During his media briefing he stated that he plans to sue retired reporter Phil Kabler of the Charleston Gazzette with regards to an article printed on Sunday, March 6, 2022. The headline for the column was “Justice and Legislature’s opposition to masks and vaccines bear responsibility for many COVID-19 deaths in WV.”
In the column, Kabler says he’s no health expert but he ran the COVID numbers compared to California and the state had a lower rate than West Virginia because stricter face masks, vaccination mandates, and a state vaccine rate over 70 % combined to help prevent death.
Governor Justice expressed his frustration during his Monday briefing, saying at one point that he wished a recent California train ride by Kabler had resulted in him being hijacked on it.
Gov. Justice was upset about the article during Monday’s briefing saying “He (Kabler) thought things were so marvelously good there that I wish to God above that someway, somehow he would have gone to California a long time ago, he was on a train when that was happening and it would have been wonderful in my book if the train would have been hijacked and he would have been kept in California forever.”
The Governor stated that there were people who would argue that “Phil Kabler’s damage to West Virginia has been pretty ‘dag gum’ significant, and further stated that in the Gazette Article “Kabler basically blames “me and the legislatures for 6452 deaths in the State of West Virginia because, his line, I did not stand up and advocate for people to be vaccinated or wear their masks.”
Governor Justice said there was a time when “enough’s enough.” He said that Kabler had hurt businesses by casting stones that were outrageous at times, and we just took it. He attacked the event surrounding a 7 year old foster child named Landon who wanted the Governor to acknowledge his birthday, for which the Governor did so by sending a card. He made fun of the custodians of the State Capital, doing things to cause them confusion and trouble with their handicaps, then went and posted it on social media and made fun of it. He later apologized but the Governor said the Charleston Gazette should have fired him that day.
The Governor said we should forgive and move forward because he really believes “that’s what the Good Book teaches us to do.” But Kabler had written emails for which they have copies, where he used the foulest of language including the “G.D.” language to the Governor’s office as a representative of the State’s Newspaper. He also got on to the Governor for asking for prayer during his briefings. At that point the Governor pulled out his Bible and said that “that God above and this book right here, drive me in my life and I asked for your prayers for all kinds of people every day, and I truly believe that God above is our foundation for this country.”
The Governor said that Kabler’s come back to that was that “he knows there is no God, he’s a true atheist. He’s trouble every way you turn and now we cross our line.”
The Governor stated that he travels the state promoting the use of masks and encouraging vaccinations but that our freedoms have brought us to where we are as a country and we should be respectful of that. He believes people should be vaccinated, but he does not feel that his feelings should be imposed on everyone with mandates. He concluded that he would be contacting Marshall Reynolds and Doug Reynolds to tell them that he is entering into suit against Phil Kabler and the Charleston Gazette and they need to handle this situation because the law says that an attack on a public official has to be “outrageous” to warrant that public official from entering into a suit. The Governor said he was not in the boat that would allow Kabler, a atheist with a vulgar mouth, who makes fun of foster children and handicapped custodians, and prints things that are knowingly a lie. He’s not going to idly sit by and allow it to happen saying “now we’ll see what the game is big boy.”
This is a developing story and will be followed by the Ridgeview News.
