Former coal industry executive and ex-con Don Blankenship doesn’t expect to become commander-in-chief, but hopes to usher in a movement to break the Republican/Democrat stranglehold in America.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden aren’t the only two men in their 70s battling to be President of the United States.
The third is Don Blankenship. He is the Constitution Party’s nominee, but is under no illusion he has a chance of winning. So, why bother campaigning?
As Blankenship himself says:
We know we won’t win the Presidency this time, but I hope I am showing there is a dire need for change, and the government and media are working arm in arm to misinform the American public.
“Over time, maybe we can get there, and at least we’d know we tried. It’s pretty hard to get any attention or publicity, but we’re in dire need, so I keep trying.”
Blankenship carved out a career in the coal industry, rising to become the chairman and CEO of Massey Energy. The firm employed around 6,000 people and controlled 2.3 billion tons of coal reserves. It was big business, and when the company was purchased for $7.1 billion, Blankenship earned $86 million.
Disappointed in Republicans
During his career, Blankenship was the biggest Republican donor in West Virginia and helped convert it from a Democratic state. And it’s been that way ever since George W Bush ran in 2000.
Blankenship recalls a Labor Day event in 2009 that drew 100,000 people: “I think that made the left scared, and they’ve hated me ever since I stole Labor Day from them.”
However, it wasn’t long before he became estranged from the Republicans. It involved a tragic event at the Upper Big Branch Mine, which exploded in April 2010. Twenty-nine miners died and Blankenship ended up in jail for 12 months, convicted of conspiring to willfully violate mine health and safety standards.
His own explanation of his involvement is as follows: “I hadn’t been at the mine in 10 to 12 years, but I was the president of the parent company, so they tried to convict me of three felonies.
“I was found not guilty by a jury just a few miles from that coal mine of any felony charges, but they put me in prison for a misdemeanor which amounted to the coal miners telling each other that federal inspectors had arrived, which they do all the time. But they turned it into a crime and put me in prison.”
Blankenship published a book earlier this year, titled Obama’s Deadliest Cover-Up: They All Have Blood on Their Hands. In it, he alleges the government conspired to pin the blame on him.
“They weren’t interested in the truth. It was like [there had been] a plane crash and they said Boeing caused it before investigating,” he says. “Biden and Obama knew their administration had caused the explosion, so they were on the defensive.”
After completing his sentence, Blankenship resumed his political activities and ran for the Republican Senate seat for West Virginia in 2018. His campaign began to gain attention because of his spell behind bars – so much attention, in fact, that Fox News ran a televised debate featuring all three candidates.
Blankenship explains: “There’s a huge story here that shows the political system in the United States is broken. They thought I couldn’t win but when I got close to the lead, Fox News decided to have that debate.
“After it, I was anywhere from eight to 18 points ahead, so they called me a racist, an imbecile, an idiot, a felon… all those type of things on national television, and they managed to beat me.
“I’d already said I wouldn’t vote for the current Republican leadership in the Senate, as they hadn’t done a good job and had wasted a fortune. So, Mitch McConnell, who is the head of the Republican Party in the Senate, decided to make sure I didn’t win.”
He is certain a concerted campaign was waged in the media to sink his bid.
“Even though I’d been imprisoned for a misdemeanor, they announced on national television dozens of times and in the media hundreds of times that I’d gone to prison for a felony. Fox even said I’d gone to prison for manslaughter.”
The big story was that a non-established Republican who’d been incarcerated was about to win a Senate seat, so the national media and the Republican Party went out of their way to defeat me.
Blankenship is pursuing legal action against several major media platforms, including Fox, CNN, and MSNBC.
“The lawsuit has progressed quite well, and we’re at the point of depositions,” he says.
“I’ve got evidence they knew I wasn’t a felon, [and that] they basically slandered me to interfere in the US election of…
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