Comer chairs the committee investigating the Epstein files. He agreed to an unsworn, un-videotaped interview for Pam Bondi, has not held a single hearing on Epstein, and says he will not call JD Vance or Susie Wiles.
Comer's D.C. Taxing Authority Review Act would require an act of Congress before the District could change any tax or fee — up or down. He told the markup it was aimed at the progressives D.C. voters had just elected. An $81 billion delivery company that had just lost a 20-cent fee fight wrote in to back it, and Comer put its letter in the record.
In 2021 Comer voted no on the infrastructure law and said its money was going to things that 'do not affect Kentucky's 1st District.' In July 2026 he announced a $24 million grant for Paducah's riverport — paid for by the exact law he voted against.
In March 2025 Barr told a Commerce Lexington luncheon that Musk had assured him 'face to face' that University of Kentucky research was safe and there'd be no broad federal workforce cuts. UK was already facing a $40 million hit, and 317,000 federal workers were gone by year's end.
In 2021 Barr said he'd 'always be an advocate' for opening foreign markets to Kentucky distillers. Then exports to Canada fell 42%, Jim Beam paused production at Clermont for all of 2026 — and Barr voted against ending the Canada tariffs and called the damage 'short-term turbulence.'
Barr's first Senate ad borrowed a slogan the Anti-Defamation League catalogs as a hate slogan adopted by white supremacists. A veteran Kentucky political columnist called it the most overtly racist statewide campaign he can remember. Then Barr won the primary.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found ICE is paying contractors millions to scan social media around the clock, then using subpoenas to unmask Americans who criticize the agency. Nobody has been charged. That may be the point.
A 1,000-mile road trip through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky found people who can't afford toilet paper. The unemployment rate hasn't moved. The only thing that changed is the law all 23 Republicans from those states voted for.
A month after new student loan rules hit 600,000 Kentuckians, it's worth remembering that Brett Guthrie fought to kill loan forgiveness for teachers and nurses — while a company he helps run had $4.4 million in federal loans wiped clean.