Democrats Face Their Own Angry Town Halls

You’ve probably heard a lot in the last couple weeks about Republicans facing off with angry constituents at town hall events back home. For instance:

Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman faced a torrent of heckles and boos during a town hall in deep red Wyoming as she repeatedly tried to downplay constituents’ concerns about the Trump administration’s actions…

“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government,” Hageman told attendees, prompting more outbursts from the crowd.

“You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down,” she added. “I’m sorry, your hysteria is just really over the top.”

Hageman, who ousted former Rep. Liz Cheney in a primary, ended up cutting her scheduled hourlong town hall 15 minutes short as the crowd continued to berate her through the entirety of the event.

Hageman’s team, when asked later, suggested that the disruptions were pre-planned by partisans. It’s not clear if that was the case here but there’s clear evidence this is going on in New York as Sen. Schumer himself has admitted.

“We are mobilizing in New York. We have people going to the Republican districts and going after these Republicans who are voting for this and forcing them to either change their vote or face the consequences,” Schumer said during a recent interview with PBS. “This is a long, relentless fight that we fight every day. And I am confident that we will bring Trump’s popularity, numbers and strength down if we keep at it, and keep at it, and keep at it.”

But Democrats are also facing some town hall backlash after Sen. Schumer’s decision to back a Republican CR rather than shut down the government.

Congressional Democrats — who were hoping to blast Republicans over budget cuts — instead took incoming from their exasperated constituents when they traveled home to host town halls.

In Arizona, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly were confronted at a joint forum Monday by an attendee demanding to know if they “would support removing” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. In Oregon, an audience member told Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Janelle Bynum on Sunday that he is “so pissed off right now at the leadership in the United States Senate that they are not willing to step up and fight.”

“Schumer has done what I think is the most destructive thing that he could possibly do as Democratic leader,” another cried on Saturday to Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont.

Today, Axios reports that some Democrats are close to panic behind the scenes as some constituents call for violence:

The senior House Democrat told Axios that a colleague called them after a town hall crying and said: “They hate us. They hate us.”…

“Among the things I got [at a town hall] were: ‘Will you call for Chuck Schumer to resign?'” the lawmaker said. “Last week I got: ‘You need to tell your leadership they had no right rebuking Democrats for being strong at'” Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

“Another thing I got was: ‘Democrats are too nice. Nice and civility doesn’t work. Are you prepared for violence?'”

CNN is also reporting on the trend today. Democrats went into this week thinking they’d have a great time trashing Republicans to adoring fans but it hasn’t worked out that way.

Going into the week, Democrats took most Republicans retreating from public view as an invitation to meet with their constituents and drive a forceful argument about how Republicans’ government funding plan would slash spending on programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

But the anger that greeted Democrats at their own town halls left them returning to Washington next week without appearing to have gained great political momentum during their time at home – instead offering a vivid window into the party’s struggles during the first two months of Trump’s presidency.

Even when a Democrat is winning praise from some constituents for their resistance to the Trump administration, there are other issues causing disruption.

In the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, attendees at [Rep. Sean] Casten’s town hall Wednesday night were largely complimentary of the congressman’s opposition to Trump…

Casten’s town hall was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters — with one protester who declined to share his name with CNN climbing on stage and refusing to leave.

Chants of “Casten” and “leave, leave, leave” rang through the room as some sought to drown out the protests, but after more than 45 minutes of interruptions, local police asked the congressman to end his event.

“The consequence of what you’re doing is that the good people in this room are going to decide not to come to town halls anymore,” Casten told protesters, “because it’s not productive.”

About the only thing Democrats seem united on is their desire to punish Elon Musk and Tesla and that hasn’t been a great look for the party so far.

Generally speaking, sputtering rage isn’t a great organizing principle. Before Democrats can win people over they need to tone it down a notch but, arguably, that’s what Chuck Schumer tried to do, making a calculation that a shutdown was worse than a continuation on Republican terms. Obviously he’s not being rewarded by the party for keeping a cool head.