CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — The governor of West Virginia is defending his comments toward actress and musician Bette Midler. 

“If you cast a rock at West Virginia, you know, you better expect a cannonball back because it’s coming from me.”

Gov. Jim Justice (R), who joined “The Donlon Report” on Wednesday, recently took aim at Midler and other critics of West Virginia during his televised State of the State address last week when he held up his beloved bulldog Babydog rump-side-up and said, “Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there, kiss her hiney.” 

Justice’s colorful display was in response to Midler’s tweet last month criticizing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) for preventing President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act from passing in the Senate. In her tweet, she called the state’s residents “backward,” as well as, “Poor, illiterate and strung out.” She later apologized for her comments. 

Justice said he would have criticized anyone who said such hurtful things about his state. 

“I’m gonna stand up for West Virginia,” he said. “And I just thought the best way that I could do it is rolling Babydog’s butt right there to the camera and just tell people exactly what Babydog and I thought.”

Justice went on to tout the Mountain State’s accomplishments.

“We’ve made education our centerpiece. We are building so many different roads, it’s unbelievable. (We’ve) got pay raises, we got everything going, tourism exploding.” 

As for the senator, Justice said Manchin is giving West Virginians what they want when it comes to leadership.

“Joe has grounded West Virginia back. And he really knows how the West Virginians feel and the way West Virginia speaks. Joe is echoing our voices.” 

Justice also defended Manchin’s stance on the Build Back Better plan. 

“We don’t need the federal government … to put us on every porch just waiting on a check to come. Really, at the end of the day, West Virginians will take care of West Virginians. And we’ll do it because we work, we get our hands dirty … We don’t need the federal government giving us a check.” 

This shouldn’t come as any surprise. A December poll found 60 percent of West Virginians opposed the bill. Large majorities feared it was too expensive and would exacerbate inflation.

Manchin — the critical Democratic vote in a split Senate — opposed the measure in December for its possible impact on the national debt and inflation. Manchin also disliked Biden’s plan to preserve the expanded child tax credit and its monthly payments, causing the benefits that were part of Biden’s coronavirus relief package to lapse in January.

Overall, Justice said, Manchin is doing a fine job when it comes to being fair about the bill.

“I commend him in every way for his courage because I know the level of the pressure … what Joe Manchin is doing is echoing West Virginians values, and that’s what Joe Manchin should do as our senator.”