Representative Barry Moore of Alabama House district number 91 comes on Yellowhammer Radio to talk with YH hosts, Andrea Tice and Scott Chambers, about Governor Robert Bentley’s impeachment, the business climate and job creation in Alabama, aerospace manufacturers setting up shop in Historical Tuskegee, and President Donald J. Trump draining the swamp in Washington.
The full conversation with Rep. Moore can be heard on the Yellowhammer Radio podcast or in the video above, and a lightly edited transcript of his interview with Yellowhammer’s Andrea Tice and Scott Chambers can be read below.
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Scott Chambers:
It is our pleasure to welcome into the program Representative Barry Moore of Alabama House district number 91. How are you doing today Barry?
Rep. Barry Moore:
I am doing fine Scott. I appreciate you guys having me on. Just about to get the session started. We’ve been on break. Back after two weeks off. Kind of interesting to see how the week’s going to go this far.
Scott Chambers:
Well we appreciate you being with us here today. There’s not anything going on in Montgomery is there Andrea? Nothing for us to chat about.
Andrea Tice:
Yeah. All wondering. Anything you want to tell us about Mr. Moore?
Rep. Barry Moore:
There is a lot going on guys. I mean, that’s part of the issue this year is it seems like we’ve been kind of running into a couple distractions here and there. Of course I guess that’s part of the process. I came in in 2010. It seems like we’ve been … It’s challenging job. I can tell you that. It’s a challenging job. When everything is going pretty smoothly, you get a little distractions in there, and it makes it very difficult.
Scott Chambers:
You know you speak of distractions and being facetious by saying that there’s nothing going on in Montgomery. One of the biggest distractions Representative Moore going on right now is one with Governor Robert Julian Bentley. That’s been just a little bit of a distraction for not only you guys in Montgomery, for the entire state. It’s brought Alabama into some negative spotlight as well.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Yeah it really has. That’s the thing. You hear people all the time talk about term limits and that sort of thing. It seemed like to me that the first term the governor we were able to work with him pretty well. Things were rolling along. I thought we were making a great deal of progress. There’s no doubt in my mind 2010 class had a tremendous impact on the state. As far as the history of the state. It was the first Republican majority obviously after the Civil War since Reconstruction. We had an opportunity and I think we took advantage of that. The second term it’s almost like the agenda turned into Democrats over across the street where they’re talking about gambling and taxes. That was just something that kind of caught a lot of us on our heels. I hear people argue for term limits and I can understand that sometimes. But in this situation his second term has been a difficult challenge for us to do our job. It certainly hadn’t been a Republican driven agenda I wouldn’t think.
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Andrea Tice:
Right. The distraction is a very real thing in keeping you from your agenda. That just comes from unfortunately, at least from our perspective, the Governor just refusing to accept reality and self evaluate that he’s actually hindering things by hanging on and not either coming forward with the truth or stepping away from his position based on the fact that they’re not considering impeachment. Do you have any word on where things are at this point in the week, and what’s coming down the line?
Rep. Barry Moore:
Yeah. Here’s kind of what we’re hearing. The ethics commission has a year typically to respond. This thing was filed in 36 hours it will be a year ago. Once the ethics commission, if they refer something to the AG’s office, then it certainly would be considered noteworthy. I think it would certainly, the impeachment hearings would proceed here in the house. I talked to Chairman Jones today and he’s kind of waiting to see what the ethics commission’s going to send to the AG’s office, if anything. Then that puts a whole different set of cards on the table.
Andrea Tice:
You mentioned, I didn’t realize that there was a one year deadline that we’re coming up
on.
Scott Chambers:
No.
Andrea Tice:
How does that whole delay that happened back in November at the request of then state attorney general Luther Strange, how did that play into that whole deadline thing?
Rep. Barry Moore:
Well I think it put us a little bit in a box. I can tell you after the … When General Strange was appointed to the Senate, at that time I called chairman Jones. Him and I are friends. We kind of districts next to each other. I said “I think we might have gotten played on that because they’d asked us to hold off on everything because they were ongoing hearings.” Then they were coming out and saying there were no hearings. There were no investigations. It did kind of paint us in a little bit of a box, and I encouraged him. Let’s step forward and let’s do our jobs. Make sure we take care of the people. My understanding, and I just found this out today that the ethics commission actually has a year and my understanding is the governor signed a waiver on that as well. I don’t know how that’s going to impact the process, but they have a year to respond and get it over to AG’s office. In fact, there’s something there that they say like I said that would be noteworthy.
Andrea Tice:
Hmm.
Scott Chambers:
Do you think it’s possible or within the realm of possibility that Robert Bentley at some point will maybe wake up and maybe bang his head on a cabinet door and go “Darn. Maybe I should resign and do what’s right for the people of Alabama.” Do you think that’s a possibility?
Rep. Barry Moore:
You know. Let me tell you this. When the impeachment documents were brought to my desk on the floor, and Ed Henry brought them to me. He said “Barry I really need you to get onboard with me on this and help me with this.” I told him I would. I signed it. We had to have 23 signatures. At that time he needed a little bit of momentum. We needed to get the ball rolling it felt like. At least look into it. But I’ll tell you this. A day or two later I went to see Governor Bentley because I just kind of … I felt like I needed to talk to him in person.
Scott Chambers:
Sure.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And explain to him my position because he had given me grace. Let’s not forget I was drug through the mud a few years ago.
Scott Chambers:
I remember.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Yeah. It was a horrible ordeal for our family and for me. I remember shortly after that that he came down and toured our community and set next to me at lunch one day. He caught some flack, naturally, from left media in the state.
Scott Chambers:
Sure.
Rep. Barry Moore:
He caught a lot of flack about that. The next day or two after I signed that I felt compelled to go sit down with him. You know at the time I thought that maybe I was getting through to him. I wanted to let him know it wasn’t personal. That I was extending grace, but at the same time we needed justice in the process. We set down and talked a little bit. You know I thought I was kind of getting through to him, but you know how that goes sometimes. One minute people act like they’re maybe a little bit remorseful or they understand where you’re coming from, and then they’ll turn around and do something you don’t quite understand. I don’t know. I don’t know if he’ll do the right thing or not. Who’s to know? You don’t know a man’s heart. You can just do based on what they do normally. Judge them based on their actions. You know?
Scott Chambers:
Exactly. Look. It’s never good when you see someone that did sign up to serve when they’re drug through the mud in the media. Whether it’s rightfully so or not. There’s family. There’s people that suffered. There’s people that hurt. You went through a situation of course as you just mentioned. It’s awful. It must be awful to be on that receiving end. But I think the public opinion on the governor is sure what he did was wrong. But it’s the fact that he hasn’t appeared to repent publicly to the people. I think that’s what burns up so many people Representative Moore. I think that’s what upsets to many people is he hasn’t just said “Look. I was wrong in doing this.” It’s been deny, deny, deny, and I think that’s what’s upset the people of Alabama so much.
Andrea Tice:
Yeah. We seem to have had just a history of both state and national level politicians who kind of do the word dance. Like he said “Well I love all the staff around me. I love them in different ways.” It’s an insult to our intelligence really. I mean, the voter, it’s like come on. We see through all of that.
Scott Chambers:
Absolutely. Our guest is Representative Barry Moore from Alabama house district 91. So much to cover. So much to talk about. Representative Moore, we’re going to take a short break. Come back and let’s continue the chat about what’s going on in Montgomery and let’s talk a little bit about Donald Trump and Washington too. How’s that sound?
Rep. Barry Moore:
Sure. All right thanks. We’ll be here.
Scott Chambers:
All right. Our guest is representative Barry Moore House District 91.
–Break
Scott Chambers:
From Alabama House District 91, it’s Representative Barry Moore. Thanks for being with us, Representative Moore.
Andrea Tice:
Oh, is he there?
Scott Chambers:
Did we lose him? Hello?
Rep. Barry Moore:
Hey, I’m here.
Andrea Tice:
Okay.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Sorry, sorry I had a call coming in here, I couldn’t figure out how to-
Scott Chambers:
Uh oh.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Operate this phone.
Scott Chambers:
I got yeah. Man, the world of technology is such a crazy thing. It happens to me, I’ll give you … one free pass is all you get, so you burnt that one up for today, okay?
Rep. Barry Moore:
All right. Hopefully I won’t need any more free passes today.
Scott Chambers:
All right, sounds good, man. So, Alabama, we talked about some distractions, we talked about some distractions with the governor, but overall, let’s talk about just state business in general. How do you see the state of Alabama progressing? How is Alabama, overall, doing right now?
Rep. Barry Moore:
Well, you know, I think we’re doing pretty good, and it’s like I said, since 2010 I think we’ve kind of opened up an environment that’s conducive to job creation. Whether it’s [inaudible 00:00:53] or Remington, or whoever it is, players that’s coming to the state of Alabama to do business here, we’re doing what we can to open these doors of business opportunities to create these pretty high paying jobs, for the most part. I think we’ve done some good things, and it takes a little time. I mean, you can’t turn the ship overnight. I mean, it takes a little while to get it a new course, and to sort of get your headings. So I think we’re doing some good things, and I know this year we passed … you know, the house’s primary job is to pass budgets and we got the general fund budget out … I think 25-30 years as quick as anybody has in session here. And we set it with a 93 million dollar savings to the Senate.
Now what they’ll do with it, who knows. But we took it and we put a little money back. We’ve been able to manage the roll and reserve to kinda keep education from going into proration so I think we’re doing some good things guys. It’s a … like I said, it takes some time and the liberal media never gives us any credit. Obviously they try to nit pick you on some issues that really probably have little to do with the well being of most of the people in the state. And we get very little pats on the back, so I think we’re doing good. I think Alabama is going to be okay. We got some good leadership. It’s just … it takes a while. It takes a while to make a big difference.
Scott Chambers:
What do you think happens to the state of Alabama? I had a lot of people tell me, “Oh, if Bentley were to resign or be impeached and been removed from office, that would just be detrimental to Alabama.” But overall, I think the state government continues to move on because even though he’s drugged Alabama through the mud if you will, the state overall is doing well. There’s big business coming into Alabama and I think if Kay Ivey were to step up to the plate and do her duty and become governor because Bentley resigns or is removed, I think Alabama will continue to be okay.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Oh yeah, I mean, we have a great deal of experienced leadership here and in a lot of ways, I don’t … it might be hiccup in history, but as far as the process of getting the budgets passed and keeping the state moving in the right direction, I don’t see it being a huge issue.
Scott Chambers:
Right, I’m with you on that.
Andrea Tice:
One of the things Representative Barry, I noticed that you’re a member of the commerce and small business committee in the house, and one of the stories that caught my eye recently was the bid that is being made for aircraft to be built in Tuskegee and kinda revitalize that area. And I just, I don’t know, if that’s caught your eye, but I just personally thought, “Wow, that would be exciting.” I’m glad to see Alabama moving on making bids to bring this type of Aerospace industry into the state. What have you seen develop in the time that you’ve been on this committee.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Well certainly, I mean, we’re so pro-business and in that committee, I was last chair for, I took over military veteran affairs. And we have constantly, anytime there was an opportunity to … you know Ronald Reagan said, he said, “The government said [inaudible 00:03:48] the economies if it’s moving you tax it. If it keeps moving, you regulate it. When it fails, you subsidize.”
Andrea Tice:
Yeah.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And we have worked … I mean, [inaudible 00:03:57] worked to try to reduce taxes and decrease regulations to allow these companies to come into the state. Total reform, tax break here and there to create these jobs because, you know, we catch slight for giving tax breaks, but you know, I try to explain to my friends across the aisle that well yeah, we may give them a little tax break guys, but 100% of nothing is nothing. So if we’re getting 50% of something, we’re better off than 100% of nothing. And so once you get those jobs in here, the manufacturing jobs especially, that money turns over into the local economy. And it just kinda has a healing effect to those communities. So, if we could get something in Tuskegee, which is basically an abandoned airfield-
Andrea Tice:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And start to see some manufacturing and some high paying jobs, there is not a better government program than job. There is not a social program on planet earth that does as much good for a man and a woman as working for a living, bringing a paycheck home, and looking at your family and saying, “Hey, I provided this for you with the sweat of my brow.”
Andrea Tice:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And it’s just rare that you have those opportunities in life to impact people’s futures. And I think we’re painting a real bright future for the state and it’s just … whether it’s Airbus, I mean we got Airbus, they came to Mobile a few years ago, Remington, the oldest gun manufacturer in the country is now manufacturing in Alabama. So we’re gonna continue to pursue those kinda things and like I said, we’ve been here six years, it hasn’t been a bed of roses, I can tell you that. But we’ve done some things that we can hang our hat on and say, “You know what, at the end of the day, we served the people well.”
Scott Chambers:
Our guest is Representative Barry Moore of Alabama House District 91. Doing great things down in Montgomery. Let’s change gears from Montgomery to the Nation’s capital. Donald Trump elected in November. A lot of people super excited about it. Of course those on the left, I mean, they’re still bitter, butt hurt, and crying a lot-
Andrea Tice:
Devastated.
Scott Chambers:
Devastation I think is the proper word.
Andrea Tice:
Yeah.
Scott Chambers:
What do you think of Trump so far Representative Moore.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Oh, I’m really excited and of course this is … you know guys, I was the first fella state elected to endorse him.
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
It was it … and we were … he was … now me and Ed Henry fought a little bit about this, but I try to take the credit. He was coming to Alabama when he was one of 19 candidates. And the one thing that I think we have in politics, and I see it here in Montgomery, there’s no doubt in DC is these groups playing both sides against the middle. I mean, they’re giving money to the right, and they’re giving money to the left. And nothings ever getting done, and so the fact that he was coming from outside of the beltway, and he was a bus … just like myself. When I ran, I had no political experience. I was a business owner and I understood job creation, and I understood free markets and I was a big right wing nut job as a lot of people would say.
But, seeing him come into the game and being invited to go down there and have an opportunity to be at that first event, it was a … it was remarkable to see the crowds and what I began to realize was that in the crowds there were people that weren’t typically Republican voters. And I was with him a couple times in Mobile and in Birmingham, and I’ll never forget this one lady in Birmingham, she was standing next to me said, “I’ve never voted for a Republican in my life, but I’m voting for that man right there.”
Scott Chambers:
Wow.
Andrea Tice:
Wow.
Rep. Barry Moore:
He just has a ground swell of appeal to people. And it was because he wasn’t so well spoken, but we knew he was a doer and he could get the job done. So he has … the one thing that worries me for him, is that he has stepped into the swamp up there and there is a lot of swamp that needs draining and there’s a lot of people that he can’t trust. And I think he’s learning that the hard way. When you’re in business, you can just … if somebody’s not doing their job, unfortunately these people are elected and the votes won’t fire them sometimes.
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
So it’s a thing that we just … you know, I think he’s gonna be fine. If you look at just recently, I think it was last week, the manufacturing [conference 00:07:32] index is as high as it’s been historically since they’ve been tracking the numbers. And of course the stock market’s moving. And I’m just seeing it in my small business. We do construction demolition, a little work down in south Alabama. And by the way, you all need to be on a radio station in [wiregrass 00:07:46] sometime in the near future.
Andrea Tice:
Yes, we’d love that.
Rep. Barry Moore:
But down there, we need … we’re starting to see consumer confidence. Houses are starting to sell, and Trump’s made it pretty clear he’s going to invest in our veterans and in our military. And so, with Fort Rucker being in my district, that’s encouraging. I think-
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
I think he’s gonna do some great things. I just think he’s gonna take a little time get his feet under him. Figure out how the process works, but he’s a bright guy and he’s super successful and a hard worker.
Scott Chambers:
If he can only figure this whole Twitter thing out. You know.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Hey, that’s his way … you know, that’s the way he directly talks to the people.
Scott Chambers:
That’s right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And it’s somewhat refreshing-
Scott Chambers:
It is.
Rep. Barry Moore:
I know I’m sitting down in Mobile when it … when the second time it came through. On the way to being inaugurated, I said, I know we cringe at some of the things he says sometimes, but he’s probably saying what most of us are thinking. You know?
Scott Chambers:
That’s exactly right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
That no politician that ever had the courage to say.
Scott Chambers:
Well, the would say it, they would have the courage to say it, but it was behind closed doors in front of their keepers.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Oh yeah.
Scott Chambers:
That was all.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And their mike was turned off supposedly. And here’s the thing with Trump that I thought was really unique. The first time when we were down there in Mobile, and CNN or one of those guys had called me back there to talk to me. So I’m at the media stand. I’m over here where all the cameras are out in front of the actually stage and he points back there and calls them all out for being dishonest and disingenuous and there wasn’t a candidate in the history of the country that would ever call the media out because they were fearful of the media.
Scott Chambers:
No.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And right when it was over, they were running to him, trying to get an interview. And I thought, “He’s got these guys eating out of the palm of his hand.”
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And he has the courage to call them out for being dishonest. And they still wouldn’t … they were dying to talk to him.
Andrea Tice:
Yeah. That’s true.
Rep. Barry Moore:
He’s gonna really make a difference. He’s gonna make a difference.
Scott Chambers:
Exactly.
Andrea Tice:
He’s definitely setting a difference pace on just at just busyness alone. Getting things done, moving forward. The guy’s energy level is incredible especially considering his age.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Yeah, what is he? 74 years old [crosstalk 00:09:35].
Andrea Tice:
Yeah.
Scott Chambers:
70 years old, yeah. He’ll be 71 in June.
Rep. Barry Moore:
And I gotta tell you guys too, this year at the caucus, the Republican caucus here in Montgomery wanted to pass a resolution supporting President Trump. Asking congress to get behind him and help him do his job. And I got the opportunity to carry that here in the State House, and I tell you what, it was four hours of just debate. But I hit it with you know, grace and truth and got through it. But I got some really interesting fan mail for that.
Scott Chambers:
I can imagine so.
Rep. Barry Moore:
Oh yeah, you can imagine.
Scott Chambers:
Oh, I can only imagine. Well hey, at least they weren’t reaching out on Twitter and lashing out there. It’s so instant, you know.
Rep. Barry Moore:
That’s right.
Scott Chambers:
Wow. You know, I hate it. We’re out of time. The computer’s coming up and we got a hard break, so we’re gonna have to call things off here. And I wanted to get a chance to ask you what you’re thinking about the predictions of November 2018 because it seems like everyone that’s old enough to run for Governor in Alabama is gonna run.
Andrea Tice:
It’s like a Republican party national repeat.
Scott Chambers:
Right.
Andrea Tice:
Down in Alabama.
Scott Chambers:
The-
Rep. Barry Moore:
Who knows, I don’t even have a candidate. There’s no telling.
Scott Chambers:
I know. We’ll have you back on the show once Tommy Tuberville makes an announcement if he’s gonna run or not. Get your thoughts on that. I mean, I waiting to see if Nick Saban is gonna jump in. You never know. You never know. Representative Barry Moore House District 91. Thanks for being with us here on
