FRANKLIN – At a town hall meeting Monday, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Tompkinsville, defended the GOP’s defunct health care plan as well as President Donald Trump’s recent missile strike against a Syrian air base.

Comer said one of his goals is to hold a town hall meeting in all 35 counties in the 1st Congressional District during his first year in office. For roughly half of Monday’s meeting in Franklin, Comer fielded questions from a crowd that was not always warmly receptive of what he had to say.

“Not everybody agrees on everything at town halls, but that’s what living in America’s all about,” he said. “That’s what democracy’s all about.”

Almost every seat was filled for the meeting at the Simpson County Courthouse, which was the second of three such meetings Comer conducted Monday – the others were in Campbellsville and Hopkinsville, according to a schedule from his office.

Comer discussed health care at length, reaffirming his support for the American Health Care Act – a Republican-backed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare – that failed to reach a vote in the House last month due to a lack of support.

“We want to preserve and protect Medicaid, but we have to accept the reality that it’s not sustainable in its current form,” he said.

According to Comer, most of the counties in the 1st District have only one insurance provider participating as part of the ACA.

“What I’m trying to do is create an environment where we can have competition in health care but we can also protect people that have pre-existing conditions and protect people from losing their health care,” he said.

Gayla Coates asked why Medicare can’t negotiate drug prices to bring the cost of treatment down, one of several questions about health care that were posed to Comer.

Comer said he doesn’t trust the government to effectively allow prices to be negotiated, a statement that produced audible scoffing from several people in the crowd.

“I just haven’t seen anything that the government has run that’s better than if the private sector can do it,” he said.

Comer also backed Trump’s decision to launch missiles at a Syrian air base in response to a chemical weapons attack apparently carried out by the Syrian government. Critics of the strike – including U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green – argue that Trump should’ve sought congressional approval before such a military action. Comer, however, believes Trump did not violate the Constitution in ordering this strike, but expects future steps to unfold with lawmakers’ involvement.

“Hopefully, that’s all we have to do,” he said. “If we have to do more, then it has to happen with congressional approval.”

Meanwhile, Marla Knight-Dutille asked about the possibility of investing in renewable energy to revitalize areas heavily dependent on a declining coal industry.

“Will you support and incentivize the renewable energy industry to come into the depressed former coal mining areas as a way to bring jobs back to these regions?” she asked.

Comer said he was interested both in renewable energy and in revitalizing coal mining areas.

“I think we need to have a diverse energy agenda for America that needs to include wind, solar – I support nuclear, that’s controversial – coal, things like that,” he said.

Comer promised “legislation that focuses on trying to rebuild these economies in the coal counties.”

Knight-Dutille told the Daily News after the meeting that she was happy Comer expressed support for renewable energy. She also said she appreciated Comer’s commitment to appearing at town hall meetings throughout his district.

“I am 100 percent thrilled,” she said. “I’ve been extremely disappointed in (U.S. Sen. Mitch) McConnell’s failure to do these things.”