Town hall meetings get ugly for GOP
South Carolina crowd jeers, boos a combative Sen. Lindsey Graham
Inundated with boos from a raucous town hall crowd, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., snapped back, lashing out at one attendee for asking a “garbage” question and slamming many for not accepting the result of the 2016 presidential election.
Toward the end of the hour-long town hall in Columbia, S.C., people were standing up.
“Your last term! Your last term!” they chanted.
The senator fired back, telling the crowd that he does not and will not worry about losing his job in the 2020 election.
“Good! Good! Come on, bring it on! Bring it on!” Graham said. “If I win, fine. If I don’t, fine. But here’s what you’re going to get from me. You’re going to get somebody that tells you exactly what I believe. And to everybody in this room, it’s OK to be mad. It’s OK to be upset.”
Republicans who have hosted town halls have endured “protests, sharp rebukes and emotional questions about what see as a sharp turn in governance as well as the House and Senate’s willingness to check the White House,” The Washington Post wrote last month.
Some GOP lawmakers have opted against holding town halls. President Donald Trump has dismissed the “socalled angry crowds” as “liberal activists.”
Protests at town halls mirror the tea party rallies that blossomed after Barack Obama’s election in 2008. Groups such as the Working Families Party, which has pledged to hold public events, including “Resist Trump Tuesdays,” and the Indivisible Guide, created by former Democratic congressional staffers to share protest tactics, have copied the tea party movement’s grass-roots strategy.
On Saturday, Graham spent close to an hour answering questions about health care, immigration reform and other issues. While he earned a few cheers and applause, he spent most of his time trying to talk over the boos.
As the crowd grew louder, so did Graham.
He talked about his views on health care: Obamacare will “collapse,” he said, and he’s not sure the Republicans’ ill-fated repeal-and-replace bill is any better. He also promised to not vote on a bill that would deny health care to someone with pre-existing conditions.
He talked about the investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign: Congress should let the FBI do its job in investigating, he said.
“No politician should stand in the way ... what happens, happens,” Graham added, earning some light applause.
He addressed questions about Ivanka Trump’s new White House role, which would give the first daughter access to classified information.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m glad she’s there. I think she’s a pretty smart lady,” Graham said, attracting even more boos from the crowd.
At one point, a woman asked an impassioned question about Trump’s tax returns, saying she believes those documents could provide some evidence that the president and his associates have colluded with the Russians and criticizing Graham for obstructing their release.
“I think that’s a bunch of garbage when it comes to me. I don’t think I’ve obstructed anything,” Graham responded, adding that he has openly criticized Russians for trying to interfere in the U.S. elections.
Perhaps some of the most heated exchanges were over two of Trump’s nominees: Judge Neil Gorsuch and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Graham strongly defended Gorsuch, saying that he will “enthusiastically” support Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and that filibustering him would be a “huge mistake” for Democrats.