XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.republicans, alt.politics.democrats.d

Republican Representative's Town Hall Blows up in His Face
Representative Mike Lawler tried to set strict rules for his first town
hall of the year. Things still went very, very wrong.
Edith Olmsted
The New Republic
April 28, 2025/11:29 a.m. ET

Republican Representative Mike Lawler wanted to impose order during his
town hall Sunday, but no amount of rule-setting could have spared him
from the fury of his constituents.

The New York Republican displayed a list of guidelines outside
Clarkstown South High School in West Nyack, New York, where he was
hosting his first town hall of the year.

The list required attendees to provide proof of residency in New York's
17th district, prohibited "shouting, screaming, yelling or standing,"
and encouraged them to "be respectful of one another, of staff, and of
the congressman."

Screenshot of a tweet
https://x.com/kate_santaliz/status/1916598029966270924

But in the end, Lawler still faced tough criticism over his deference
to President Donald Trump -- often in the form of shouting and insults.

"What are you doing to stand in opposition to this administration? And
what specifically are you doing that warrants the label 'moderate?'"
asked one constituent, a video on X showed, as the crowd of roughly 700
people erupted into cheers.

"My record speaks for itself --" Lawler began, sending the audience
into raucous laughter and jeers. As Lawler continued to limply defend
his supposedly moderate record -- ProPublica has found that he voted in
line with MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene 81 percent of the
time -- his constituents refused to quiet their anger.

"Folks, if you want me to answer the questions, let the question be
asked, and then listen to the answer," Lawler said. "If you're just
going to yell back and forth, the time is gonna run pretty quick."

Lawler told his constituents who had expressed concern about Trump's
escalating trade war and "reciprocal tariff" policy that the president
was simply responding to an "affordability crisis."

"What caused record inflation? Five trillion dollars in new spending in
the first two years of the Biden administration is what gave us record inflation," Lawler said, drowned out by the sounds of booing from the
crowd.

Constituents also expressed anger about the president's inhumane
deportations and his attacks on U.S. universities and colleges,
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's mounting scandals, and concerns
that Republicans were planning to make major cuts to Social Security
and Medicaid.

"We're not cutting Social Security or Medicaid. That is a lie --
period!" Lawler insisted, and promised not to support efforts to strip
benefits from eligible recipients. But the Republican Party has other
plans to drastically shrink the federal match rate for the ACA
expansion and shift more financial responsibility to states, and make
it easier to gut the SSA.

While the audience was rowdy, they also appeared united. At one point,
as Lawler explained that Trump's tariffs were a response to higher
tariffs from other countries and things such as European "price
controls" on prescription medications, the audience began speaking in
unison.

"Blah, blah, blah," they chanted, according to a video posted on X.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXdi1S43ld8

Lawler was reelected to his seat in November with a whopping 57 percent
of the vote. Voters in his district supported the moderate Republican
over Democrat Mondaire Jones, but backed Kamala Harris rather than
Trump.

###

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)