SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, June 16, 2020 (Bill Gephardt Podcast/Gephardt Daily) — Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman is fighting a war on two fronts. Not only is he battling tough opposition as he fights to reclaim a job to which he was elected twice more than a decade ago, he’s also in throes of a personal health battle with the dreaded COVID-19.
With just a few days to go before the GOP primary, Huntsman is in a tight four-way race with Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, former Utah House leader Greg Hughes, and former chair of the Utah Republican Party Thomas Wright.
While a most recent poll by Dan Jones and Associates shows the former U.S. ambassador to China and Russia — a man who served under five U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump — taking a thin lead, Huntsman is pressing on — coronavirus be damned.
Quarantined and in isolation inside his family home, Utah’s ex-chief executive is fighting through the illness, a feeling he’s described as “being hit by a train.” Yet despite suffering the classic COVID-19 symptoms of fever, fatigue, labored breathing, nausea, and sharps aches and pains, Huntsman is still on the campaign trail, using social media, including Zoom, Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with his supporters.
In a wide-ranging interview on Bill Gephardt’s Podcast, Huntsman shook off the virus to talk about his COVID-19 odyssey. He spoke of the anxiety and frustration created by a bogus test result that may have increased his family’s exposure to the disease, something he suspects other Utah families have experienced.
Huntsman also spoke about his goals for a new administration should he prevail in the primary and general election.
What’s it like to return to Utah after living overseas for all those years? And what’s it like to work for bosses whose management styles are as diverse as Obama and Trump?
For answers to these and other intriguing questions, click on the player above.
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