GOP Rep. Spox Says He Was Threatened In A Request For A Town Hall

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 16: Lee Zeldin, republican candidate from New York's 1st Congressional District, is interviewed by Roll Call. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
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A New York Republican congressman’s spokesperson defended his refusal to hold town halls in part by referencing a threat she said was made against him.

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) held a so-called “telephone town hall” last week and has met with small handfuls of constituents “on the other side of the aisle” in his district. But he recently cancelled an April event at a library in Southampton and does not have any in-person town halls planned in his district.

Zeldin’s communications adviser told reporters that his hesitancy was partly due to a threat made against him.

“Our office received a request for a town hall this week where the person was advocating for the congressman to be shot,” Zeldin’s communications director, Jennifer DiSiena, told reporters in an email last week, according to 27east.com. “We have forwarded that threat on to Capitol Police.”

Neither Zeldin’s office nor the Capitol Police immediately responded to TPM’s requests for comment.

Zeldin himself told the publication that “booing” and “shouting” had discouraged him from holding events.

“In the individual and small group meetings … they don’t just start booing you,” he said. “That’s just not how that works in reality. You’re actually able to have a conversation.”

“But what’s happening right now is the member of Congress gets a word or two deep into their answer, when many in the crowd, for political theater, start shouting them down to disrupt the entire town hall,” he added.

On Monday, Rep. Mo Brooks made a similar complaint, saying he had avoided town halls during the recent congressional recess due to “different elements from the Democratic Party.”

“You’ve got the disrupters, you’ve got the Socialists, you’ve got the somewhat criminal element that’s engaged in criminal conduct at some of these types of events,” he said.

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