Everyone in Washington, D.C. knows Don Blankenship is putting the Republican majority at risk. The ex-con and former coal CEO has long been a pariah in his home state. His crime? He violated federal mine safety standards, causing or contributing to the death of 29 people in the big explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine — the worst mining accident in over forty years.

Blankenship spent a year in prison for his role in that accident, but he has never shown meaningful remorse. His conviction was bogus, he said, and he called himself a “political prisoner” of the Obama administration.

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