With Republicans lawmakers home in their districts for the week, members of Congress faced large crowds at town halls across the United States on Tuesday.
At the events, lawmakers faced questions about plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and concerns about President Donald Trump. Some Republicans were met with jeers and boos from the crowd, like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA). Protesters even gathered outside events that were not billed as public town halls, as was the case with a luncheon Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attended.
Below is a roundup of Tuesday’s notable town halls:
GOP Rep. Threatens To Cancel Town Hall If Protesters Get ‘Disruptive’ [TPM]
McConnell Thinks Hundreds Protesting His Event Are Just Upset About Election [TPM]
Grassley Confronted On Immigration By Man Who Says He Was Afghan Translator [TPM]
Angry constituents confront Chuck Grassley in Iowa: “If it wasn’t for Obamacare, we wouldn’t be able to afford insurance!” pic.twitter.com/vrbhbOiBMM
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 21, 2017
GOP Sen. Delays Speech At Last Minute As Hundreds Of Protesters Show Up [TPM]
Tom McClintock To Town Hall Crowd: ‘I Understand…You Don’t Like Donald Trump’ [Sacramento Bee]
A Lone GOP Georgia Congressman Holds A Rocky Town Hall Meeting [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Constituents Shout Down Republican When She Ducks A Question About Obamacare [Huffington Post]
Joni Ernst walks in to deafening chant of “Your Last Term!” that overpowers the applause pic.twitter.com/Wc9TKh31Cz
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) February 21, 2017
Brat Faces Raucous Crowd At Town Hall [CNN]
Crowd Greets Womack At Morning Coffee Meeting [Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
Ross, Webster Face Hostile Central Florida Crowds At Town Halls [Orlando Sentinel]
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy Talks Flood Relief At Town Hall Meeting In Watson, But Also Addresses Questions On National Issues [The Advocate]
Rep. Marsha Blackburn Besieged By Boos At Tennessee Town Hall [Huffington Post]
GOP: Obama made moochers out of The Whites.
Paul Ryan: We are approaching 99% moochiness in the country.
The more they dodge and refuse to answer questions, the more people will show up to demand answers. Keep it up GOPers and we’ll see you at the midterms.
I think I understand what’s happening here. There are a lot of States and House Districts in which the voters returned their tried-and-true RWNJ’s to Congress, on the assumption that they would be a counterbalance to President Clinton and her wild-eyed lefty ideas (there aren’t enough rolleyes smileys in the world for that characterization, BTW). A divided government is a “safe” government.
But now they’re faced with a Trump Presidency, and it’s finally dawning on them that their pet RWNJ might actually be able to pull off the damaging things he or she has been bloviating about. Buyer’s remorse is setting in.
I’m trying to remember if Democrats duck and dodged the Town Halls that were dominated by TeaBaggers’ presence…
Does anyone remember?
And it’s heartening to see so may people show up and express their frustrations with their Congressional representative. I almost feel like we have been asleep and have woke up - very angry, seeing all that was built slipping or being taken away. I just wish more people had ultimately recognized how nasty and inept Trump would be instead of focusing on Wall Street speeches and emails.
Excellent point.
I haven’t heard anyone say this but I think this is spot on.
And maybe the same people voted for Trump, but didn’t think he’d win…they didn’t want to vote for Hillary whether they liked Trump or not. Now they got what they voted for and it wasn’t what they expected.
I think that it was been easy for the R’s in congress to oppose Obama and his policies…they could please their party first constituents as well as their bigoted ones. And they didn’t really have to figure out any policy to please them (aside from anti abortion bills). Just Obamacare=bad. We will replace it w/ something better. We need tax reform. We need immigration reform. etc… Now they are struggling to come up w/ policies that don’t piss off their constituents (who were shallow enough to not envision what reform might be realistic and what reform their dear party leaders might actually propose).
The sad thing is that I think the behavior of the R congress is only going to increase the cynicism of their constituency. Trump is clever enough w/ publicity that he’ll likely slither away from any accountability and will hang that on Congress or any “enemies” he can conjure. And his followers (it’s like a cult) will believe whatever cockamamie BS he spews.
But I think that these voters who returned “their tried and true RWNJ’s to Congress” are going to have to sit w/ the repercussions of their choice for a bit… we have our own work to do, aside from the resistance…we have to build a coalition. And create some real alternative candidates to these cronies.