Rep. Dan Donovan (R) from Staten Island was just on CNN trying to position himself on Obamacare, in a fairly dishonest way. But I was most interested in how he explained his refusal to meet publicly with constituents. This is from CNN from earlier this hour…
No I’m not avoiding constituents at all. I’ve had scores of individual meetings and small group meetings in my office every day that I’m back home. We’re down here a lot but every day I’m back home. I had an event with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce a couple of weeks ago, 150 members of the Chamber of Commerce came to exchange ideas about health care, tax reform, immigration reform. And the event was taken over by professional protesters, 40 of which had to be taken out.
None of those members of the Chamber of Commerce got to ask their questions or exchange ideas with me. I’m not going to put those people through it. I’m an elected official, I’ve been in public office for 25 years. I can take the hits. It’s unfair to those people who come out on a rainy night, want to hear what I have to say. So I’ve been doing teletown hall meetings where I speak to 14,000 families two weeks ago, in the comfort of their home, people with childcare needs, caring for elderly parents, were able to participate without disruption. When the rhetoric calms down, when the people who want to just obstruct stop obstructing, I will do it again.
Donovan has been refusing to hold any townhalls. And the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce event, which was also attended by Democratic lawmakers was one of the few opportunities people had to confront Donovan over his support of President Trump.
