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the country in an uproar, members of Congress are shying away from town hall meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) refuses to hold town hall meetings back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Congressman Alex Mooney (R-West Virginia) refuses to hold town hall meetings back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) says — bring it on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin will hold another town hall — this one on Friday October 27 at the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs at 11:30 am.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchin is facing re-election in 2018. He\u2019s facing a primary challenge by coal miner\u2019s daughter, mother and Bernie Sanders supporter Paula Swearengin.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Two Republicans have announced for the seat — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Congressman Evan Jenkins.<\/span><\/p>\n

West Virginia went heavily for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the state\u2019s billionaire Governor, Jim Justice, recently switched parties from Democratic to Republican.<\/span><\/p>\n

In August, Morrisey called on Manchin to quit the Senate Democratic leadership. <\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about Morrisey\u2019s call by the Charleston Gazette-Mail<\/a>, Manchin replied — \u201cI don\u2019t give a shit, you understand? I just don\u2019t give a shit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t care if I get elected, don\u2019t care if I get defeated, how about that?\u201d Manchin said. \u201cIf they think because I\u2019m up for election, that I can be wrangled into voting for shit that I don\u2019t like and can\u2019t explain, they\u2019re all crazy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not scared of an election, let\u2019s put it that way. Elections do not bother me or scare me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to continue to do the same thing I\u2019ve always done, extremely independent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The opioid epidemic has hit West Virginia hard and will be a key issue in the 2018 election. <\/span><\/p>\n

And Morrisey doesn\u2019t come to the issue with clean hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2016, CBS News ran a piece titled West Virginia AG’s Past Work with Drug Companies Questioned.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a lobbyist, Morrisey was paid $250,000 to represent a pharmaceutical trade group funded by some of the same distributors West Virginia is now suing,\u201d CBS News reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRecords show he also took more than $8,000 in political contributions from Cardinal Health, a defendant in one of the state’s lawsuits. The West Virginia bar was concerned enough about a potential conflict to launch an investigation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

(Cardinal Health was recently implicated by a Washington Post\/60 Minutes investigative report<\/a> as one of the three large drug distributors — along with McKesson and AmerisourceBergen — at the center of the opioid crisis.) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he first took office in January 2013, Morrisey said he would step away from cases involving Cardinal. But five months later he met with senior representatives from the company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

CBS News reported that Morrisey’s wife is a lobbyist. One of her biggest clients? Cardinal Health.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he’s been in office, his wife’s firm has made roughly a million and a half bucks from Cardinal. \u2018I — you’d have to talk and take a look at those numbers. I don’t pay attention,\u2019 Morrisey told CBS News.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the country in an uproar, members of Congress are shying away from town hall meetings. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) refuses to hold town hall meetings back home. Congressman Alex Mooney (R-West Virginia) refuses to hold town hall … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3060,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}