West Virginia is running a victory lap after national numbers showing its gross domestic product rate as the highest in the nation, Gov. Jim Justice said Friday while pointing out it was the state's coal miners who put Hillary Clinton "out of business" after she said her policies would shut down mines.
"I don't think she was thinking, and I'm really happy to God above that a whole bunch of coal miners put her out of business," Justice told Fox News' "Fox and Friends," while touting new reports showing his state is leading the nation's GDP numbers in personal income growth under President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Thursday that West Virginia's GDP growth for the first quarter of 2019, covering January-March, was 5.2%.
Ironically, mining nationwide increased by 26.5% after a 38% increase in the fourth quarter, according to the BEA's press release.
Justice said it took a "lot of hard work" for West Virginia to turn its numbers around, and he praised Trump and the strides in the economy since his election.
He added that when he was elected governor, "we were dead last," but now his state is "first in construction jobs, second in revenue, first in personal income growth, and now in GDP."
Justice pointed out that it's not just that coal miners who are back to work in West Virginia, but "we have tourism, manufacturing, roads, lots of stuff going on."
The governor also slammed special counsel Robert Mueller for his investigation and for his testimony earlier this week.
"When Mueller was on center stage, I mean, the man looked like a raccoon," said Justice. "If you look at his eyes, he looked like a raccoon that had been chased by a pack of hounds."
Trump traveled to Wheeling, West Virginia after Mueller's hearing for a private fundraiser. Justice, who spoke with the president there, said Trump knew what was going to happen, "but you know he thought it was pitiful."
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