Earlier this week, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee explicitly discouraged Republicans from holding in-person town hall meetings with their constituents, after several viral videos emerged of events where voters harangued Republicans for allowing Elon Musk to gut crucial federal programs.
The move was essentially an acknowledgment of the groundswell of fury nationwide over President Donald Trump’s and Musk’s haphazard and authoritarian power grab.
Needless to say, many liberals have been eager to highlight the cowardice in refusing to meet one’s constituents face-to-face.
Needless to say, many liberals have been eager to highlight the cowardice in refusing to meet one’s constituents face-to-face. That includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who couldn’t help but laugh after someone shared footage of her staring down a hollering group of anti-LGBTQ hecklers at a 2022 town hall in her district, and continuing with the event after the lights went out at one point.
“Right wingers have been trolling me and disrupting our town halls for years,” the New York Democrat wrote on X.
“Anyone who lets this stuff be an excuse to hide from the public and stop doing town halls is not cut out for the job.
“Criticism is part of the gig. Take it on the chin and move on.”
She’s right. She’s literally giving attendees a Mary J. Blige-esque shoulder rock in that video. If AOC can hit a clean shimmy while facing off against blatantly bigoted constituents who were apparently raging over an affordable housing policy designed to assist older people in the LGBTQ community, Republicans should be just as willing to stand face-to-face with their constituents, who may be fearful of the next crucial government program Trump wants to cut (no dance moves required).
And whether the GOP lawmakers choose to host in-person town halls in their districts or not, it seems their constituents may still have a place to gather to air their grievances. In a livestream she held after Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez encouraged Democrats to host town halls in GOP-held districts, an idea also floated by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee. And Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California says he’s up for it, too.