all right we're told the state says he
can't do it but he is West Virginia
businessman Don Blankenship is launching
a third-party candidacy for the West
Virginia Senate seat despite coming in
third in that Republican primary he
joins us right now to explain why mr.
Blankenship they're good to have you why
are you doing this well because I think
I'll make a better senator than either
the other two candidates and I think I
can win all right so when you hear the
kind of did when the the state Attorney
General Patrick Morris they say that you
could cost Republicans this potential
Senate seat pick up you say what well I
say number one that when I was running
in the primary they said I was running
slowly for to be vengeful against
senator Manchin and now they're saying
that I'm running to call senator Manchin
to win neither of which are true I'm
running to win all right but you must
know that you have better odds of taking
votes away from the Republican gun that
than the Democratic incumbent right I'm
not a hundred percent sure of that
because the Democrats are very fed up
with senator Manchin and there were a
lot of Democrats that are in southern
West Virginia in the mining fields where
I'm very well known and very well
respected
so having plates third do you think in
that race that you could really have
much of an impact in this one even if
you were allowed to run as a third party
count of it well I'm pretty comfortable
that I'm going to be allowed to run I
think the law was very clear on that and
100% chance if it's decided based on the
law and not simply because there's a
sore loser feature and that you would be
deemed a sore loser you say that's wrong
my attorneys tell me that's wrong so I
guess we'll find out but based on the
law I'm confident that we will be on the
ballot and if we are I think we've got
an excellent chance of winning both
against Morsi and Manchin because of
their flawed past has mr. Morsi the
Attorney General reached out to you or
to you to he after after the primary no
I've not talked to him I last time I
talked to him was I think after the
debate but
on fox but I'm not 100% sure I may have
spoken to him one more time after that
have you spoken to Senator Manchin no I
haven't spoken to Senator Manchin
probably in seven or eight years you
know the senator Manchin was if you
recall came out said I had blood on my
hands after the explosion and of course
it's of great interest to me to hear all
this talk about the Department of
Justice and being so corrupt and all
these issues that it had and it was the
Department of Justice that indicted me
on three felonies but couldn't convict
me on any and it's very disappointing
that the news media and this network as
well continues to tell people I'm a
felon which I've never been convicted of
a felony less likely to be a felon than
anyone given that I was investigated for
four and a half years and they couldn't
find anything so what are you if you
served time in jail misdemeanor the only
misdemeanor to serve time at a felon
prison in California so I think that
should tell us something as well when
they're sending misdemeanors to prison
so they can't continue to communicate
for a year as is pretty telling you know
those would disagree with that with
trails they're saying that it's a little
bit bigger than a misdemeanor when
twenty nine people are killed in a
mining accident in 2010 for which you
your company one of the point was held
accountable for violating safety
standards and the rest you you don't
agree with that and obviously you felt
that way afterwards but that would be a
little more than a misdemeanor right
well if you if you stretch it that far
you know the government blew up the gold
mine so it's natural that the government
wanted to cover up what really happened
and wasn't that the thrust of it that
you violated safety standards and that's
what prompted all of this and you to go
to jail no I've never violated a safety
standard of myself you know coal
companies have lots of violations but
this man was pretty much average it had
less than one violation per inspector a
day over two and a half years but both
the media and the government made it out
that it was some extraordinary number it
was actually 20 percent less than a man
next door and 20 percent
more after I left the company so it's an
easy story for the media and the
government to tell but it's untrue mr.
Blankenship I'm just wondering now if
you pursue this obviously you'd raised
concerns among Senate Republicans who
think this is a potential pickup for
them including Mitch McConnell who had
hoped that you would lose and he had his
wish I think he sent you a pretty snarky
reminder after that is this as much to
go after Mitch McConnell no it's to go
after the establishment they're
bankrupting the country they're keeping
those jobs well it's both the
Republicans and the Democrats you know
you've got a situation where they
basically are more interested in their
individual parties and their individual
Authority than they are in the country
and somebody needs to stand up against
it and since I've been so abused by the
government since the extent of being
falsely charged falsely tried and then
sent to prison as a misdemeanor I figure
I'm the guy that is very motivated to
stand up against this nonsense but a
couple of weeks ago you were the
establishment right you'll say I'm sorry
a couple of weeks ago you were the
establish you were running for the
Republican nomination now it just seems
that after failing to get it wasting
third you're bitter and you're angry and
now you're non-establishment and you're
running apart from those parties right
again you can say that that's not true I
ran on the platform of not voting for
Mitch McConnell and on the platform of
balancing the budget and on the platform
of stopping the efforts to police the
world which West Virginians believe in
Virginia's vote accordingly and say
whatever the merits of your argument sir
you were not their cup of tea they opted
for someone else you were third well
they didn't run on the fact they ran on
what Fox News and others were saying
that I was a felon including no
presidents and just to be clear are you
saying that the the West Virginia
residents and voters were
the ones who opted for two other
candidates over you were duped yes I'm
saying that they were misled by
everything from the president's son to
six or seven Republican senators to the
Department of Justice and there and a
whole host of other people because
everyone joined into this lie about my
having something to do with the
explosion I was never even tried for
anything to do with the explosion and
that the President Obama claimed that he
knew what happened at the coal mine
before anybody ever went underground
would you I'm sorry sir would you do if
the state said no you can't do this I
mean we have this law in effect your
lawyers seem to be telling you no you
can get on the ballot anyway that's a
write-in is that the last stop you know
the last strategy you could use as a
write-in candidate well I could but I'm
not going to have to the law I mean they
actually wrote another law just a couple
months ago that takes effect in June
trying to clarify their sore-loser law
so they obviously weren't comfortable
with the sore-loser law that we call
yourselves or bitter loser no I'm a
little bit bitter at the fact that
people continue to report that I'm a
felon and continue to claim something
that's obviously false I think that you
know everybody from Laura lingo to Judge
Napolitano need to stop that because
they know I'm not a felon and that means
that they don't believe in the justice
system I understand we can go round
around on this bottom line is you are
hell-bent on getting on that ballot one
way or the other even though the state
says you can't well the state hasn't
said we can't you know the the states
hasn't decided that yet when we finally
file the papers to be the Democratic
Party says it can't but that could
change thank you very much