home after being released from a rehabilitation facility.

The speech is at Fancy Farm set the stage for Kentucky's fall campaign and next year's governor's race.

Governor Andy Beshear issued an executive order on data centers, Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association announce a championship series that will shake up horse racing.

The dog days of August have been pretty mild so far.

[MUSIC] Comment is next on KET.

[MUSIC] Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Hannah Pinski political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader, Lucas Aulbach chief politics reporter for the Courier-Journal, and Isaiah Kim Martinez, political reporter for WHAS11 in Louisville.

Let's begin with the latest update on Kentucky's senior senator, Mitch McConnell.

A statement from the senator Thursday said he has been released from a rehabilitation facility and is home.

It comes weeks after he suffered a fall on June 14th.

Isaiah, in his statement to Senator McConnell, said he is not cleared to go back to the Senate just yet, but he is working behind the scenes.

>> And will continue to do physical therapy.

Bill as he does that, we know that he according to not just his staff.

And I was in D.C.

a few weeks ago, constituent services, their staff are very much there and working.

We actually had one of our political analysts over at WHAS who knows Senator McConnell well, say that he is engaged with staff.

We keep hearing that word engaged used.

But he also said in that statement that during this state work period, which is essentially this five week recess for the U.S.

Senate, that he's going to take that time to get better, which would put us at about September, which is what we've heard many senators, mainly Republicans, say is about when they expect him to return.

>> Lucas, this new info from McConnell comes as the questions and the social media chatter were off the charts about his health status.

They've been loud and continuous for weeks.

Does this latest information quieten that?

>> I don't know if it will.

You know, this is kind of taken on a circus environment now with everybody.

Where's Mitch?

You know you heard it all week.

Fancy Farm.

And you see it all over social media.

You've got people on the left who say, and even some Republicans who say we're owed more transparency here.

And then you've got people, you know, some far right conspiracy types, you know, asking, why haven't we heard from them?

It's kind of like a perfect storm in that.

And just we've had pretty much not complete silence from his team, but close to it.

There was no photo.

I think you pointed out when we were talking no.

>> Photo with this one.

The last two, we obviously got a photo with both McConnell as well as his wife, Elaine Chao.

So slightly different.

It was more just like, you know, here's here's where he's going to be continuing his recovery.

>> So I'm not yeah, I'm not sure that a lot of this chatter is going to slow down until we hear from him.

>> And Hannah, if you follow a lot of social media, you know that even his neighbors have been questioned and all of that, right?

>> Yeah.

There have been a couple of journalists in D.C.

you know, staking outside his D.C.

home, checking in.

I believe I saw a video of the attending physician coming in and out of his home in D.C.

so a lot of people are kind of feeding, feeding into this whole speculation on social media.

And that does add, as you know, to the rumor mill.

Is he okay?

What's going on?

So like Lucas said, I think until, you know, he puts out a video, puts out something of himself speaking to the public, it's going to continue to grow.

>> McConnell's absence is Fancy Farm was unusual.

He always said he loved to go, and he showed up every time.

A vote didn't prevent him from doing that.

Back in Washington and along, party line speakers either praised him or raised questions.

At Fancy Farm.

>> Oh yeah, this would have been his last Fancy Farm as a sitting U.S.

senator.

And like you said, Democrat's question and criticize McConnell's absence.

While a lot of Republicans throughout the weekend praised him and thanked him for his service in Kentucky, for example, Attorney General Russell Coleman said he owes a lot of his political career to McConnell.

And at the Republican breakfast Saturday morning, they also played a video of what they called McConnell's greatest hits when he has attended Fancy Farm.

It was definitely a different dynamic this year compared to last year while I was there, because that was when it was ahead of the Republican primary, where we had three prominent candidates who were all sort of distancing, distancing themselves from McConnell.

Whereas this year there was a lot of praise and a lot of that notion to honor his legacy as he finishes his term.

>> It's interesting, too, when you heard Charles Booker and Andy Barr, who were probably the two who mentioned Mitch McConnell the most in their Fancy Farm speeches, you kind of hear the same sort of messaging we've heard along party lines.

Like you mentioned, Booker was saying, Where's Mitch McConnell?

That was his quote, that question.

Then he goes, I was the first to call for transparency.

And then you have Congressman Andy Barr who said, hey, I just got off the phone with him yesterday.

We were reminiscing about the history of Fancy Farm.

It's just completely different messaging.

As far as the current condition of the 84 year old senator.

And this comes again, as Lucas mentioned, we have yet to hear from him since mid June.

>> June 12th was the last time he tweeted.

And you know, that was a was a social media post.

I don't know the last time he's been on video or anything like that.

So.

>> All right.

Well, Governor Beshear also was not at Fancy Farm.

And so that that was another thing that brought up lots of criticism and questions from those on the other side.

>> Some of the fun right there being at the picnic is hearing kind of the jeers back and forth, right?

We're hearing the Where's Mitch chants on the left.

And then on the right, we were hearing, Where's Beshear?

Where's Beshear?

And a tweet came in a series of them just a couple hours after things got done.

Obviously, Republicans very much took aim at Governor Beshear and some of his policies and, you know, kind of his national appearances.

>> Yeah.

Do you think he heard him?

>> And I think, you know, some might say that maybe they had this ready to go, but the governor specifically had some comments that are different than the normal sort of Mister Rogers image that we've become accustomed to seeing.

There were some words in there that maybe you wouldn't scream across the room in an office building.

So it caught a lot of people off guard.

I had some friends texted me, did he get hacked?

Well, I asked the governor about it, and he just said he was having some good natured fun and says, Trump drops the f bomb all the time.

This was just me being a little more aggressive.

>> Is it fair to say that it was sort of in the vernacular of what might be said from the stage, but maybe it didn't land as he might have expected on social media?

>> And I guess it depends on who the audience is.

Bill we know that a lot of younger progressives have called for not just Governor Beshear, but Democrats across the board to be tougher on whether it be the Senator McConnell situation or Trump or anything.

And you get this sense that maybe this was thinking more toward trying to prove that the governor is is not just Mr.

Nice or perceived to be that way.

>> You could you could see somebody who doesn't know Fancy Farm, though, seeing that from, you know, across the country, that kind of came out of nowhere.

>> Yeah, sure.

Well, it was interesting.

We're still in the afterglow of Fancy Farm, where the speech is, and the barbecue delighted political activists and made some news.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams had hinted he might run for governor, but in the end, he made an endorsement of someone else instead.

>> We absolutely have to nominate our strongest ticket.

The first thing we must do to strengthen our chances is to avoid some messy primary where we all attack each other.

Let the Democrats do that.

I've said Republicans can't take any chances weakening our shot in 2027.

And that goes for me, too.

I've dedicated my career to our beloved Republican Party, and the best thing I can do for my team is to call on all Republicans to join me in supporting James Comer to be our next governor.

>> So, Hannah, that was probably the big news that was made from the Fancy Farm stage, because Adams had strongly hinted that he might run for governor.

Instead, he talked about avoiding that divisive Republican primary that could have happened.

And they did have 1 in 2023.

>> They did.

In 2023, you had three prominent Republicans run.

At the time, it was Daniel Cameron, Daniel Cameron, Kelly Craft and Ryan Quarles.

And I think what Adams is really emphasizing, and I think is kind of the sentiment in the Republican Party, is we need a unified front going into the general election, because the Republican Party has struggled with electing someone to the governor's mansion.

So I think kind of the line of thinking here right now is if we have a unified front going into the primary, there are no hard feelings.

Afterward, we can have a strong front going into the general election and a better chance of winning that seat.

>> It's been a while, too, since we've seen, at least on the Republican ticket.

If this ends up holding true, right, that Congressman Comer gets in and no other sort of prominent, real prominent Republican gets in.

You know, I went back and looked at some of the previous races.

A lot of these Republican races have been pretty highly contested on the Republican side.

So this was certainly be maybe a first, at least in this century.

On the GOP side.

>> I think it was going to be a hard road for Secretary Adams if he was in the race.

I think a lot of people are lining up behind comer already.

You know, white House ties, DC ties, ties to the legislature, rural Kentucky.

So I think, you know, Adams would have had appeal in a general election.

And it's good for comer that he's on his side.

But I I think that could have been a tough primary.

>> Well, for his part, comer has not announced for governor he's running for reelection to his House seat, but he indicates he will spell out his plan shortly after the November results are in at Fancy Farm.

He let others do the talking.

While he did take some aim at Democrats who are running for governor, and this is what he said about Adams endorsing him.

>> We communicated a lot over the last couple of weeks, and I've always had a lot of respect for Michael Adams.

I think, as I said yesterday in Marshall County, he's done a great job as secretary of state.

I was very surprised and very happy.

TJ and I are very, very humbled by his support, and I look forward to working with Michael Adams in the future.

>> So you didn't expect this?

>> I didn't expect well, I'm the eternal optimist, so I was very happy.

But no, I didn't expect it.

It was very good.

I was surprised and very pleased.

>> So Lucas, is Congressman Comer really trying to run two campaigns at once?

>> He's got to win one before he can go to the other.

I think he's got a pretty, pretty good shot of retaining his seat against a very much underdog Democrat candidate Drew Williams.

You know you saw the signs Fancy Farm that's that's comer country.

So I think he's kind of laying the groundwork right now while still I got across the finish line.

You know I got to go to finish plan A before I go to plan B.

>> And Hannah has an interesting perspective on this.

Right?

>> Yeah.

So comer, as we know, is chair of the House Oversight Committee.

And U.S.

House Republican leadership has a rule.

If you are running a campaign, for example, for governor, you cannot keep your chair in a in a committee position.

So his term ends in December.

We heard that Fancy Farm that he could be making a decision in December on whether or not to run.

I don't think that's a coincidence.

He's waiting that out and we can see him right now.

You know, little small ways he could be potentially building a statewide campaign, particularly he's been in Louisville a lot, you know, potentially trying to build his name ID.

And if he were to win the Republican nomination and then run in the general, that could be a potential struggle area because it has moderate Republicans but also strong Democratic hold.

>> Talk about Michael Adams, too.

I mean, for him to make this kind of announcement when he had been teasing this for many months, you get this sense that he's going to be in Republican good graces in Kentucky.

Very much so, as he maybe weighs some possible opportunities in the future.

We know he didn't close that door as far as his political future.

So there are a couple of things we can chat about.

>> His line always was that if he ran for something in 27, it would be for governor.

>> That's what.

>> He said.

So does that open up 28 possibilities?

Right.

>> Possibly.

And we could also look at maybe if James Comer does win the governor's mansion, if that were to happen, then a seat for Congress opens up.

We know that Michael Adams is from McCracken County, the Paducah area.

So some of those potential opportunities could make sense.

>> All right.

While the Republicans try to avoid a heated primary that appears to be exactly where Democrats are headed.

Democrat's Rocky Adkins and Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman were on the same stage for the first time since their contest formed in mid-July.

It was a contrast in speaking styles.

>> The next governor, whoever she may be.

Has to keep our win streak going by focusing on working families, by fighting for the health care Kentuckians deserve.

Pre-K for all affordable housing.

And finally delivering the raise.

Our educators deserve.

>> I've been listening to a whole lot over my left shoulder here today, and a lot of what's going on in their definition of public service is trying to hurt people.

Real leadership is about bringing certainty.

It's about bringing stability.

Real leadership is working across party aisles to bring real results to Kentucky.

Let me tell you something.

That is the kind of leadership I will bring if you allow me to be the next governor of this great commonwealth of Kentucky.

>> Well, Lucas, the Democrats have a real choice to make here, and they have a lot to consider, given that they are now the smaller of the two major parties.

>> Yes, the smaller the two major parties.

And moving on from the guy who's kind of been the face of the party for the past six and a half, seven years now.

And Governor Beshear, the two people running for a seat, have a lot in common.

You know, they're both very much tied to Beshear and his administration.

I think, Lieutenant Governor Coleman, you heard the Beshear Coleman administration several times, not so subtly tying herself to that.

But but yeah, like I said, they're aligned on a lot of issues politically.

Rocky kind of has more connections and or more years on the scene that might have given him more connections.

So it would be interesting to see how they separate from each other moving forward.

>> One thing to point out in those speeches is that we have not seen so far.

Atkins and Coleman talk about each other necessarily, and they've been wanting, I think, to keep it a clean primary.

But, you know, we're still far away from May.

I think it will be interesting to watch how clean they can keep it leading up to that.

But we are noticing, you know, little ways that the candidates are trying to differentiate themselves.

For example, Atkins had told reporters at the Democratic dinner ahead of Fancy Farm.

One way he plans to be maybe different from Beshear is he wants to work with the Republican supermajority state legislature.

He has that background as a House representative himself.

He's worked with them as Beshear's advisor.

So I think he's hoping to show that bipartisan experience could help him win the election.

Leading up here.

>> A couple things I'm curious, because Rocky Atkins has sort of suggested that I've been in the room where the decisions have been made, right, almost suggesting that maybe he's been in those rooms more often than Jacqueline Coleman.

I'm curious to see how she might fire back on that.

And second, what's going to be sort of the the name or image of their campaign as far as what they stand for policy wise, what is going to be the policy item that they're saying?

This is what you will get from me as governor.

That might be curious.

>> Does Beshear get pulled into this primary before Election Day.

>> His team and himself?

He has said, I will not endorse because I am the Democratic Governors Association to the end of this year.

But guess what?

By next year, he won't be in that position, won't be the chair anymore.

He'll have five months to make an endorsement.

I would not be shocked if he were to make one.

>> Well, the statewide race that comes before the governor's race is for the U.S.

Senate.

And that, of course, is to replace Senator Mitch McConnell after his 42 years in Washington.

Democrat Charles Booker and Republican Andy Barr both gave aggressive speeches in pursuit of the seat that McConnell has held.

And the Kentucky party nominee, independent Chris Campbell, also got to speak to the crowd.

>> I would call him the Mamdani of Kentucky.

[APPLAUSE] But Madani has actually won an election.

[APPLAUSE] You know, Charles is a community organizer.

Newsflash, that's not a job.

That's when that's what you put on a resume.

When professional complainer sounds too negative.

>> Andy Barr is a weak version of Mitch McConnell and a bootleg version of Donald Trump.

Andy Barr.

Andy Barr is the Nate Morris of Matt Bevin.

[APPLAUSE] The man is a joke.

Andy Barr is a status quo politician who would rather fund endless war and protect the Epstein files instead of stand up for you.

[APPLAUSE] >> Essentially, my opponents are the same.

Republicans are Democrats, and Democrats are Republicans.

All you have to do is look at the endless wars that we are constantly locked in.

They lead by one mantra everything for the rich.

Whatever else they can scrape aside for themselves and nothing for Kentucky, Barr and Booker.

I'm going to start calling y'all Schumer and McConnell, although I shouldn't speak ill of the dead.

>> Okay, quite a day.

Transition there.

Barr and Booker were predictably aggressive making their pitches.

>> They are.

And I think, you know, one similar similarity we see the two campaigns is that they each are pitching themselves as fighters for Kentuckians, albeit for different reasons.

Barr is saying he's going to fight for conservative values and against an unrecognizable Democratic Party.

He really focused on policies such as honoring law enforcement, defending taxpayers, protecting veterans.

Meanwhile, Booker really emphasized he wants to fight against what he views as the corruption in DC and said, like other Democrats will stand for justice and the U.S.

Constitution here.

>> Andy Barr is essentially aligning Charles Booker trying to with sort of this democratic socialist movement, while Booker is really trying to tell Andy Barr, essentially say you're a moderate, I know you're a moderate Republican.

You're just trying to shapeshift, to get in good graces with President Trump, with Mitch McConnell.

So that's essentially how this race has played out, at least until this point.

>> I think I'm going to start a counter of how often we hear mom Donnie of Kentucky between now and November, because that's pretty high.

Yeah, I mean, that just that's the strategy though, you know, tie him to these, you know, far left figures who might not be popular with Kentucky voters.

>> Hannah Campbell got to speak, which is rare for an independent.

But he said he was persistent in explaining to the fancy farm organizers that he was on the ballot.

He got the signatures to be there.

And Laura Cullen Glasscock pointed out in a recent edition here of comment that independents are the fastest growing segment of the voter registration in Kentucky.

>> They are, and I think they're definitely a voting bloc that, you know, Barr and Butler cannot forget about heading into this election because while they may seem like a small voting bloc, obviously they're going to have some impact, especially given that these independent voters are a bit more moderate.

And I think it's fair to say that Barr is a fairly Wright candidate.

Booker's is a fairly left.

So the question is, how do they appeal to those independent voters here leading into the election?

>> All right.

Tell us something quickly from behind the scenes.

What did we not get to see on the stage?

>> Well, Rand Paul, Senator Rand Paul talked a lot about Anthony Fauci in that GOP dinner the night before.

I mean, the whole speech was about Fancy Farm was different, but that he has certainly taken a bit of a victory lap on that.

We'll see how that plays, maybe into a possible presidential race in 2018.

>> Anything else you hear out there?

>> Socialism was the word of the day.

It was.

I went to the Republican dinner on Friday night, the Republican breakfast the following morning, and.

>> Saw those AI generated images.

>> Yeah, right.

>> With AOC, Bernie.

>> Saw the one booker with the Russian hat.

You know, it's yeah, people have fun.

At Fancy Farm.

>> I think it was interesting that President Donald Trump didn't come up as much during this year's Fancy Farm, not to say, you know, obviously there's a lot of support with Republicans, with the president, but it wasn't as much of a topic of conversation as it was previously.

>> Hannah the sixth district congressional race, the open seat where Andy Barr is running for the Senate.

So it's open in Central Kentucky.

There's a poll out done by the Democratic Campaign Committee, or four of them showing that race a toss up between Ralph Alvarado, the Republican and Zach Dembo the Democrat.

>> It is.

And that poll was done, like you said, by the DCCC, so of course, all posts in general should be taken with a grain of salt.

But it had both Alvarado and Dembo tied at 47%.

And I think there are other indicators we have seen that have said this will be a close race.

So, for example, a poll that was released, I want to say a month or so ago showed Alvarado had a fairly narrow lead against Dembo.

Dembo has had strong fundraising numbers, and there was a cook Political report that moved the district from solid to likely Republican as well.

And Alvarado's response in his campaign's response was interesting in that the triple C poll, they had said, we always knew this was going to be a tough race.

So I think going into November, it might be a lot closer than what some people may think.

>> Maybe one to watch.

Governor Beshear is issuing an executive order on data centers.

He says he doesn't want to stop economic development, but wants to protect Kentuckians and communities.

>> My executive order establishes protections for our people to ensure that no data center causes a detrimental impact on their power bills or on the environment.

To do that, project developers will be required to submit an initial energy plan to the Energy and Environment Cabinet.

The plan will have to show how the company will protect our families and current businesses by not raising their electric bills.

>> As well as a Republican Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne both quickly pushed back, saying that data center rules need to be handled by the legislature.

>> And they almost did.

We know that legislation, I believe, was sponsored by Representative Bray was sort of near the finish line.

You get a sense that 2027.

I mean, it's going to be the year of data center regulation, amongst other things, because as we know, there are so many different counties and cities that are already passing moratoriums, trying to put a pause on this until they can figure things out.

>> Yeah, I know every lawmaker in the state right now is hearing about it.

Probably data centers more than anything from constituents.

It is the big issue right now.

>> Well, Louisville is on the verge of a moratorium.

>> You're really seeing it in Louisville right now.

Mayor Greenberg is getting hounded over his ties to a developer who's working on a data center in Louisville, and now he's backing this proposed moratorium for, I think, six months, 180 days.

>> So that meeting the other day, they were throwing streamers at the Planning commission.

People got kicked out, dragged out by, not dragged out, but escorted out by police.

>> And not the first not the first event these protesters have shown up to either.

So, I mean, you know, it's it is the hot button issue.

>> Well, Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association made an announcement that could really change the future of horse racing.

It's a series of races.

And Lucas, you know, I think we started this week off with what does that mean.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Well it means more racing, more high profile racing throughout the year.

And I think that's kind of the goal is to keep people engaged, not just on the first Saturday in May and maybe until the Preakness or Belmont.

If the Derby winner keeps winning, you know, I think the goal now is to keep some of these more casual fans engaged throughout the year.

And, you know, horse racing has been fighting dwindling interest among a lot of viewers for many years.

So I think this is kind of a push to keep people involved just without the Preakness.

>> Well, there'll still be a Triple Crown that's.

>> There will still be a Triple Crown.

Yeah.

They've said they're not closing the door on that, even though two legs of it are a part of this thoroughbred championship.

>> Was left off this though.

>> It was.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Okay.

DoorDash says it wants its it says it's its folks bring in about $700 million and they want to now start using robots and drones to get deliveries to some of their customers.

And that was talked about in a committee meeting in Frankfort.

>> I'm still concerned on anytime we do something anonymous, autonomous, that we're losing jobs.

And that's one thing I definitely not interested in.

>> I think there's another way to solve your lack of drivers, and that would be to put some of the money that you're putting into R&D, into paying the employees better.

I think that's another way to address the same issue without having the public safety risk.

>> That's great.

>> Well, I'd say it's the way people are getting used to getting their food and other deliveries, right?

Yeah.

>> I mean, it's crazy now with technology, it's like you don't go and order traditionally anymore.

>> U.S.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr was in Lexington announcing he is decertifying a network for Hope, an organ transplant organization.

>> Yeah, this organization has been under scrutiny, I believe, for some time with a federal investigation that found persistent patient failures back in, I want to say, 2025.

The organization, though, has said they will appeal Kennedy's decision.

So we'll have to see if that leads to anything.

>> The governor did say they were had some issues.

So this is bipartisan to this point.

The effort.

>> To.

Governor Beshear expanded his pre-K for all pilot program to Dawson Springs.

That's his family's ancestral home and was greatly impacted by the 2021 tornadoes School has started in Jefferson County.

Somebody stole a school bus.

>> Hit a couple of parked cars.

Thankfully, no one inside, thank God, because that's you don't read that every day.

>> Pretty good night.

Past that, it sounded like they had everybody home by 622.

[MUSIC] So I know.

>> Seven minutes better than last.

>> Yeah, right.

[MUSIC] It sounds like improvements.

All right.

>> Hey.

And so the school bells are ringing.

That's common on Kentucky.

Thanks for joining us.

Have a good week ahead.

[MUSIC]