This week’s district work period has some Republican lawmakers ducking an organized effort by liberal activists to shout them down at town hall meetings.
Groups of activists, including former President Barack Obama’s political organization, are rallying people to swarm town hall appearances by both Republican and Democrat representatives so they can loudly protest the GOP agenda and President Trump.
“Be ready for recess,” the Organizing for Action website, featuring photos of Obama, advises activists.
The site includes a Google spreadsheet of public events around the country where both Democrat and GOP lawmakers will appear this week to meet with constituents over the Presidents Day recess.
A second liberal-leaning group called Indivisible, which is aligned with OFA, has created chapters around the country and is recruiting people to show up at town hall and other constituent events to protest the GOP agenda and Trump.
Its Facebook page includes a list of questions to ask of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, though their true target appears to be the GOP.
“The upcoming congressional recess is a big opportunity for local groups around the country to show their Members of Congress (MoCs) how serious they are about stopping the Trump agenda,” a memo titled “Reclaim Recess” reads. “To accomplish this, it’s helpful to have a consistent message for their MoCs during town halls, district office meetings and phone calls.”
The guide advises activists to ask pre-written questions that support Obamacare and oppose Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, as well as Trump’s recent executive order temporarily stopping refugees and travel from seven Muslim-majority nations with terrorism problems.
Rep. John Duncan, a Republican who represents the Knoxville area of Tennessee, said he declined a demand by Indivisible activists in his state to hold a town hall event. Duncan told the Washington Examiner he typically holds meetings with smaller groups of constituents.
“I was starting to receive letters and phone calls very arrogantly demanding town halls,” Ducan said. “I told them I wasn’t going to hold a town hall in this atmosphere because they would very quickly turn into shouting opportunities for extremists kooks.”
This month, hundreds of people swarmed a town hall event held by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. They shouted demands that he investigate Trump for conflicts of interest and that he oppose GOP proposals including an end to taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
Angry protesters also showed up at constituent meetings held by Reps. Diane Black, R-Tenn., and Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who required a police escort to escape the angry crowd made up of anti-Trump and environmental activists.
Indivisible’s Facebook page includes a “Townhall resistance guide.” The short video features Robert Reich, President Clinton’s former commerce secretary, advising people to show up at town hall meetings to “call out” lawmakers who vote for Cabinet nominees and “show Trump’s agenda faces a serious resistance.”
Reich adds, “Record everything, and spread your clips online and give them to local media.”
Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, who represents Utah’s 2nd District, has held 49 town hall meetings during his two terms in office. A recent town hall event attracted protesters.
“I think you have a responsibility as a member of Congress to stand in front of people and defend what you believe,” Stewart told the Washington Examiner. “I think there is a helpful way to do that. A reasonable conversation is more helpful than a bunch of shouting and yelling.”
Stewart said he won’t avoid town halls in the future, even though his last event was “noisy.”
The organized protesters, he worries, are making it impossible for him to have a conversation with his constituents.
“The unfortunate thing is some people are there because they really do want to have a conversation,” Stewart said. “And they leave frustrated.”
