Phone call report spurs GOP criticism of Beshear’s comments to fellow Democrats

Republished from Kentucky Lantern

A published report of what Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a tense exchange among top national Democrats has spurred criticism from Kentucky Republicans.
The New York Times published details from a tense phone call Wednesday night between six Democratic governors, including Beshear, and U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. The governors urged Schumer to persuade Senate Democrats to more aggressively block Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda.
According to detailed notes and unnamed sources whose comments were paraphrased in the Times article, Beshear said “that the hardest part of dealing with the new administration was that the American people would have to feel the pain of Mr. Trump’s actions so that they would learn not to make the mistake of electing someone like him again.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was then paraphrased as saying “Democrats were not inclined to inflict pain on their constituents, but that people needed to understand the consequences of electing Mr. Trump.”
In a Thursday afternoon statement, the Republican Party of Kentucky interpreted the paraphrase as Beshear “advocating for Democrats to inflict pain on the American people, simply because they didn’t vote for Kamala Harris.”
The RPK accused Beshear of “truly staggering” hypocrisy for talking publicly “about the Golden Rule and the need to end divisive politics.”
“Kentuckians overwhelmingly support President Trump’s efforts to protect families from violent crime, deadly drugs, and out-of-control inflation,” said RPK spokesperson Andy Westberry. “Instead of standing with Kentuckians, Andy Beshear wants to punish them.”
Asked for a response, Eric Hyers, a political strategist for Beshear, said he would not comment on “private conversations,” but called the RPK statement “absurd and entirely false.”
“What the RPK should respond to is President Trump’s executive order attempting to shut off Medicaid for almost a day and freezing funding for Meals on Wheels and Head Start,” Hyers said.
The Times reported that Schumer had convened the call to discuss a collective response to the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze federal funding on grant and loan programs, which earlier this week sowed confusion across the country, including in Kentucky.
Beshear also reportedly said during the call that states with Democratic governors and Republican attorneys general need to have a separate legal and communications strategy to oppose Trump’s policies.
Spokespeople for Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, did not return an emailed request for comment Thursday morning. Previously, Coleman issued a statement from his campaign email after Trump won the November election that said “Kentucky will once again have an ally and a fighter in the White House” with the president in office.
Earlier this week, Coleman joined a coalition of Republican attorneys general calling on retailer Costco to drop its diversity, equity and inclusion policies while citing a recent Trump executive order.
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