West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, was clearly none too pleased with Bette Midler’s assessment of his state and the people who reside there. On January 27 (more than a month after Midler’s original tweet and apology), Justice clapped back at the musical theater icon during his State of the State address, according to the New York Post, with the help of his dog. Yes, his dog.
Hoisting his (probably very confused) bulldog into the air so that the cameras got a good view of its bum, Justice declared, “Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there: Kiss her heinie.” He continued, “Absolutely too many people doubted us. They never believed in West Virginia.” But don’t you worry, because Midler had a response. Taking to Twitter once again, she wrote, “BTW, here are the state rankings of all the areas and agencies for which the so-called ‘Governor’ of WVA, #JimJustice, is responsible,” alongside a graph. “Judging from these rankings, I’d say his dog’s a** would make a better Governor than him!”
In case you don’t follow politics very closely and you were curious, no, it is not standard practice for politicians to bring their pets to official speeches, much less offer up their booties for celebrities to kiss. But, like we said, politics in America are weird these days.
