House GOP leaders urge members to avoid in-person town halls amid Democratic protests
House Republican leaders on Tuesday urged their members to find other ways to communicate with constituents instead of in-person town halls.
The advice comes as several GOP lawmakers at in-person events in their districts have been aggressively questioned and booed about cuts to the federal government from the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk.
Republicans say most of the demonstrations are by Democratic advocacy groups and paid protesters trying to cause a scene.
“They’re professional protesters. So why would we give them a forum to do that right now?” House Speaker Mike Johnson said. “The best thing that our members can do is communicate directly, frequently, consistently, with their constituents. And there are other avenues to do it than just going in to try to give the other side sound bites.”
“They’re doing this for the cameras. We all know it,” the Louisiana Republican added. “And I think it’s wise not to play into it right now.”
Mr. Johnson said GOP leaders, while urging members to avoid in-person town halls, are encouraging members to communicate with their constituents in other ways.
“You can do it in telephone town halls. You can have small subgroups of people from different industries and segments of the community,” he said. “We find that to be very, very productive and more productive than if you just go to an open forum right now.”
Mr. Johnson’s remarks to reporters came after a closed-door GOP conference meeting in which North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, chairman of the House GOP campaign arm, told members to stop holding in-person town halls and to use other methods of communicating with constituents that Democratic groups can’t hijack.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has insisted the protests were not staged or fabricated by his party.
“We don’t need paid protestors,” he wrote Monday on social media. “The American people are with us.”
