The historic Kentucky Theater was full for the 90-minute “people’s town hall” organized by Gathering for Democracy, which bills itself as cross-partisan. The first of about 30 people to speak was cancer survivor Kim Edwards. She said the Trump Administration’s cuts, freezes and chaos surrounding federal research dollars were a threat to UK’s Markey Cancer Center, where she was cared for, and patients around the nation.
“Cuts to Markey will ripple through the entire economy of your district. Far more important, however, is the human cost. People will die because of these costs. People who could have been healed will suffer and they will die already. People in critical clinical trials are having their last hope of healing ripped away as those trials are canceled.”
Christy Cartner, an AP U.S. History teacher at a Lexington high school, asked Barr to not support efforts to shutter the Department of Education, saying it provides crucial support to teachers, students and parents.
“My question is, will you, Congressman Andy Barr, protect our students by voting against House Bill 899 and by opposing the recent executive order on the Department of Education?”
Retired immigration attorney Marilyn Daniel of Woodford County said she volunteers with a local nonprofit that provides a variety of services to immigrants. She said parents are terrified the second Trump Administration will reinstate the family separation policy of the first.
“U.S. immigration enforcement separated immigrant families on our southern border in President Trump's first term. Thirteen-hundred of those children have never been reunited with their families. Thirteen-hundred lost children.”
Jill Butler, who said she’d been a nurse for 31 years, said she was concerned about massive cuts to Medicaid.
“Around 50% of all births in Kentucky are covered under Medicaid. My question for Congressman Barr is, what are you doing to protect your constituency from the harmful changes being implemented by Elon Musk and the Trump administration?”
On the stage next to moderator former Lexington Vice Mayor Steve Kay was an empty chair for Barr. Barr had already indicated he wouldn’t attend and earlier in the week, said he’d hold his own.
“I found that in the first Trump administration, these live in person, massively attended town halls were shouting contests where people were really not respectful, and we're not listening to one another. And so what we're doing is we're giving our constituents a greater opportunity, because we have a much larger reach, we're going to do that. We're going to reach 75,000 of our constituents on Monday night.”
People who want to have a chance to speak at Barr’s virtual town hall must sign up on his congressional website.
A Barr spokesman suggested some of Saturday’s speakers were paid liberal activists issuing “manufactured outrage.” A member of Gathering for Democracy said speakers weren’t paid and Adam Moore, who spoke Saturday, said “If truth isn’t on your side, you don’t use the truth.”
Moore is a freshman Democratic state House representative from Lexington who formed a bipartisan veterans caucus in the General Assembly. Saturday, he took aim at the administration’s plans to cut VA staff by more than 80,000.
“I am a veteran, and I get my care at our local VA Center here in Lexington. I want to know Congressman Barr, what are you going to do today protect those federal employees who work for the Department of Veterans Affairs and the many more veterans in the state of Kentucky who are reliant on that necessary care?”
A member of Barr’s team says the virtual town hall will be broadcast on the congressman’s Facebook page Monday.
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