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Insults fly high at Betras roast
STRUTHERS
They were funny, they were somewhat crude, and some were outright profane – and it was all done to honor and insult Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras.
With trash-talk-show host Jerry Springer running the show, politicians and others roasted Betras at Wednesday at The Embassy.
Those roasting took playful shots at Betras for being an ambulance-chasing attorney, who multitasks even when it’s not needed and is seemingly unable to do anything without texting and tweeting his every thought on his cell phone, no matter the time.
Among the most entertaining of the roasters was Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti who used a lot of words you can’t publish in a newspaper.
When she was done, Springer said, “Who would have thought I would be the cleanest one? I didn’t think I was capable of being embarrassed anymore.”
This was from a guy whose show’s recent episode titles include, “Honey, I’m Gay,” “Girlfriends Mowed Over” and “Dad, Stop Dating My Friends.”
Rimedio-Righetti used a running theme of asking Betras to shut his mouth by giving him duct tape and a couple of Sugar Daddy pops, among other things, while asking his wife, Pamela Barkett, a dentist, why she didn’t wire his jaw shut to “make everyone happy.”
Betras sat on the stage in a cushioned chair laughing and enjoying himself.
About 200 people attended the event – tickets were $75 each – with the money going to the county party and a portion donated to the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.
Sarah Brown-Clark, clerk of Youngstown Municipal Court, said that Betras calls her and others before the sun rises asking for contributions to the county party, the state Democratic Party and local candidates.
She told a story about the July 30 event at Youngstown’s East High School for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Betas was not in charge of that rally so he ran around saying, “Nothing’s right. I’m going to get blamed for this,” Brown-Clark said. It was a “David fit,” she said.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said when he first met Betras in 2009, he was impressed with his ability to get media attention. Pepper then told stories about Betras, who “has a habit of texting terrible things to people he doesn’t like.” With Twitter, Betras now insults people he doesn’t like on that social media platform.
“David has mastered the trash talk from texting to Twitter,” Pepper quipped.
Both Pepper and Springer mentioned the importance of Ohio in the presidential election between Clinton and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Springer particularly mentioned Mahoning County – which saw more than 6,000 Democrats cross party lines to vote in the March GOP primary – saying, “This may be the most important county in the country if it’s a close election. There is some concern that some traditional Democrats will vote for Donald Trump.”
Trump lost the Ohio primary to John Kasich, this state’s governor, but Mahoning was the largest county in Ohio to back Trump.
While not confirmed by his campaign, there is talk of Trump returning to the Valley on Monday to campaign at the Canfield Fair.
In an interview before the event, Springer said of Trump, “I think it’s disgraceful. In my lifetime, we’ve never, ever, ever, ever had someone from a major party run for president of the United States this opposed to the idea of America.”
He said Trump wants to “metaphorically replace the Statue of Liberty with a wall” on the Mexican border.