NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Boos, shouts and insults dominated New York Representative Mike Lawler’s rowdy town hall on Sunday as the GOP lawmaker’s constituents seethed over President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress.
“Folks, if you want me to answer the questions, let the question be asked, then listen to the answer,” Lawler pleaded as some of the 700 people who were packed into a West Nyack high school ridiculed him for describing himself as a moderate.
Meetings with constituents have emerged as flashpoints for grass-roots anger over Trump’s controversial policies, including his trade war and mass federal firings promoted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
House Republican leaders have advised their members not to schedule town halls in order to avoid such spectacles.
Trump’s job approval has declined in a series of recent polls, following financial market turmoil, mounting anxiety over the economy and fears tariffs will stoke inflation. The president’s approval rating fell 5 percentage points in a month to 44% in a Fox News survey finished April 21.
Lawler, a 38-year-old who is weighing a run for governor in a state where Trump is reviled by many, was one of only a handful of Republicans to hold an in-person forum during Congress’s two-week Easter break, ordinarily a prime time for the events.
Attendees chanted “blah, blah, blah” as Lawler tried to explain and defend Trump’s tariffs. At another point, Lawler warned a man to leave one of his staffers alone.
Before the town hall ended, many attendees had left. At least one person was escorted by police from the event, while others were given warnings.
“There was passion and democracy happening. That’s what I saw,” said Maureen Aitchison, 60, a Democrat from Orangeburg. “But you know, he wasn’t giving answers to the questions that were asked, so people were getting upset.”
Similar scenes have played out across the country and gone viral on social media in recent weeks, including in overwhelmingly Republican areas.
At a forum GOP firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene hosted earlier this month in her rural Georgia district, some attendees were kicked out, several arrested, and police used a stun gun on at least two people. Instead of taking questions face-to-face, Greene required all queries to be submitted in writing, then mocked several she received as she read them aloud.
Lawler’s suburban Hudson Valley district just north of New York City is among the most competitive in the country, one of just three that elected a Republican to the US House while favoring Democratic nominee Kamala Harris for president.
Constituents’ anger ran the gamut from Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth to deportations to the administration’s attacks on colleges and universities. Many people said they feared cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
“We’re not cutting Social Security or Medicaid. That is a lie — period!” Lawler said. He later promised that he wouldn’t support any effort to take benefits from eligible recipients.
The confrontations at Republican town halls around the country echo protests conservative groups staged 16 years ago at Democratic lawmakers’ hometown forums to showcase their opposition to then-President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Those skirmishes captured national media attention. Video of conflict between politicians and their constituents can now spread even more rapidly through social media.
While town-hall exchanges aren’t necessarily representative of local opinion since the meetings tend to attract more politically engaged constituents, the face-to-face encounters can spark dramatic moments that reverberate nationwide.
Republican Representative Byron Donalds of Florida, who is running for governor, was shouted down last week during a town hall by attendees demanding more oversight of DOGE’s wholesale elimination of government agencies and examination of individual Americans’ Social Security files.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley faced angry rebukes over Trump’s first months in office, including one that went viral about whether he’s going to “bring back that guy from El Salvador?” It was a reference to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man the administration wrongly deported to his native country.
Another scolded the senator for calling Social Security an entitlement, demanding Grassley instead use the term “earned benefit.”
Democrats have seized on the moment to tweak their Republican rivals. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and others are staging “stand-in” events in areas where Republicans are not holding town halls.
Representative Angie Craig, considering a bid for her state’s open US Senate seat, toured the home districts of four Republican House members in Minnesota who aren’t holding forums.
She dismissed complaints Republican lawmakers raised about her events. At a stop Wednesday in the district of House Republicans’ 3rd-ranking party leader, Tom Emmer, local media reported her answering with a taunt: “Now I’m going to ask where the hell they are?”
— With assistance from Derek Wallbank