Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry on Sunday explained her decision to reenter politics with a challenge to U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), asserting “now is the right time” for her foray into the public arena.
Barry resigned as Nashville mayor in 2018 after it was reported she financed an affair with her bodyguard using almost $175,000 in taxpayer money and used taxpayer resources and vehicles to facilitate the affair at the Nashville City Cemetery.
The former mayor told WKRN reporter Blake Eason she was motivated to challenge Green after witnessing “dysfunction in Washington,” and expressed optimism voters would trust her a second time.
“Now is the right time. I look at the dysfunction in Washington and I think people want a government that’s going to work, and so enough with the chaos.” Barry said, “I want to run and be part of the solution.”
When asked about her resignation from office in 2018, Barry said she takes responsibility for her actions.
I own everything I did,” Barry offered. She added, “I take absolute responsibility.”
The Democrat said she hopes “voters out there are believers in second chances,” and acknowledged it is her “role to convince people that I’m the right person for this job.”
Barry was also asked about the fatal overdose of her son Matthew in 2017. She warned, “We were one of 75,000 families that lost somebody [in 2017], but last year it was over 100,000, so it’s not getting better.”
She added, “People need treatment, they need access to healthcare, and that is one of the reasons I’m going to Washington.”
Barry pleaded guilty in Davidson County county to felony theft of property over $10,000 in 2018, securing a deal that required her resignation and repayment of $11,000 in restitution in the process.
As part of Barry’s plea deal, her criminal record was completely expunged in 2021, the with Metro Nashville Office of the Criminal Clerk confirming that year that the city had no record of the former mayor in their case management system.
Watch Barry’s interview with WKRN:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Megan Barry” by Megan Barry.
It will be amazing to see how many will vote for this woman!
She never left. Always been biding her time. This is already her second or third attempt to re-enter polite company with her Ozempic face.
WKRN is basically the Dem house organ. Bob Mueller got a milk moustache earlier today fawning all over Freddie O’Connell and dreaming how great the city’s going to look “after his second term”. Just think of all of those new sidewalks and bike paths.
They’ll be eco-friendly means of egress as people choose to run for their lives after the shooting rather than getting in a yucky car to escape.
Imagine the media response if a Republican ex-Mayor were running for office again, one who was a convicted felon who had sex in a cemetery with a taxpayer-funded underling. The absolute blind arrogance and audacity of Megan Barry. What a sick, sick puppy. It’s politicians like her why this nation has so fallen so far and why we are a thoroughly unserious joke.
Fortunately, this district is blessed to have Mark Green as its representative.
Mark Green is a true Patriot and a solid Republican of the Freedom Caucus, we need to keep him in office. Along with Andy Ogles and Tim Burchett.
Don`t need a convicted felon lying Democrat.
Let me get this straight. The most dysfunctional mayor in Nashville history wants to go to Washington to fight dysfunction with more dysfunction. Self-awareness knows no boundaries.
if she werent a dim id think this was a joke.
who in their right mind would vote for her
Democrats have no morals. Oh well, I was a bad person but who cares.
The politicians and lawyers who will support her are the problem here in Nashville. No more democratic “leadership” please.
Typical Democrat.
Barry was also asked about the fatal overdose of her son Matthew in 2017. She warned, “We were one of 75,000 families that lost somebody [in 2017], but last year it was over 100,000, so it’s not getting better.”
She added, “People need treatment, they need access to healthcare, and that is one of the reasons I’m going to Washington.”
It is, and has been, getting worse due to Biden/Democrat policies on the border.
People need access to treatment, and equally, if not more, importantly they need less access to the drugs that befall them.
Democrat policies have FAILED! We don not need another Democrat in the House. And, in a different district: We don not need another “moderate” (RINO) Republican for TN-05.
We need Mark Green (though I would argue I would support him moving a little more conservative) and Andy Ogles to return to the House next year.
Democrats love having criminals in public office. They represent who they are and what they stand for. Stealing from the government, committing treason, destroying the very fabric of civil society.