Some GOP lawmakers have been avoiding “town hall” meetings in their home districts, after an Democratic-led organization began coordinating protests designed to make turn the gatherings into demonstrations against the President.
But former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who suffered serious injuries in an assassination attempt during a meeting with constituents, had no patience it. She said Republicans who won’t face constituent town halls over fears of violence should “have courage.”
Activists have been packing auditoriums and high-school gyms to confront Republican lawmakers, often well-prepared and rehearsed, and typically carrying the same signs, which read “Disagree.”
Republicans have been doing everything they can to avoid the meetings (Marco Rubio literally ran from someone asking him about his), and Rep. Louis Gohmert tried to invoke what happened to Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman during a public appearance, to justify avoiding his: The political atmosphere is simply too volatile he said in a statement.
Former Rep. Giffords, who is now permanently disabled, hit back, saying that Congressmen have a duty to speak to the people they represent, regardless. “To the politicians who have abandoned their civic obligations, I say this: ‘Have some courage,’” Giffords told Americans for Responsible Government. “Face your constituents. Hold town halls.”
She called her public appearances a “hallmark” of her service, and said that ‘listening to my constituents was the most basic and core tenet of the job I was hired to do.”
She’s not the only Democratic lawmaker getting in on the mockery. Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to taunt GOP lawmakers who have cancelled their events.
Only a handful of Republicans have bowed out of constituent town halls. Most are trying to strategize on how to deal with protesters. Some are “laying low,” holding quiet, small group town halls with limited audiences. Others are pushing for “non-verbal” forums, where constituents submit, instead of shout out, questions. Some, Like Reps. David Brat and Justin Amash, are just facing the angry crowds head on in the hopes of changing minds.
Strategies, it turns out, are necessary. Although, contrary to Donald Trump’s assertions, the protesters are not paid, the town hall disruptions are not simply materializing out of thin air.
In Virginia, at least, protesters who appeared at Rep. Brat’s town hall were recruited through Indivisible and Together We Will, as part of a national effort to demonstrate widespread anger with the Trump agenda. The groups began coordinating efforts to disrupt the town halls weeks ago, on a series of localized Facebook pages.
Brat and other Republicans claim that Indivisible is funded directly by progressive billionaire George Soros, who has, in the past, been generous to activists groups that pursue his agenda. Indivisible claims to have more than 4,000 individual donors and no direct links to Soros, but members of Indivisible’s board of directors, and most of its administration, have been involved with Soros-driven efforts before.
