Cnn
–
The Republicans faced frustrated voters during the town hall meetings on Tuesday, offering an overview of the anger of the building on Donald TrumpThe radical overhaul of the federal government among the parties of the electorate – and, in front of it, the legislators of the deference GOP continue to show the president.
In Iowa, Senator Chuck Grassley has been invited several times to stand up to Trump and push the executive branch.
“We would like to know what you, as a people, the congress, which is supposed to brake this dictator, what are you going to do on this subject?” A man asked Grassley.
In Georgia, the highly scripted event of the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene marked a dramatic departure from the town hall held by the most senior republican in the Senate. Instead of answering questions opposite, the extreme right ally made fun of the critical questions that she received, which she needed to be submitted in writing.
Questioned by a questioner why she supported the technological billionaire Elon Musk and the “reduction in the effectiveness of the government” Slashing of Medicaid, the social security offices, the libraries “, Greene replied:” Unfortunately, you are washed by the brain by the news you are looking at. »»
Congress members are at home for a two -week recreation, and in the first days of the Washington legislators’ break, many GOP members have so far taken into account the advice of the party leadership and refused to meet meetings in person. But Tuesday, Grassley, the eighth mandate senator, and Greene, the loyalist of Firebrand Trump, organized public events.
Although the weeks are withdrawn from the eruptions of anger in town halls earlier this year, legislators have sometimes been faced with similar anger on the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce expenses and shrink the federal workforce, as well as difficult issues on its hard immigration policy and the limits of the President’s power.
Greene, trying to protest the demonstrations, opened its doors saying to the participants that she had a town hall, not a political rally. But it avoided the direct commitment of the town hall with the voters, rather offering lines reminiscent of political rallies.
Greene started her event with a video featuring former President Barack Obama praising cuts for unnecessary public spending. She said that Obama’s message “is exactly what President Trump and Elon Musk mean today.”
“We all together, no matter where we are on the political spectrum, we are together at 36 billions of dollars,” she said. “Americans have been defrauded for decades.”
The member of the Congress said without evidence that the “dead” receive social security benefits, and praised her role to preside over the subcommittee of the government’s efficiency of the Chamber’s supervisory committee.
Greene posted critical questions on a projector screen and read them aloud.
In one case, a woman had submitted a question asking if the deputy would repel Trump’s prices and her “chainsaw approach” to reduce expenses. He encountered dispersed applause of the public.
“Oh, poor Christina. Poor, poor, Christina. I’m sure, Christina, you think you are quite intelligent,” said Greene. “But the reality is that you are completely washed by the brain by the source of the news you listen to.”
“What are I going to do? I’m going to stay next to my president. I’m going to support my president. And I’m going to fight for his agenda with everything I have in the congress,” she said.
Greene was interrupted several times by demonstrators, but was disdainful and quickly continued while the local police escaped them from the room.
“The protest is outside. Bye. Have fun there, ”she told a person.
Agents responsible for the application of laws have arrested three people and withdrawn from the town hall of Acworth. In two cases, a CNN crew saw police officers using paralyzing pistols after physical scrums with male participants while they were trying to remove them from the building.
“The Democrats have made riots. They are the party of violence,” said Greene, without offering details after these demonstrators were withdrawn.
Taking a different approach, Grassley mainly listened to complaints concerning Trump and concerns about the actions of the administration of the months after his second term.
But the answers provided by the senator did not make to reduce anxiety in the room.
Asked Point Blank by a person: “Are you proud of Trump?” Grassley replied closely: “There is no president, I agree with 100% of the time.” The answer attracted moans of the crowd, where angry voters occupied most of the seats.
And Grassley, the president of the powerful judicial committee, seemed to be tidying on the side of Trump in the ongoing legal saga over Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man of Maryland expanded to El Salvador. After someone else shouted: “Are you going to bring this type of El Salvador, Grassley said that the case was outside the limits of the congress.
When the same person shouted, “the Supreme Court said to bring him back,” Grassley echoes the argument of the White House that the United States could not force El Salvador to return it.
Asked about Trump’s prices, Grassley recognized the potential of pain for Iowa farmers, in particular cereal producers. He praised his bill which would limit the pricing powers of presidents in the future. “When you put something negative, like a price, on a country, they seem to retaliate against agriculture,” he said.
The senator has promised to obstruct social security reductions, but reported support for work requirements on valid persons who receive federal food assistance as part of the additional nutritional aid program. He also defended the republican thrust to extend the Trump era tax cuts, although it has expressed its opening to the increase in the tax rate of the best employees.
Despite the palpable frustration in the room, many participants also expressed their gratitude to Grassley for holding the forum while other Iowa republicans have avoided similar town hall. When some members of the crowd shouted Grassley or interrupt him by speaking, several jumped to defend him, saying: “Let him finish”.
Grassley, who visits the 99 counties of Iowa each year, began the meeting by recognizing increased interest in his activity and declared that his office had received more email this year than in all 2024.
Although he worked on a list of subjects he wanted to cover first – saying he was before criticized for letting the questions about Trump dominate the discussion – the most structured approach did not modify the tenor of the event. All questions except a asked criticized the administration.
A person who attended Tuesday to thank Grassley started his remarks saying: “I am a rarity here: I am a happy republican.”
While the majority of the town hall meetings planned through the country so far are held by the Democrats, the party has faced its own criticism of voters.
Democrats have already heard the familiar refrain that their caucus has a messaging problem and does not fight hard enough to fight Trump and the Republicans in power. Laura Friedman representatives from California and Maine’s Pingree Chellie heard it in town halls earlier this week, and Maryland representative Sarah Elfreth faced part of her own pressure on Tuesday evening.
At the Elfreth town hall in Annapolis, a woman said that she had left her job as the federal government because the order of return to work of Trump made her life “impossible”.
“It’s personal for me. It’s personal for my family. And I want to know what you are going to do to meet the moment,” said the woman. “Being a milquetoast – Milquetoast and do not inspire people to believe that you can change something for them – will not inspire them to vote. So what are you going to do with the megaphone that gives you the room? Because that’s really all you have in a minority. ”
Elfreth replied that it “uses each tool” available to it.
“I hear the criticism,” said Democrat deputy for the first mandate in CNN in an interview after the town hall.
“Nor do I agree that the 215 members of the Democratic Party must be activists, noisy members. I think we need all kinds, all kinds and all styles. It’s my style. ”
Ryan Young from CNN and Jason Morris contributed to this report.