In this week’s episode of The Exchange, Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sits down with Alabama Governor Robert Bentley at the State Capitol to get his thoughts on his first few years in office, what he hopes to accomplish in a second term, and what he wants to be his legacy.
For more episodes of The Exchange, head over the Yellowhammer TV.
Want to skip around? Use the outline below to navigate the conversation:
0:33 — Question: You received 89% of the vote in the Republican primary. What did you do in your first term that compelled the people of Alabama to give you such a vote of confidence at the ballot box?
0:48 — Gov. Bentley gives his take on why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his re-election bid in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District
Quotable Moment:
1:00 — “If you forget about the people, they’re going to forget about you. I don’t want to ever forget about the people because that’s who I serve.”
1:06 — Question: How did the the tornado outbreak exactly 100 days after you taking office set the tone for your first term?
2:28 — Gov. Bentley discusses his approach to economic development
Quotable Moments:
2:59 — “We are a right to work state. That is very important”
3:18 — “The thing that I do that a lot of governors don’t do is I keep my mouth shut.”
4:37 — Question: The unemployment rate ticked up a little this year. What do you attribute that to?
Quotable Moment:
4:58 — “We have 50,000 more jobs today than we did when we took office, and we’ve announced 55,000 more jobs.”
5:48 — Question: What can you do to push back against what a lot of people believe is an encroaching Federal Government?
Quotable Moment:
6:07 — “Most people call it ObamaCare. I tend not to do that very much, simply because it’s a philosophy, it’s not a person.”
6:42 — Question: For the first time in Alabama history, over 1 million people are enrolled in Medicaid. What can you do in your second term to address that?
Quotable Moment:
7:14 — “My goal is not to have more people on Medicaid, not to expand Medicaid, but to have less people on Medicaid (and) have more people working at real jobs…”
8:08 — Question: What can you do to push back against the ever-expanding power of the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency?
Quotable Moment:
8:25 — Bentley to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy: “Gina, who comes up with these crazy ideas?… You’re killing jobs! Do you not care that we have 16,000 coal miners in Alabama and you’re going to kill their jobs?”
9:47 — Bentley explains what will happen to Alabama if the Obama Administration is allowed to destroy the coal industry.
10:32 — Sims asks Gov. Bentley about what he wants his legacy to be.
Quotable Moments:
11:37 — “I don’t want anyone to ever say that I was a caretaker of the governor’s office, because I’m not.”
12:17 — “We want to make the state work more like a business, more efficient, and we want to save the taxpayers’ money.”
12:38 — “I’m here to help solve problems. That’s what I did as a doctor and that’s what I’m going to do as governor.”
