Free Republic

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), chairman of the House Budget Committee and leading the talks on infrastructure, announced Tuesday that he would not be seeking reelection. “It’s been an incredible journey since my first campaign in 2006 until now. I will continue to fight for Louisville in Washington for another 15 months, and then, I will retire from Congress. I will have plenty more to say in the months ahead,” he tweeted along with a short video:

State Rep. Attica Scott was arrested for rioting last year but charges were dropped A defund the police activist in Louisville, Ky., has thrown down the primary gauntlet against the area’s sixth-term Democratic congressman. Democrat state Rep. Attica Scott has officially announced a primary challenge against the Kentucky congressional delegation’s only Democrat, Rep. John Yarmuth. Scott, who dropped her first campaign ad with her announcement Wednesday morning, said Louisville "needs a leader who sees its true colors and understands the experiences of all of our neighbors." In the ad, the state representative gave her vocal support behind the highly criticized...

House Budget Committee chair Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) called Sunday for a ban on teenagers wearing “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) hats, in response to a viral video of a confrontation between Catholic students and Native American counter-demonstrators at the March for Life on Friday in Washington, DC. Yarmuth holds one of the most powerful positions in the Democrat-run U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)suggested on Monday that President Trump does not have the mental capacity to serve as commander in chief. “This is not somebody, in my mind, who is emotionally stable enough to be president of the United States,” he said on MSNBC on Monday. “I have real serious concerns about this.” Specifically, the representative wants a president who will take a 3:30 a.m. phone call, but will not stay up all night tweeting. “I think that’s what we have,” Yarmuth said. “We have a president who is up all night, who’s tweeting at all kinds of crazy hours,...

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, is becoming increasingly alarmed with the actions and words from President Donald Trump. Kentucky’s lone federally elected Democratic official, who is now the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, summed up Trump’s presidency after a recent press conference in a word as “terrifying.” “It’s terrifying from a number of perspectives,” he said in an interview with Spectrum News on Monday. “One is he’s incoherent; President Trump literally cannot express a thought that is coherent. Secondly, he says things without any regard to the ramifications of them — all of these statements that involve foreign...

After his recent criticism of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, says Vice President Joe Biden’s entry in the race “could cause a lot of problems for a lot of Democrats (with) split loyalties.” Speaking to Pure Politics on Tuesday, Yarmuth said he’s “not sure yet” if a run from Biden would be better for Democrats seeking to keep the White House. “Joe is very popular. He is a great public servant,” Yarmuth said. (3:53) “I’ve known him since he came to the Senate in 1972. He’s a wonderful man, and I think he’d be a...

President Barack Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba has Kentucky’s lone Democratic representative at the federal level both “excited and pleased” with his actions — even if some of his GOP counterparts don’t share his enthusiasm. ... “It’s not accomplished anything. It’s hurt the Cuban people,” Yarmuth said. While it would take full Congressional approval to lift the embargo Yarmuth said the old policy put in place in the 1960’s. “Our policy makes absolutely no sense. We’re the only ones in the world treating them like this,” Yarmuth said. “If you’re in Cuba you understand that countries from all...

Filmmakers and Sony Pictures knew the risk to make a movie about the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, said U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, but they made the right choice to not release the film after threats of terrorism. Yarmuth’s remarks to Pure Politics Thursday come one day after major theaters pulled the comedy due out Christmas day, leaving Sony to ultimately not distribute the film on any platform. “I questioned their decision initially to make the movie,” Yarmuth said. “It seems to me to be something that they knew at the time they decided that there was...

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell walked onto the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week holding a flintlock musket over his head has seemed to give ammunition to Democrats and McConnell’s Republican primary foe. Both U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, Kentucky’s lone Democratic Congressman, and GOP U.S. Senate challenger Matt Bevin have sought to declare the moment a gaffe. Calling McConnell’s entrance “pathetic,” Yarmuth tried to add a political and historical interpretation of the moment. “If you had a caption that you would run under that picture it would just say desperation,” Yarmuth said of McConnell. “He understandably feels like...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville man says he intends to run on the Republican ticket for Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District seat, currently held by Democrat John Yarmuth. Dr. Michael Macfarlane said in a news release, "As a practicing physician and surgeon, I am extremely passionate about my profession, and would like to bring my vast experience in the healthcare field to Kentuckians, especially as we are faced with complications from the Affordable Care Act and its effects on Kentucky jobs and small businesses." His website has a section marked, "Washington is broken," in which Macfarlane asserts, "It is clearer...

The only way to end the “ridiculous, pointless effort” that has shut down the government, says Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, is for House Speaker John Boehner to let moderate Republicans and House Democrats vote on a budget measure without a provision to defund the Affordable Care Act. “There’s only one way this impasse can be avoided, and that’s if Speaker Boehner decides that he can rely on Democratic votes combined with some Republican votes to both get the government functioning again and then also to avoid defaulting on our debts as a nation, which will happen in a couple...

The collapse of efforts in the U.S. Senate to expand background checks to more gun sales will inspire a renewed effort by Americans to push for reforms, predicted Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth of Louisville. “I think we’re a long way from finished on this. As a matter of fact, I think the disbelief of the American public over what happened in the Senate will almost guarantee that we get some kind of action,” Yarmuth said at the beginning of his interview with Pure Politics on Thursday night. Yarmuth said he expects the ultimate legislation will be stronger than what...

U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, is holding out hope Congress can come to an agreement before the end of the year to avoid the fiscal cliff – a mix of mandatory spending cuts and the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts. Unlike others, such as Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, Yarmuth said he doesn’t want to see Congress wait until after the first of the year to take up the tax issue. Murray has said Democrats might have a better chance to keep the cuts only for the middle class if the cuts are allowed to expire so Congress...

Henry Clay. Daniel Webster. Ashley Judd? Yes, there are actually Democrats in Kentucky so eager to get rid of Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell that they would support putting Ashley Judd up as the Democratic Senator for Kentucky.U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, said: “If you had an Ashley Judd-McConnell race, I think it would be as high profile a race as Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown… The money would pour in here as soon as she entered the race.” Former Auditor Crit Luallen said that Judd would be “an attractive candidate.” Some supporters of the idea say such a race could...

Appearing on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir Live, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., ratcheted up his offensive against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in an attempt to debunk the GOP leader’s recent claims about the Affordable Care Act. In March, McConnell wrote an editorial in The Courier-Journal calling for a repeal to President Obama’s health care law. Since then, Yarmuth has been hammering the Senator and wrote a letter to McConnell challenging him to a public debate. Yarmuth says McConnell is lying about key reforms in the law and he has to be held accountable. “Mitch and I represent the same...

Democrat John Yarmuth has a massive financial interest in a home health care company owned by his brother that has benefited from the congressman's advocacy for higher Medicare reimbursements.

Todd Lally: "This November's election will be critical in shaping the direction of our great nation. I believe that this race is, above all, about our core values, and I look forward to representing Kentucky's 3rd district with a message of personal and fiscal responsibility. I have the history of service and the leadership experience to bring real change to Congress, and I thank you for your continued support as we build momentum in our race to the Capitol." ... Click link to view the video (and others from his campaign)

GOP congressional candidate Todd Lally released his campaign’s first internal poll after winning the May primary. Lally surprised many with his strong win in the primary, but his landslide victory corresponded with the campaign’s internal polling performed by Rivercity Polling, a Republican-affiliated consulting group. Rivercity’s latest poll showed support for Lally at 43%, Yarmuth at 44% and Undecided or Other at 13%. The automated poll was conducted from June 20-29, and surveyed 300 likely voters with a margin of error at + 3%. The Lally campaign welcomed the news, which puts the race in an effective dead heat. This...

Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth (D) was just on Fox News. In an exchange with Trace Gallagher he admitted that the Democrats never intended for the healthcare legislation to cut cost. Here are the quotes: Trace: "But I thought the idea was to lower cost." Yarmuth: "Nobody ever said we were ever going to bring the cost down." Later in the exchange: Yarmuth: "Nobody ever believed we could actually bring cost down."

A Republican senator and a Democratic congressmen are teaming up to promote legislation to name a new Veterans Affairs Hospital in Louisville after the late World War I-era veteran Robley Rex. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth introduced bills on Wednesday to honor Rex, who died at the age of 107 earlier this year. Both lawmakers say Rex was a strong advocate for veterans. Rex joined the Army when he was 18, just after World War I. He spent time in France and Germany before he was discharged in 1922. He was still volunteering at the Louisville VA...