Congressman Andy Barr hosted his first telephone Town hall of the year last night.

The conversation was streamed live on Facebook for a 90 minutes.

He answered questions about Medicare and Medicaid.

Tariffs and cuts by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge.

The conversation came two days after Barr declined to participate in a town hall in Lexington, where nearly a thousand people showed up to ask questions of the sixth district congressman last night.

His first question was about those who participated in the weekend event, with a caller repeating Barr's claim that many of the attendees were paid activists.

Some have said that, we're facing threats to our democracy.

I think it's pretty evident, that, free speech and the right to protest is protected in America.

And I believe in that.

I believe in the First Amendment and the right of, my constituents and Americans everywhere to, petition their government for redress of grievances to the extent that they have them and, that, that spirit and that freedom is alive and well, and especially, even more so under this president.

And I think that just goes to show we live in a thriving free country, where democracy is alive and well.

And for anyone who thinks that there is, there are threats to democracy, just consider that 77 million Americans elected this president and this agenda.

I would argue that that is democracy.

Another caller said he was at Saturday's town hall, and that there were a lot of conservatives like him and the crowd.

None of us voted for a South African billionaire to come and rummage through our private, financial and health information.

And so, in the name of waste, fraud and abuse, people are losing their Medicaid.

Children are losing their, poor kids are losing their lunch money.

What are you really doing to make life better for us Kentuckians?

The bourbon bourbon industry is is in terrible shape because of the tariffs.

And, haven't heard anything so far this evening that really addresses the fact that so much of the American system has been handed over to an unelected Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is an American, the individuals who work for the Department of Government Efficiency, which by the way, is a is an agency that was actually created in the Obama administration called the US Digital Service, that has been renamed.

Now that agency has, legal authority and the individuals, the quite bright individuals who are working for that agency, are IT professionals?

They're auditors.

There are forensic accountants.

There are people who are doing what, taxpayers demand, which is to find waste, fraud and abuse and make sure our government works more effectively.

Congressman Barr ended last night's event by saying there would be more telephone town halls in the future.

Barr is serving in his seventh term as Kentucky's sixth district congressman and says he's considering running for a U.S. senator.

Mitch McConnell said next year.