‘Let the whiners whine.’ Bevin fires back at critics of his grenade-launching video.

“Let the whiners whine!” proclaims Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin in a video posted Tuesday on social media that criticizes those who questioned a video he posted Saturday that showed him throwing smoke bombs and shooting grenade launchers.

In the first video, filmed at the Kentucky State Penitentiary’s gun range in Eddyville, a bearded Bevin used the explosives he was tossing as a metaphor for his efforts to blow things up in Frankfort, such as red tape, corruption and “pay-to-play and inside deals.”

Bevin, a Republican who has said he will seek re-election next year, declared he “won’t stand for the way things have always been done.”

Several prominent Democrats chided the Republican governor for the machismo-laden video.

A spokesman for Attorney General Andy Beshear, who also is a gubernatorial candidate, said Bevin should refund every tax dollar used to make the video. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville told WDRB in Louisville that it was “one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen out of a public official” and predicted that “it will backfire with a large number of Kentuckians.”

In his response video, a clean-shaven Bevin labeled Yarmuth a whiner.

“Boy, it takes so little to trigger a whiny liberal,” Bevin said. “Our expenditure of some dated munitions as part of a CERT (community emergency response team) team training exercise has certainly gotten people worked up.”

He said Yarmuth is part of a political party that wastes billions and billions of dollars in Washington, D.C.. on a regular basis.

Bevin said he is going to continue to blast red tape and corruption.

Bevin also continued his frequent criticism of the administration of former Gov. Steve Beshear, saying the former governor spent $300 million on a website that no longer exists. That is an apparent reference to Kynect.ky.gov, a federally-funded health benefits exchange that Bevin shuttered after taking office.

“There are any number of examples of waste and corruption and lack of transparency and inside deals that we have been blowing up,” said Bevin, who said he was investing in the state by improving state parks, fixing bridges and cleaning the Capitol for the first time since it was built in 1910.

“Expect to be upset more often,” Bevin said to his critics, “because if you are upset by us cleaning up corruption, you are going to be upset for a long time to come. It’s a whole new day. We are Kentucky.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 5:05 PM.