Gov. Mike DeWine, Jon Husted, And Bernie Moreno Hold Press Briefing To Discuss job Growth In Ohio

Forbes Breaking News

On Friday, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), and Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) held a press briefing.

Transcript

00:00Introducing a guy I've known for 20 years. I never thought we would be in the

00:04same hallway together every day when we first met, but he's my partner in the

00:10United States Senate, a great man, Senator John Huston.

00:19Well Bernie's right about that. I thought I'd prepared for a different

00:23speech this morning, honestly, but this is great news. We have a reprieve. It's not

00:30the final chapter of this book has not been written. We get to write that

00:36chapter together and I will tell you that when we were talking about this

00:43earlier in the week, I was really concerned because I know what losing

00:511,100 jobs, 1,000 jobs, 800 jobs, the supply chain, everybody in the

00:59community who suffers, the restaurants, the stores, the people who service the

01:05facility, everybody gets hurt when it goes away. About the time I

01:10graduated high school, I lived in a small town and the factory my dad worked at

01:14closed. It was a town of about 4,000 people and the company he worked at had

01:19400 jobs and when that closes I know the devastation to that community, to the

01:24families, I know what it did to my family and I tell you that Bernie and I were

01:29talking about this, if the private equity firms who do this to communities had to

01:36go walk through and look at every one of you in the eye and hear your stories and

01:44see the devastation that they cause when they make selfish decisions, they would

01:51never do what they do. You'd have to pray for their souls if they did it after they

01:55knew it, right? And so I'm happy today that we have a reprieve in this story and

02:05it's something we should be grateful to God for and we should be thankful on this

02:10good Friday but I will tell you that and I want to give my friend Bernie Moreno a

02:23lot of credit because I know he reached that we all the governor talked to him

02:28and Congressman Taylor talked to the company and Bernie and I talked to the

02:31company and as soon as I got off the phone Bernie said I'm ready to bring the

02:37heat and and I said let's go let's get it done and they changed their mind

02:47temporarily temporarily but I know how these things happen a lot of times that

02:56when we're in an uncomfortable position if you're a company they say that they're

03:03going to do something today and I will we take their word for it but we got to

03:10hold them to account for this community we got to all work together it's going to

03:16take all of us local governments the union workforce the company the political

03:21leaders to make this victory permanent to write that last chapter that is the

03:27chapter that has a future for this company or for this facility and this

03:32town and a lot of work remains to be done and I and I do want to give a little

03:38bit of the speech that I was going to give earlier because it's I want to fire off a

03:43warning because we there's a lot of wonderful things happening in this state

03:48governor's been a great leader we've had ribbon cuttings and ground breakings and

03:53all those kinds of things but not only do you show up during the good times you got to

03:56show up during tough times too and and there's so many private equity firms that have bought

04:05up companies in this in this state and in this country and chopped them up and

04:10made profits off of the pieces and left the communities and the workers and and the people who

04:17relied on those jobs they've left them with nothing and that has to stop I am a great

04:33believer in capitalism and I believe America is the greatest country in the

04:36world and and that we can prosper through through this wonderful system that we have

04:42but when we have people that want to abuse the system and abuse the people who live and work

04:47here they have to be held to account and we're going to do that and I know we've we've communicated

05:00with President Trump and his team I know he is he wants to he's been making a lot of investments in

05:05Ohio and I know he will be he'll be with us in this fight I can count on that because he understands

05:12certainly about what happens to communities when these things happen but as Bernie said

05:16this isn't anything to do with partisanship it has to do with the red white and blue not the blue or the red

05:22red and and it's now my privilege to introduce my friend and somebody that I know has been in this

05:40community during the good times in the bad he's been well he's been everywhere in Ohio during the good

05:47times in the bad he's somebody who cares deeply about people and that's why he's here today let

05:55me welcome and introduce you to somebody who needs no introduction governor Mike DeWine

05:59John thank you very very much John Husted was for six years with my lieutenant governor and did a

06:11phenomenal job he's doing a great job as United States senator let me just say

06:16thank you to Bernie Marino Bernie thank you thank you for getting mad and saying we're not gonna put

06:22up with this some sometimes in life you just have to get mad and people say well it's hopeless and no

06:31you just go go do it and Bernie Bernie did that this morning so thank you the conversation that John

06:42related about he and Bernie and I were having we all had the chance to walk around just talk to some

06:48of you not all of you certainly but some of you and everybody sort of got the same story second

06:53generation third generation fourth go to work every day make a difference thank you for doing that thank

07:02you for being a part of what makes America great what makes this state great as people like you who've made

07:09the state made our great country we've gotten some time I think the thing that was the most aggravating

07:19was that no one really had notice when did the governor find out same time you found out when the

07:29senators find out the same time you found out the mayor and so what Bernie's been able to achieve today

07:37with that call those calls is to give us the opportunity we have hope we want to be honest

07:45with you we don't know where this goes now but what we do know is this is going to be an is a team effort

07:52from the mayor to the county commissioners other local local officials nine state senators members of

07:58Congress the governor we're going to work together and we know really what we what we have to do

08:05there's another entity that I work very closely with I get to appoint the board and the head person

08:13they're separate from the governor's office but we work very closely that's jobs Ohio jobs Ohio spends

08:20its time focused on bringing companies into the state of Ohio and creating jobs and we've been able to do a

08:30a good job of that in the last in the last few years let me introduce someone who some of you may may already

08:37know and that's Matt Abbott Ohio Southeast he handles this part of the state I don't know where you are Matt

08:44raise your hand I saw you a minute ago he's cleared back he's going to be an integral part in this this as

08:49well what we started to do as soon as we got the news was to start trying to figure out what company might

08:58align that might be able to come in here what company might be interested in buying this facility

09:04and taking it over and we just have got started but now we have more time we have more time to work

09:12this and so our commitment to you is we're going to do everything that we can between now and the end

09:18of the year we hope get something resolved sooner to find a company to come in we cannot guarantee you

09:25that but we're all in this together when you hurt we have we are all in this together nobody could

09:37come down here and walk around and talk the people in this crowd and not think my we got to do something

09:45we got to do everything that we can so that's what we're pledging do everything we can we don't have the

09:51results yet we can't guarantee anything but we're in this let me now introduce someone else who was in

09:58this congressman Dave Taylor your congressman and we're going to continue we're going to work with

10:05Tim we're going to work with the mayor and we're going to work with all officials Dave

10:09hello everybody I'm Dave Taylor I'm your new congressman new to politics in general so I got to say I'm very

10:22very pleased to see the response we've seen at every single level of government here and to this

10:28you know obviously dire situation and special thanks to Senator Marino for as the governor said

10:35getting mad getting stuff handled getting us a chance um obviously we just get a reprieve we can

10:41all uh get together with our families and enjoy this holy weekend and then on Monday we got to go back

10:47to work in every way we go back to work at the mill and continue doing the great job you always do there

10:52and we got to go to work on the on the things the governor just talked about either convince pixel that

10:57it's in their best interest to run this uh this mill as a business that should make money and should

11:03thrive for years to come or start helping us find somebody who does want to do it not not destroy what

11:09we have and leave us with with nothing uh with a with a situation where we're starting from scratch

11:14again so I promise you that uh Bernie won't stop being on their back I won't stop being on their back

11:20neither will uh Senator Husted or or Dave Yost you're going to hear some very important things from here

11:26shortly and uh and the governor and at all levels of government and we've talked to all of them we've

11:31all talked together uh we're not gonna let this go it's too big of a thing uh for for for Chillicothe to

11:37go without um I think Senator Husted makes a good point where he says uh you know you get to these

11:45crucible moments and uh you get a little movement on the other side and then you relax well we can't

11:50relax we have to keep the pressure on them because Christmas will be here before you know it

11:54we've got to make use of every single minute between now and then to to make sure that we have

11:59a solid business here in the place as as uh Bernie said has been successful for over 200 years

12:05there's no reason it can't be successful for 200 more um we're looking forward to that and

12:10in the if there are any needs from that you that you guys have as a result of this and the longer the

12:17short run reach out to our office we're there for you to help you in any way we can and uh

12:22keep keep fighting the good fight and we will too um and it's my honor now to introduce to you

12:28our great Attorney General Dave Yost

12:31thank you Dave thank you all for being here I want you all to smile for me

12:44I'm serious now this is amazing turnout

12:48thank you if we end up in court this is going to be exhibit A

12:55I want to thank uh Senator Marino and Senator Houston Governor DeWine for moving quickly but

13:06especially Bernie uh he was quick on this and got a major concession without giving up anything

13:14because of the strength of his advocacy we have until the end of the year because of Bernie Marino

13:20now you just heard from the optimists these are the guys that are going to actually be out there

13:31trying to help uh trying to support the private sector the possibility of a deal uh and they've got

13:40hope and I do too I'm glad to hear that and I hope that I don't have any other role but you just heard

13:47from the good cops beat the bad cop

13:56and I want this company to know that we're not going to go down quietly into that good night

14:03and if they can't figure out a way to bring the joy I'm going to figure out a way to bring the hurt

14:14on them

14:15well look you've heard everything that a politician has to say because there were

14:24five of them that went before this one

14:26but the last speaking slot as a lawyer I know is the closing argument it's the most important words

14:35it's the most important thing and for that spot it's not a politician

14:41his name is Jeff Allen

14:45he knows what's going on here Jeff would you come up here tell us about your story brother

14:52a lot of you guys know me out there I've been around that place for almost 37 years

15:10I was telling him that my grandfather may very well be one of the oldest living retirees he's 94 years old

15:17my dad retired from there I'm a third generation paper maker I see all these retirees out here

15:22thank you for teaching the skills to these people in here right now thank you

15:27thank you

15:30look we got we got a reprieve today it's going to be a long

15:36go to here there's still some hurdles to get over but I can tell you what I told him today is I have a

15:42motivated and highly skilled workforce in there that is ready to make it run that's what I told him

15:47that's right so listen I'm not a politician and I'm not a speaker so this is this is my story and

16:00I'm here to introduce Bernie Moreno back up here

16:02all right so again thank you so much for coming out I just want you to know a couple of things as well

16:13my state director James Coyne I want to give him a shout out for for helping quarterback this and

16:18put this together also we have a deputy state director Alex Sharfurter who I've instructed and

16:25he's accepted to move and relocate his family to Chillicothe Ohio we're also going to shrink our

16:34office base in Cleveland and put a permanent senate office here in Chillicothe Ohio

16:41and that office has one charge to make certain that this plant is successful to monitor the progress

16:48to make certain that this thing thrives for the next 200 years and it's going to be physically here in

16:53the community every single day

17:02and I'll close like I started and pastor as you started pastor as you started there's one person

17:10it's not me who made all this happen

17:12and on his holiest day

17:21on his holiest day

17:24let's think about what he gave us today which is an opportunity which is all we can ever ask for

17:31make certain on Sunday we give thanks to the one the creator the one who's forgiven us from our sins

17:38and has given us this opportunity to create something even more special because this the mead

17:46was great for 213 years but with our hearts we're going to make it absolutely the most world-class paper

17:56mill at anywhere on the planet earth thank you so much

18:08thank you

18:14thank you

18:25i love that that's great

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