Former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry on Tuesday announced an event titled “VP Kamala Harris Day” will take place on Saturday, issuing a flyer that invited Nashville Democrats to “win with black women” by attending.
The Barry campaign posted a campaign flyer to social media advertising an event, titled “VP Kamala Harris Day,” which will be held in Nashville on Saturday.
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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.
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Former Nashville, Tennessee judge, Casey Moreland, will lose his pension after pleading guilty to charges that included “retaliating against a witness, obstruction of justice, theft from a federally funded program, destruction of records and witness tampering.” The decision came down after a vote by the city’s pension oversight board. Moreland was supposedly due $58,203.48 annually after decades on the bench. Sentencing is set for August 31 in U.S. District Court. According to a report, “Tara Stewart of Metro Human Resources said that Moreland will lose his pension due to the board vote Tuesday.” It’s unclear if he plans to appeal. The Tennessee Star reported on his resignation in April and his arrest in March. Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland has resigned from the bench following his arrest on corruption charges. Moreland announced his resignation, effective April 4, in a letter to Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and the Board of Judicial Conduct, according WKRN News 2. Here is our full report of his arrest. Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland was arrested by FBI agents at his home Tuesday morning and faces federal charges for obstructing criminal investigations, WSMV-TV Channel 4 reports. The charges include tampering with a witness, victim…
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Brian Wilson, host of 99.7 FM WTN’s Nashville’s Morning News, will break a story on the results of a new Tennessee Star Poll on the Nashville Transit Plan that is on the May 1 ballot for approval or rejection by Nashville/Davidson County voters at 7:05 a.m. this morning, Monday April 16. You can listen to today’s broadcast of Nashville’s Morning News here. The Tennessee Star has provided these results to Wilson on an exclusive basis prior to the publication of the full details of the poll in The Star at 7:30 am. The Tennessee Star Poll, conducted over a two day period between April 12 and April 13, will be the first poll to give details of attitudes among likely voters in Nashville/Davidson County about the merits of the $9 billion transit plan whose fate they will determine at the ballot box on May 1. The long, twisting road to the May 1 Nashville/Davidson County voter referendum began in January of 2017, when Gov. Bill Haslam introduced the IMPROVE Act to purportedly fund road construction in the state by increasing the gas tax by 6 cents per gallon and the diesel fuel tax by 10 cents per gallon. Tucked away…
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UPDATE: You can watch Carol Swain’s appearance this morning on Fox and Friends Weekend here: Watch the latest video at foxnews.com Saturday 12:30 am Newly-minted Mayoral hopeful Carol Swain will appear on Fox and Friends Weekend Saturday morning at 6:50 a.m. Central Time. I will be on Fox and Friends tomorrow morning at 7:50 am, ET and 6:50 am, CT. I will be discussing my mayoral bid. @TennesseeStar #Nashville @VanderbiltU @Belmont @LipscombU @MTSU @FiskU @TSU @MeHarrymedicalcollege… https://t.co/YRjQ0WZV0z — Dr. Carol M. Swain (@carolmswain) April 6, 2018 Swain will be on to discuss her bid to become Nashville’s 9th Mayor, replacing Megan Barry, who resigned in disgrace after being discovered to have used taxpayers funds – as well as the resources of the Mayor’s Office – to carry on a years-long affair with the chief of her security detail. The resignation triggered a special election, which the Metro Nashville election commission deemed to be August 2. However, that date is in dispute after another Mayoral candidate, Ludye Wallace, sued saying that a plain-reading of the law requires the date be May 1. Eleven candidates have qualified to run for the open seat, including Barry’s former vice mayor, fellow progressive, and $9 billion mass…
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Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk informed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) in a meeting Tuesday that its file on the Megan Barry case “may be closed.” However, the other investigations – namely the Special Investigative Committee and the Metro Nashville Board of Ethics are continuing to look into possible wrongdoing by Barry. The Nashville DA’s director of communications Steve Hayslip released a statement that included information about the plea deal(s) struck along with disclosing DA Glenn Funk’s request that TBI end its investigation: There have been several questions from media representatives about the charges Megan Barry and Robert Forrest pled guilty to today. In an effort to clarify, we will answer those questions here: Regarding reimbursement amounts: All members of the security detail saw an increase in hours worked under the Barry administration as opposed to previous administrations. Robert Forrest’s hours increased significantly more than other members of the detail. 45,000 dollars represents an acceptable figure for his increase in hours and pay in contrast to other members of the detail. The 11,000 dollars paid by Megan Barry represents Robert Forrest’s travel expenses. The time frame given in court today of March 1, 2016 through January of 2018 represents the…
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Megan Barry, the public face of the proposed $9 billion light rail transit plan may be gone from office, but don’t expect the issue to die. The Metro Nashville Democratic mayor resigned in disgrace March 6 after pleading guilty to felony charges following the revelation of her extra-marital affair with her chief bodyguard, former police Sgt. Rob Forrest. The Tennessean reports that new Mayor David Briley has also been a staunch supporter of the light rail transit plan, which is set for a May 1 referendum. The newspaper calls him a progressive liberal Democrat who has long wanted to be mayor. The newspaper says, “In the weeks ahead, he will take the torch on Barry’s May 1 transit referendum on raising four taxes to pay for a $5.4 billion transit plan with light rail.” The Tennessean uses the $5.4 billion estimate, the figure transit supporters like to throw around. NewsChannel 5 reported that after Briley was sworn in, he said he plans to hold a series of town hall meetings to talk about a variety of issues — including transit, which he called his first priority. “It’s the most important thing that is confronting our city right now and I’m committed to working…
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On Tuesday, Megan Barry resigned as Nashville’s mayor. But before she announced her resignation, she made a trip to criminal court. What happened there? Here is what WKRN said about it: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry pleaded guilty in Davidson County court to felony theft charges Tuesday morning. One condition of her plea agreement was to resign from the office of mayor. Barry pleaded guilty to felony theft of property over $10,000 charges. It is a conditional plea agreement for which Barry will receive three years unsupervised probation. She also must pay $11,000 in restitution and if she follows her plea agreement for next three years, the charges can be dismissed and expunged. In plain, non-lawyer English, Megan Barry walked into the courtroom never having been convicted of a felony. When she left, she still was not a convicted felon. Barry entered a plea under Tennessee’s judicial diversion statute, Tennessee Code Annotated 40-35-313. This is often referred to as a conditional guilty plea. In this type of case, the defendant makes a conditional plea but the judge does not enter the judgment (the legal instrument that convicts someone). The person then serves a period of probation and if they successfully complete…
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On Monday embattled Nashville Mayor Megan Barry called a report by WTN’s Brian Wilson that sources say the mayor and her bodyguard boyfriend Sgt. Rob. Forrest visited Mt. Olivet Cemetery at sunset on several occasions over a six month period “false and slanderous.” Last week, NewsChannel 5 reported, based on sources as well as security video footage shot by nearby local businesses, that Barry and Forrest’s SUV had repeatedly visited the Nashville City Cemetery on a number of mornings for short periods of time, ranging from 12 minutes to 24 minutes. Wilson’s report, which aired on 99.7 FM WTN’s Nashville’s Morning News at 5:05 am and again at 7:05 am on Monday, relied upon sources he considers credible. At 9 a.m Monday, Mayor Barry sent out this tweet: Mr. Wilson, your story is false and slanderous and I would appreciate it if you would stop spreading these lies. — Megan Barry (@MayorMeganBarry) March 5, 2018 Wilson punched back, inviting the mayor on his show for a full hour on Tuesday to discuss these and other allegations. The Tennessee Star contacted Mayor Barry’s office and asked for responses from the mayor to two questions: 1. Mayor Barry today…
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Asked for his reaction to the latest call for Mayor Barry’s resignation coming from her former staunch allies at The Tennessean, Metro Councilman Steve Glover told The Tennessee Star: Given the revelations over the past several days, I feel its safe to say that this has become the opinion of nearly every person in Nashville. Putting the welfare of the city above yourself should always be top of mind for anyone elected to serve. Day by day the Mayor’s version of her two year illicit relationship with her bodyguard, which she said during her public admission, did not violate any laws or policies, is unraveling. Judson Phillips, writing in a Tennessee Star commentary on February 1, the day after Mayor Barry admitted to the affair with Sgt. Forrest, was one of the first to call for Barry’s resignation. Another call to resign from long-time pastor and community activist Enoch Fuzz, followed one week later along with a similar message from The Tennessean’s Clarksville-based liberal columnist and opinion writer Saritha Prabhu. Retired Vanderbilt Law Professor Carol Swain nailed the Mayor as “damaged goods” and said “she needs to go” and repeated that message at the “Resign Now! Megan Barry” rally. Despite the nude photos, apparent misstatements by the…
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In a crushing blow from one of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s best allies, The Tennessean’s Editorial Board called for her resignation Wednesday. The detailed commentary was written by Opinion and Engagement Editor David Plazas on behalf of the entire Board, with collaboration by fellow editorial board members Vice President and Editor Michael A. Anastasi and Executive Editor Maria De Varenne. “A leader must put the interests and the needs of the people she serves above her own,” Plazas’ editorial begins, which lays out in painful detail the many reasons Barry’s continued service in office is untenable: We thought Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was doing just that. However, it has become abundantly clear in recent weeks that this is not the case after the revelation of her affair with her subordinate and former head of security, retired Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest. This is a confounding and disappointing situation: – How he could rack up more than $170,000 in overtime pay over three years, which included extended domestic and overseas trips with her alone and overtime charges in Nashville for hours after the mayor’s calendar showed official events of the day had ended. – How her Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling let the…
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During a public meeting about the ambitious $9 billion transit plan at Watkins College in Bordeaux Monday, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was heckled by a lone protester, who stood up and yelled, “You need to resign!” “You need to leave because we are trying to talk about transit,” Barry retorted. As the man was quickly led out of the sparsely attended meeting, he said, “You need to resign! You’re a disgrace. You’re an embarrassment…. I voted for you – you’re a disgrace.” WKRN cameras were rolling and caught the entire incident on video. Citizens in and around Nashville and across the state have been roiled by a series of tawdry revelations after Barry admitted to a years-long affair with her chief of security, former Sgt. Rob Forrest. Concerns over the possible misuse of public funds to carry on, and then cover up the Mayor’s dalliance has sparked several investigations by different state and city agencies including the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct, and a Metro Council Special Committee. As The Tennessee Star previously reported: It also highlights a growing concern about a lack of checks and balances and the failure to apply standard internal controls to financial…
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Penny Forrest, the wife of Sgt. Rob Forrest, the former Metro Nashville Police Department officer who conducted a two-year long extramarital affair with Nashville Megan Mayor Barry, has filed for divorce. WKRN reported: Court documents show the complaint was filed on Feb. 23 and cites irreconcilable differences and inappropriate marital conduct. According to the divorce complaint, Penny Forrest would show that her husband “has been guilty of inappropriate marital conduct as to render further cohabitation unsafe and improper.” “Saturday, Rob Forrest’s attorney released the following statement regarding the divorce filing,” NewsChannel 5 reported: Mr. Forrest is aware he will shortly be served with divorce papers. He deeply regrets that his conduct will cost him his marriage. Given the intensely personal nature of a divorce, Mr. Forrest asks for privacy for his family at this difficult time. Mr. Forrest and I will have no further statement. “The divorce complaint also includes a temporary injunction,” WSMV reported: According to the American Bar Association, a temporary injunction is a court order requiring both parties to cease some particular action until a hearing can take place. Failure to do so can result in fines, arrest, or even prison time depending on the circumstances of…
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District 12 Metro Councilman Steve Glover plans to introduce legislation next week so that ethics guidelines like those written in Mayor Barry’s Executive Order 005, apply to elected officials: Given this new revelation, I will be introducing legislation next week to make sure that the rules and ethics will apply to elected officials and that we do not get a separate set of standards. Glover’s proposed legislation is in response to the review by former Metro lawyers Saul Solomon, Kevin C. Klein and Allison Bussell whose firm Klein Bussell was retained by the Metro Legal Department to evaluate an ethics complaint filed against the Mayor one week after she admitted to her extramarital affair. Klein Bussell’s review of the ethics complaint concluded in part, that the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct, “lacks jurisdiction to examine alleged violations of Metropolitan Government executive orders.” The Star asked Councilman Glover what purpose is served by Executive Order 005 if no one can be held accountable to its contents; his response was prompt and candid: In light of what has been revealed by this independent legal finding, it saddens me even greater than in days past. If Mayor Barry’s Executive Order has no reach, then it’s…
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Holy hold the presses Batman – we’ve got it all wrong!!! It’s not the citizens of Nashville whose money was used so the Mayor could have sex with her bodyguard who are victimized by the Mayor’s adultery. It’s not Sgt. Forrest’s wife and kids who’ve been humiliated by the Mayor who was huggin’ on Sgt. Forrest at the same time she was hugging his wife and his father-in-law while visiting the family’s patriarch in the hospital. It’s not even her husband Bruce who the Mayor lied to for two years while she was doin’ the dirty with Sgt. Forrest who she publicly made a cuckold. Now that we know about the nude photos, the Mayor says she’s the victim! And about those “nudies” – that is, if they are of her, she’s “furious” about the invasion of her privacy!!! It is, however, kind of confusing how the relationship she described as – consensual between two middle-aged adults who had feelings for each other- and what they do during their “personal time” can ever be an invasion of her privacy. With all the convoluted and not believable statements coming out of the Mayor’s office – like the one about her early…
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The scandal surrounding Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and her admission of a two-year-long extramarital affair with her bodyguard, now-retired Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Rob Forrest, intensified on Thursday when the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) released an affidavit presented to a judge in support of a search warrant for the city-issued cell phone of Forrest and the personal cell phone of Barry. “Authorities believe that Forrest took two photos of a nude woman who is believed to be Barry on his police department-issued cell phone. He allegedly sent the pictures to himself to his MNPD email,” WSMV reported on Thursday. As if those details were not bizarre enough, a defiant Mayor Barry told WSMV later on Thursday in an on-camera interview, “I am furious as you might imagine today when I learned there might be photos of me. If they exist, they were taken without my knowledge and without my consent. It didn’t show that I have done anything wrong or criminal and, in fact, if anything was wrongly done, it was done to me personally.” Barry then attacked the TBI for the manner in which they were conducting their investigation of her, barely three weeks after the January 31 press conference…
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On Wednesday, Klein Bussell, the law firm retained by the Metro Legal Department to evaluate an ethics complaint filed against the Mayor one week after she admitted to her extramarital affair, concluded that the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct, “lacks jurisdiction to examine alleged violations of Metropolitan Government executive orders.” The report was crafted by three of the firm’s partners, all of whom worked in the Metro Legal Department under previous Democratic administrations. Saul Solomon was Director of Law for the City of Nashville from 2012 to 2015 under former Mayor Karl Dean. Kevin C. Klein worked as an attorney in the Metro Legal Department from 2003 to 2012, first under former Mayor Bill Purcell, and subsequently under former Mayor Dean, as his bio at the Klein Bussell website explains: In 2003, Kevin came to work for then-Director of Law Karl Dean at the Nashville Department of Law. He spent the next nine years in the trenches, investigating claims, conducting discovery, taking depositions, trying cases, and briefing and arguing appeals. During that time, Kevin got dozens, if not hundreds, of cases dismissed before trial with no payment to the plaintiff, won numerous jury and bench trials, and successfully briefed and…
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When asked his opinion about whether the Mayor’s leadership credibility has been damaged by the Mayor’s two year extramarital affair and details like pictures of the Mayor interacting with her lover’s family while the affair was on-going, Metro Councilman Steve Glover responded with his trademark candor: I am not qualified to speak about the city’s view of her credibility; I will simply say that if it were me dealing with this issue, I would question if I could continue to lead with this cloud hanging over my head. On-going investigations may show that the “cloud” of the Mayor’s affair implicates members of her staff who arranged publicly financed travel for the Mayor and Sgt. Forrest, facilitating the adultery and providing opportunities for them to be alone together. The Mayor has expressed confidence that an investigation into the expenditure of public funds will find that all trips were related to city business and that police department policy mandating her security detail means that those funds would have been spent regardless of whether or not it was Sgt. Forrest providing her security coverage. The Star has asked Sean Braisted, the Mayor’s Director of Communications, Police Chief Anderson and Don Aaron, Public Affairs Manager for…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee –About 80 people attended the Resign Now! Megan Barry Rally rally held on the Metro Nashville Davidson County Courthouse and City Hall steps Tuesday prior to the regularly scheduled Metro Council meeting. Attendees heard comments of varying lengths from four speakers – Carol Swain, Johann Porisch, Reverend Enoch Fuzz, and Lisa Bradshaw–each with a different perspective, but all agreeing on the singular point that Megan Barry is no longer able to fulfill the duties of the mayoral office and should resign immediately. A lone, non-intrusive, Megan Barry supporter carried a handmade sign, “Stay Megan Barry Stay,” which he also occasionally chanted as he watched the rally. One life-long Nashville resident attending the rally shared his conclusion with The Tennessee Star that the 80 to one ratio of attendees calling on Barry to resign versus those supporting her might be indicative of the sentiment of the city as a whole. Former Vanderbilt University professor and well-known Nashville conservative, Carol Swain, lead off the speakers saying forgiveness is an expectation and duty of Christians, and she counts herself as one who has already forgiven Mayor Barry. “But, but, but, but,” Swain lead the chant and then continued,“ in forgiveness we are left with…
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A rally calling on embattled Mayor Megan Barry to resign “effective immediately” will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, February 20, at 5 p.m., on the south side steps of the Metro Nashville Davidson Courthouse, organizer Rick Williams told FOX 17. Late last month Mayor Barry admitted to having a two-year-long extramarital affair with her Metro Nashville police officer bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest. The two took nine trips alone together out-of-state at taxpayer expense over the two years. One of these trips was to Athens, Greece, another was to San Francisco, California, and yet another was to Washington, D.C. “Having sex with a subordinate is an ethics violation for sure at a minimum,” Williams explained to the Fox affiliate, adding: They feel like she was busy with a romance for two years and didn’t tend to the things she promised. Corporate leaders, they question whether they should work with someone with a recent tainted past. I personally like Megan Barry. I felt very sorry when her son passed away, I attended both the visitation and funeral. It’s not anything personal at all, I just think she’s lost the trust of the citizens. Long-time pastor and Nashville community activist Enoch Fuzz is expected…
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee donated $500 to Megan Barry’s Mayoral campaign in May 2015, according to public records obtained by The Tennessee Star. The Williamson County businessman’s donation of $500 to Friends of Megan Barry on May 21, 2015 came two months before the August 2015 election for Mayor of Metro Nashville/Davidson County between Barry, David Fox, and real estate developer Bill Freeman. Though the race was technically “non-partisan,” the battle quickly became highly partisan, with progressive Democrats rallying around Barry, conservatives and Republicans supporting Fox, and more moderate Democrats gravitating to Freeman. No candidate gained enough votes in the general election to claim the mayor’s job, so a runoff between the top two vote getters–Barry and Fox–was held the following month in September. Barry defeated Fox in that runoff, 55 percent to 45 percent, and was sworn in as Mayor of Nashville/Davidson County on September 25, 2015. The Lee campaign confirmed Lee’s $500 donation to Barry, and provided The Star with a statement on the issue late Thursday. “Bill doesn’t support Megan Barry. A few years ago a client asked him to give $500 to her campaign and he did. Politicians make political decisions. Businessmen – including Donald Trump…
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Three digital billboards along Nashville’s I-24 near downtown reading simply, “We love our mayor” were quietly removed from rotation Friday, February 2 after the buyer refused to disclose their identity. The billboards appeared one day after embattled Mayor Megan Barry admitted to her years-long affair with SGT Rob Forrest, her bodyguard. Outfront Media’s senior director of communications, Carly Zipp, told The Tennessean that the reason for their removal was due to a lack of “proper attribution,” which Tennessee Law – and company policy – require for political advertisements: Zipp said the agency that facilitated the billboard purchase was San Francisco-based SF Media Communications Inc. But she said the media company did not disclose their client. Zipp did not comment when asked how Outfront Media became aware of the problem or why the billboard was allowed to go up in the first place. SF Media Consultants has a history working in the music industry, one of Nashville’s staple brands. According to its website, the firm has done advertising for Big Machine Records, Capitol Records, EMI, and Universal Music Group as well as big-name artists such as Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Lady Antebellum and Florida Georgia Line. Lauren Anderson, senior vice president…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – At the first meeting of the Metro Council Special Committee established “to investigate the circumstances involving the travel and other expenses including overtime expenses potentially related to the Mayor’s extramarital affair to determine if there was any improper use of public money” held Thursday, the seven members voted unanimously to use outside legal counsel from recommendations to be made by Vice Mayor David Briley, but rely on the Metropolitan Government Internal Auditor rather than using outside accounting professionals. The resolution (page 41) passed by the Council on February 6, 2018, required that the Vice Mayor establish within seven days a Special Committee comprised of between three and seven members. The seven members Briley appointed to the Special Committee were Burkley Allen, Erica Gilmore, Brenda Haywood, Mina Johnson, Bob Mendes, Russ Pulley and Robert Swope. Pulley and Allen were the only two to vote against the formation of the Special Committee, with Allen going on to be elected the Chairman of the Special Committee. The resolution allowed the Special Committee, for the purpose of accomplishing its investigation, to engage the services of outside legal and accounting professionals, but the Special Committee opted instead to keep the audit function…
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Burkley Allen and Russ Pulley, appointed along with five other Metro Council members by Vice-Mayor David Briley, will form a Special Committee to investigate the use of public money by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry during her two year extramarital affair with Metro police officer and head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest. The Metro Nashville Council resolution establishing the Special Committee restricts the investigation to the expenditure of public funds: A Special Committee to investigate the circumstances involving travel and other expenses, including overtime expenses, potentially related to the Mayor’s admitted improprieties involving an employee of the Metropolitan Government to determine if there was any improper use of public money. While the Special Committee is not charged with looking into the Mayor’s potential ethics violations, Briley did suggest that the Committee coordinate their inquiry with the Board of Ethical Conduct and the Metro Audit Committee which is also investigating the Mayor’s affair. With regard to selecting members for the Special Committee, Vice-Mayor David Briley stated that he was looking at “people who have demonstrated neutrality in terms of the politics and people who are open-minded in terms of looking at the facts fairly.” Last week, Special Committee members Burkley…
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According to a Tennessee Star commenter earlier this week, while Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and her bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest, were still taking luxury trips abroad and quickie overnights stateside, not only did the thoughtful Mayor make a surprise visit to Sgt. Forrest’s father-in-law in the hospital, but she also attended his funeral nine days later, and get this, hugged Sgt. Forrest’s grieving wife. And being one of the family in a twisted sort of way, the Mayor attended Sgt. Forrest’s daughter’s wedding: Not only did she visit him in the hospital, but she also attended the man’s funeral and was seen hugging her lover’s grieving wife, and family. It’s also no secret that she was a guest at her lover’s daughter’s wedding as well. During her public confession, the Mayor let slip that the two-year long affair with Sgt. Forrest that she had worked so hard to conceal, became known somehow to their respective spouses – “Barry said the relationship was discovered during conversations between their spouses and private discussions.” Between getting caught by the jilted spouses and getting counseled by reporter Phil Williams who disclosed that he had an “incredible” source, the Mayor was left with no option…
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“Cash is king.” That economic saying is something Metro Nashville may be learning as the finance director warns the city cannot keep spending money as if it is minting it. Metro Finance Director Talia Lomax-O’dneal has warned department heads that they cannot request new spending measures in the 2018-2019 budget, The Tennessean reports. The city’s current $2.2 billion operating budget was a $122 million, a 5.9 percent increase over the previous year. The 2016-17 operating budget was a $121 million, a 6.1 percent increase over the previous year. Mayor Megan Barry’s current budget took Metro Nashville over the $2 billion mark for the first time. “Prudent financial management requires a periodic look for efficiencies and savings opportunities, and there are several fiscal challenges for the 2018 fiscal year,” Lomax-O’dneal said in her letter to department heads. Those “challenges” include tax collections that have returned to normal levels, dwindling reserve balances and increased debt payment obligations. Lomax-O’dneal’s letter failed to mention two issues, one a current budget “challenge,” and the other a potential “challenge.” The former is the $17.1 million lifeline the Metro Council voted last month to give Nashville General Hospital. The latter is the proposed $9 billion light rail…
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Dripping with the arrogance of a moralizing former ethics-compliance-officer–turned-Metro-Council-member-at-large-looking-to-become-mayor, which is what the politically ambitious Megan Barry was in 2014, she issued her assessment of Judge Casey Moreland’s credibility to continue in his role as a judge: [he] has the right to articulate his own version of events and to defend his actions, but unless he can do so far more persuasively than what we have heard to this point, he should resign. Now that’s a prescient statement by Megan Barry if there ever was one! And in 2017, as Mayor, she didn’t let up on her criticism of the judge who among other matters involving public corruption and abuse of his office, had been accused of having sex with women who could benefit from a reduced sentence: I think you always want to be concerned about when people are in power in making sure that they don’t abuse that power. Amazingly, the Mayor made this statement while actively engaged in her own affair with a subordinate Metro employee and shortly after returning to Nashville from a publicly financed out-of-town overnighter with her security detail lover. Suggestions have been made that the Mayor and her bodyguard’s publicly financed travel for trysts…
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Since Mayor Megan Barry admitted to her two year adulterous relationship with Sgt. Robert Forrest, head of her security detail and an active duty Metro police officer more details are known about the opportunities city-funded travel provided to facilitate their affair. From her first statement admitting to the affair, the Mayor has insisted that “how much and how often” she was covered by security, including her travel with Sgt. Forrest, was dictated and authorized by police department policy even though it has been documented that prior to her affair, the Mayor “routinely traveled without security.” The Star has asked Sean Braisted, the Mayor’s Director of Communications, Police Chief Anderson and Don Aaron, Public Affairs Manager for the Police Department, for a copy of the policy that the Mayor has insisted is operational. There has been no response from either the Mayor’s office or the police department and no written policy has been provided. During an extended interview, Police Chief Anderson has stated a preference that the mayor have security at all times because“you are always the mayor and you should be secured appropriately” but has also admitted that “at this time that’s not something that is feasible.” What’s not clear from the…
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Hubris alert! No shame! Too big to fall! If it isn’t bad enough that Mayor Moonbeam Barry is using our money to travel out-of-town and overseas to consummate her trysts with bodyguard Sgt. Robert Forrest, she visited, hugged and smiled with Sgt. Forrest’s father-in-law–at least according to what one Tennessee Star reader says is a now deleted October 2017 Facebook post–while he was sick in the hospital during the time she was having her affair with the husband of the guy’s daughter!!!! The mayor might have been motivated by concern and kindness, but, considering the circumstances, the brazenness of the mayor in her visit does seem a tad on the tacky side. But perhaps her visit is only a reflection of how Barry perceives her job and power as mayor. She has a sign in her office that says, “Power is about waking up every day and making a difference in someone else’s life.” Or “lives” perhaps in light of the mayor’s recent two years of committing adultery. A reader sent us the NOW DELETED pictures from Sgt. Forrest’s mother-in-law’s Facebook page of the mayor’s hospital visit with Sgt. Forrest’s father-in-law. The pictures with the mayor, “a special visitor,” were posted on October 14,…
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After repeated denials that taxpayer money was used to fund and then cover up the years-long affair between Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and her security chief, Rob Forrest, WMSV reported that newly released documents the show the illicit couple was set to travel to New York together in order to attend the Grammy Awards on January 26. “Within the last two hours, we obtained more records from City Hall,” reporter Allana Autler began: We’ve just learned that there was another trip scheduled for the Mayor and her bodyguard for January 26 – just a few weeks ago. It was for Barry to attend the Grammy Awards in New York. Records show the trip was approved on January 10th. The Mayor’s spokesman says he can’t say when in January it was cancelled. But he did say she changed her plans and came home instead. We now know that’s the weekend before news of the affair broke. This new bombshell revelation appears at the end of the video embedded below, which contains a two-and-a-half minute report of an one-on-one interview by Aulter of Barry regarding a number troubling details surrounding the affair between the Mayor and her security chief, and the potential misuse of taxpayer money.…
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Since publicly admitting to concealing her two year adulterous relationship with Sgt. Robert Forrest while he was an active duty Metro police officer and head of her security detail, Mayor Megan Barry has tried to convince the public that what she claims was an “off the clock” private affair, has no negative implications for the city’s government operations. During the time her extramarital affair was active and she was traveling on publicly-paid for business trips alone with Sgt. Forrest, at home Mayor Barry was officiating at public events including the December 2017 graduation ceremony for 49 new Nashville police officers. Standing before the new officers, the Mayor offered her congratulations and then administered the oath of office asking them to swear to uphold the Charter and Code of Laws of the Metro Nashville government and to: serve the Metro Government of Nashville/Davidson County, Tennessee honestly and faithfully and I will obey the orders of the officials placed over me according to the law. Earlier in December 2017, Mayor Barry administered the same oath to the Nashville Fire Department graduates. Both the Mayor’s 2016 Executive Order 005 and Metro’s Code of Laws Section 2.222 govern “Standards of Conduct” for all Metro employees including the…
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WSMV reporter Alanna Autler caught up with embattled Mayor Megan Barry to ask several questions regarding the creation of a single job in the Metro Nashville Legal Department that was summarily filled by Macy Amos Forrest, the adult daughter of Mayor Barry’s paramour and erstwhile security chief, Rob Forrest. Autler asks Barry a straightforward question about the unusual hire, and instead of a direct response, the Mayor replied with a non-answer that Forrest’s daughter, “was qualified,” for the job, and that there were “lots of people who stepped forward and said she should have this job, and I was happy to lend my voice.” WSMV edited the video of the interview for the news broadcast into what is essentially a ‘highlights’ reel of the most scintillating parts of the interview. However, in a separate post, the station published the entire transcript of the encounter between Barry and Autler. The video version does a good job of showing Barry’s clearly rehearsed non-answers to the young journalist’s questions. But when the segment is compared to the unedited video and full transcript, the extent of the Mayor’s stonewalling behavior is laid bare. Part Two – The Hiring of Rob Forrest’s Daughter, Macy Amos Forrest FULL TRANSCRIPT (‘highlight’ quotes…
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WSMV reporter Alanna Autler caught up with embattled Mayor Megan Barry to ask several questions regarding the possible misappropriation of taxpayer funds and other resources used to support and then cover up Barry’s years-long affair with the head of her security detail, Rob Forrest. Despite several attempts by Autler to get a straight answer regarding records showing overseas travel and luxury accommodations with Forrest, Mayor Barry refused to deliver any kind of answer, and instead hid behind the lawyerly response that, “in cooperation with the TBI investigation we continue to provide them the answers, and I look forward to knowing that were no taxpayer dollars misused in any way.” WSMV edited the video of the interview for the news broadcast into what is essentially a ‘highlights’ reel of the most scintillating parts of the interview. However, in a separate post, the station published the entire transcript of the encounter between Barry and Autler. The video version does a good job of showing Barry’s clearly rehearsed non-answers to the young journalist’s questions. But when the segment is compared to the unedited video and full transcript, the extent of the Mayor’s stonewalling behavior is laid bare. Part One – Travel to Greece and San Francisco…
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Three members of Mayor Barry’s staff and the department head of Information Technology Services are scrambling to explain just exactly how it came to be that travel by her security chief and lover, Sgt. Rob Forrest, was not authorized by Police Chief Steve Anderson, as documents the Mayor’s office gave to NewsChannel 5 and Fox17 on Friday purported, but was instead authorized by her Chief of Staff, Debby Mason (pictured above). “Months after Mayor Megan Barry began an extramarital affair with her bodyguard [which Mayor Barry told WSMV on Friday began in spring of 2016], one of the mayor’s top aides, [Chief Operating Officer] Rich Riebeling, made an ‘unusual’ change to security protocol,” The Tennessean reported late Monday. “Instead of following a longstanding policy that the police department pay for the travel expenses incurred by officers on Barry’s security detail, the mayor’s office began approving and paying for those expenses out of its own budget,” The Tennessean reported. “The mayor’s chief of staff Debby Dale Mason assumed the authority to approve travel expenses on October 11, 2016, for all of the mayor’s bodyguards, including Forrest,” The Tennessean added. Apparently no one in the Mayor’s office, however, informed the official who…
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Embattled Mayor Megan Barry sat down with WKRN’s Bob Mueller to discuss the ongoing firestorm of revelations about how City resources may have been used to support, and then cover up, her years-long extramarital affair with the head of her security detail, Rob Forrest. WKRN aired a 60-second preview of the full interview, which viewers can watch Sunday, February 11, during the 6pm news broadcast. In the video, Barry, a Democrat and fierce critic of conservatives and the Trump agenda, told Mueller flatly, “I don’t plan on resigning,” and that, “At the moment, I fully believe that the TBI investigation will conclude that there were no taxpayer dollars that were misused.” Mueller asked, “Do you hope for a fast conclusion to this? Do you want the informations out there? And will the results of all these investigtions be made public?” Barry answered, “As far as I know – I don’t know how that all works; this is all new territory – but I will tell you clearly for me, the faster this gets resolved the better for my family and the citizens of Nashville.” Meanwhile, a new report exposing a potential career-ending conspiracy for at least a handful of additional staffers to manipulate the…
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Tennessean columnist Alex Hubbard noted in a column over the weekend that “Some Questions Matter More Than Others in Megan Barry Affair.” He’s right, and many of the questions he posed are actually among those that deserve a clear and honest answer from Mayor Barry. However, there are a number of other “non-ideological” questions that Hubbard either doesn’t want asked or answered. Perhaps there is an ideological basis for the questions that the liberal Tennessean prefers to ignore. First, Hubbard follows the lead of previous Tennessean editorial commentary in defini-tively stating that the current “public discussion surrounding sexual harassment does not apply here.” Really? Sexual harassment isn’t just about “consensual versus non-consensual” distinctions when it comes to sexual relationships in the workplace. A boss and subordinate may be perfectly happy with their secret affair, and the benefits that inure to the subordinate in terms of promotions, bonuses, and other work benefits. That may have been the case with Mayor Barry and Sgt. Forrester. But what about the other members of the security detail who didn’t benefit from the “consensual” relationship? Perhaps another officer passed on the flirtations of Mayor Barry, thereby denying himself the overtime and international travel that Sgt.…
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The Tennessean’s Clarksville-based liberal columnist and opinion writer Saritha Prabhu penned a passionate call on Mayor Megan Barry to resign from office Friday afternoon after a new wave of revelations surrounding Barry’s affair and cover-up with top staffer Rob Forrest came to light. “Disappointed on many levels describes how I feel about the Megan Barry situation,” she begins, in a surprisingly candid and heartfelt indictment of Nashville’s first woman to hold its top elected office: Mayor Barry shocked and saddened our Middle Tennessee community when she revealed recently that she had had a nearly two-year extramarital affair with her top security officer. I live in Clarksville, but I was proud when Nashville elected its first female mayor in late 2015. But now, each new revelation about the affair has been damning to her and to her continued political survival. To cut to the chase: She should do Nashville and herself a favor and resign. To continue as mayor would be to prolong the ugliness, and drip-drip nature of the revelations, and to further undercut her authority to lead. If this had been an affair with a private citizen on her own dime, it’d probably be none of our business. But this is different,…
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Since first admitting to a two year long extramarital affair with the head of her security detail, Sgt. Rob Forrest, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has maintained that Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson insisted that a security detail travel with her at all times, and that all of Forrest’s travel with her was approved by the Metro Nashville Police Department. But in a blockbuster report that aired on Friday, NewsChannel5’s Phil Williams revealed that documents obtained from the Mayor’s office which purport to show Chief Anderson approved Forrest’s travel with her are factually incorrect. As The Tennessee Star has reported, Mayor Barry and Sgt. Forrest traveled alone together at taxpayer expense on nine occasions in 2017 on trips to Athens, Greece, San Francisco, California, and Washington, D.C., among other places. They also traveled together when accompanied by other Metro Nashville employees to other cities, including one memorable trip from October 20 to 25 of 2017 to Paris, France. “As the city hall scandal unfolded, Police Chief Anderson insisted he never approved Sgt. Rob Forrest’s travel with Nashville Mayor Megan Barry,” NewsChannel 5 anchor Rhori Johnston began the report. “But documents released today by the Mayor’s office say he did. So what’s…
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Shortly after traveling alone with Sgt. Robert Forrest, head of her security detail during the period of time Mayor Megan Barry admitted to their on-going adulterous relationship, she lectured students at Belmont University about the role of ethics in government. Less than two weeks after her trip to D.C. with Sgt. Forest, on March 22, 2017, Mayor Barry spoke to Belmont University’s Student Center for the Public Trust (Student CPT) telling students that “people have to have faith that their government is ethical.” The Student CPT is “a national network of college students who demonstrate a commitment to ethical leadership.” There are a total of 6 Student CPT chapters at Tennessee schools, all supported by the national Center for the Public Trust whose stated mission is “to champion the public trust by advancing ethical leadership in business, institutions and organizations.” According to a news release from Belmont’s Office of Communications, the Mayor talked about the role and importance of ethical leadership even while admitting that it’s not always a simple matter to capture “what an ethical situation looks like.” She also told the students that, “people have to have faith that their government is ethical.Without this faith rooted in the community, everything…
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Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who ten days ago admitted to carrying on a two year long extramarital affair with her Metro Nashville police officer bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest, showed on Thursday that she wants every voter in Nashville/Davidson County to know that she continues to support her much maligned $9 billion transit plan. With no apparent sense of irony, Mayor Barry promoted her appearance at a Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce event Thursday in a tweet later in the day in which she said, in part, that her transit plan “is about connecting people.” “Today I spoke at the Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce about your transit plan, which will be on the ballot May 1 (early voting starts April 11), and all the benefits it will create,” she wrote, adding, “Transit is about connecting people to what they need jobs, schools, health care and much more.” Today I spoke to the Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce about our transit plan, which will be on the ballot May 1 (early voting starts April 11), and all the benefits it will create. Transit is about connecting people to what they need jobs, schools, health care and much more pic.twitter.com/Wcn93KYxmx — Megan Barry for Congress (TN-7) (@MeganCBarry)…
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During an extended interview, Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson indicated that he’s “not seeing anything that we would change” as far as rules, regulations or policies under which the police department operates despite Mayor Megan Barry’s public admission of committing two years of adultery with the head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest, while he was an employee of Metro’s police department. Police Chief Anderson appointed by then Mayor Karl Dean in 2010, accepts Mayor Barry’s characterization that her affair with Sgt. Forrest was strictly a personal matter. But Anderson makes it clear that he does not endorse people who work together having sexual relationships. He points out, however, that even if Sgt. Forrest had not “retired” and was still providing security for the Mayor, no specific rule or policy of the police department would have been violated. Current police department policy only prohibits personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates and would not extend to the sexual relationship between the Mayor and the security detail assigned to her office by the police department. According to Police Chief Anderson, Sgt. Forrest’s chain of command and direct supervisor is the Specialized Investigations Division (SID) but that Forrest’s day to day…
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Shortly after taking office in 2015, Mayor Megan Barry recommended Macy Amos – the adult daughter of her security detail Rob Forrest, with whom she would later admit to having an extensive affair – for a lucrative job withing the Nashville’s legal department. The City’s legal department had not added any positions for a period of two years nor did they budget for such and expansion, The Tennessean reports. But after a new, entry-level job was created, Barry swiftly approved the move and recommended Amos. No other applicant was considered, and she was hired in January 2016. The Tennessean reports that Metro Law Department Director Jon Cooper insists the the decision to hire Amos was his and no one else’s, and notes that Amos was a highly qualified candidate with a law degree from Belmont University and previous interning experience with Mayors Bill Purcell and Karl Dean. “The mayor did recommend Macy during a meeting I had with her at some point, as did a number of people in the legal community,” Cooper said in an email to The Tennessean, adding that she was the “logical choice” for the job. To date, Mayor Barry has given answers that are vague and sometimes…
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In another devastating blow from her left-leaning base, long time pastor and community activist Reverend Enoch Fuzz called on embattled Mayor Megan Barry to resign from office after a series of revelations involving a years-long extramarital affair came to light. “If the mayor stays in office, those important issues are put at risk. Even the big thing about the possibility that the great Amazon company would come here, those kinds of things are put at risk,” Rev. Enoch Fuzz told WKRN News: The billions of dollars in investments that are being lost right now because we are distracted by this kind of thing. R-e-s-i-g-n. Not to insult, not to hurt, not to condemn, but for the good of all the people who are citizens of the city, including Megan. Let’s move aside so that the world can see that our city is moving ahead. WKRN notes that so far – despite public outcry – the Metro Nashville Council members have not asked Mayor Barry to step down, and indeed, have largely “kept mum on the subject of her affair.”
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Community Oversight Nashville (CON), a coalition of leftist and left-leaning groups came together to issue an open letter Monday raising serious questions as to Mayor Megan Barry fitness to hold office, in light of the bombshell revelations into possible legal and ethical wrongdoing stemming from her elicit extra-marital affair with the head of her security detail, Rob Forrest. The letter begins: We, undersigned members of the Community Oversight Now Coalition, are writing this letter to ensure that our concerns regarding the ramifications and repercussions of Mayor Barry’s admission of an improper relationship with MNPD Sergeant Robert Forrest, Jr. are adequately considered and fully addressed. We have also filed an ethics complaint with the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct as we are convinced that Mayor Barry has acted unethically. We feel that Mayor Barry may have been improperly influenced against the community oversight board due to her relationship with Sgt. Forrest. Community Oversight Nashville’s members come from a broad spectrum of left-of-center groups, including Black Lives Matter, Justice for Jocques, Democracy Nashville, Gideon’s Army, The Harriet Tubman House, and No Exceptions Prison Collective. The coalition’s aim is to form community oversight committees to which law enforcement would answer in cases of…
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Amidst the daily revelations surrounding the scandalous behavior of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Off the Record thought it might be interesting to explore the teachings of Barry’s extremely liberal husband Bruce, who teaches at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Bruce is a member of the national board of directors of the ACLU and is past President of the Tennessee ACLU chapter. According to his Vanderbilt bio: “Professor Barry’s current and recent research explores the social context of ethical decision making, the intersection of ethics and emotion, and deception and entitlement in negotiation.” (Emphasis added.) Vanderbilt also notes that Professor’s Barry’s expertise is in two particular areas: “(1) social issues in management, including ethics, public policy, and workplace rights; and (2) the psychology of interpersonal and group behavior in organizations, including power, influence, negotiation, conflict and justice.” So, exactly how does Professor Barry impart his expertise and research on these issues into the minds of his students? A review of the course syllabus from one of his classes at Vanderbilt’s Owen School a few years back is instructive. The syllabus details the various class assignments and expectations, grading, etc. for Management 443, Power and Influence in Organizations. One particular assignment of interest, representing…
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New questions surrounding the need for Mayor Megan Barry to have such extensive, around-the-clock security led by her lover, Sgt. Rob Forrest, were asked by NewsChannel 5 in a segment that aired Monday evening. Phil Williams, the investigative reporter the embattled Barry sat down with to initially admit her affair with Forrest, reported the Mayor’s office released “new details about the Mayor’s travel and the use of security, in hopes of convincing the public that she did not abuse taxpayer money.” Mayor Barry spent Sunday morning at two African-American churches praying on stage for the communities’ forgiveness. Meanwhile, Barry’s staff gathered evidence to document her travel, and her time spent with her Security Chief and paramour, Rob Forrest in the course of their two year affair. The documents released by the Mayor’s Office say that Barry traveled out-of-state alone in 2015-2016 to Boston, New York City, Washington, DC, Oklahoma City and Phoenix. Other trips to Los Angeles, Williams reported, were with staff members and no security. Her first trip that included Forrest with additional staff was to Minneapolis in April of 2016. Starting in 2017, Barry and Forrest began traveling alone, and the couple took a total of nine trips together outside of…
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Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s admission to adultery with Sgt. Robert Forrest, head of her security detail, has already raised questions about whether public funds provided opportunities facilitating the affair when the two traveled alone together in furtherance of city business. According to Police Chief Anderson, Sgt. Forrest’s schedule and hours were dictated by the Mayor’s office. If it is determined that public funds were used for personal benefit or other unauthorized purposes, it may constitute a misappropriation of funds. Confirmation by the Mayor’s office that she accepted payment by 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), a project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, for travel and lodging expenses for her trip to Greece may cause an ethical violation for the Mayor separate and apart from the fact that Sgt. Forrest’s costs for the Greece trip were paid for with public funds while their affair was ongoing. “Mayor Barry’s travel and lodging expenses were paid for by 100RC, any other costs she paid for out of pocket,” the Mayor’s Director of Communications Sean Braisted told The Tennessee Star in a story published on Monday morning. In 2016, Mayor Barry issued Executive Order 005, Financial and other disclosures by certain Metropolitan Government employees and officials; ethics, conflict of…
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Despite claiming that her adulterous affair with a subordinate Metro employee and head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest, Jr, was a personal matter, Mayor Megan Barry’ very public admission of the affair has generated intense scrutiny of trips Barry says were for city-related business but were also trips on which she and Sgt. Forrest traveled alone together and which provided opportunities to pursue their affair. In her first admission to the adultery, the Mayor claimed that throughout her two year affair with Forrest, nothing illegal occurred and no policies were violated. Since making those claims, however, at the request of Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation to determine whether during the course of the Mayor’s affair any criminal laws were broken, including “misappropriation of public funds and official misconduct.” If it is determined that public funds were used for personal benefit or other unauthorized purposes, it may constitute a misappropriation of funds. Metro Code of Ordinances dictates specific “Standards of Conduct” for all Metro employees that could apply as well. Mayor Barry insists that her “personal time” with Sgt. Forrest during these trips did not occur while they were “on…
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The 2017 Guide to the Mayor’s Office, posted on the Metro Nashville government website starts with the Mission Statement for the Mayor’s Office: To serve the citizens of Davidson County by directing the executive and administrative functions of the Metropolitan Government through enhanced collaboration while ensuring the local government operates in an efficient, transparent and fiscally responsible manner. On February 24, 2016, Mayor Megan Barry signed Executive Order 005, Financial and other disclosures by certain Metropolitan Government employees and officials; ethics, conflict of interest, and acceptance of gifts on the part of employees of Metropolitan Government. The Mission Statement of the Mayor’s office and her Executive Order are both implicated by Barry’s two year affair with a subordinate Metro Nashville employee while both of them were on the Metro payroll and using public funds to travel together on city business. “Fiscal responsibility” has emerged as a dominant issue as details of the affair have emerged, some of which are opaque at best. While the Mayor has been deliberately vague on the precise starting and ending dates of her affair with Sgt. Robert Forrest, head of her security detail, she has insisted that every trip on which they traveled alone together, was…
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Nashville Mayor Megan Barry took her lover/police guard on far more trips, and on longer journeys, than her previous two predecessors, multiple media outlets report. NewsChannel 5 broke the story Wednesday of Barry’s years-long affair with the former head of her security detail, Metro Police Sgt. Rob Forrest, who abruptly announced his retirement after 31 years with the department. Forrest traveled with Barry across the U.S. as well as Greece and Paris. District Attorney Glenn Funk asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look for any potential criminal wrongdoing by Barry. NewsChannel 5 on Thursday interviewed former Mayor Bill Purcell. He said Forrest joined another officer on the mayoral security detail after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. One officer would drive with him to events “in the city of Nashville, primarily,” while the other would drive separately. Purcell was asked if Forrest traveled with him outside the city. Purcell said one or both would travel with him around the region, but he does not recall them accompanying him out of the state. Former Mayor Karl Dean told The Tennessean Thursday his security detail joined him when he drove to a location like Louisville or Little Rock, but not when he flew…
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