Tom Cotton , the Republican senator from Arkansas, was heckled and jeered at a town hall meeting in his district on Wednesday night for initially refusing to provide microphones to constituents and then dodging several questions about his support for Donald Trump, the electoral college winner now serving as president despite losing the national popular vote.

Senator Cotton avoids first question about health care. Crowd is angry and chanting. #CottonTownHall pic.twitter.com/UyiiyeBOAA — Channing Barker (@ChanningBarker) February 22, 2017

Cotton talks his way around not supporting an independent committee to investigate Russian influence on the Trump Campaign. #CottonTownHall — Logan (@LoganThrailkill) February 23, 2017

Among the most contentious topics Cotton tried to avoid talking about was the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s protection for pre-existing conditions. When a woman who said that she would be denied coverage without that provision of the insurance law asked Cotton if he would commit to a workable replacement for Obamacare, the senator thanked her and asked for “a couple of more comments or questions about health care.”

Woman tells Tom Cotton that without coverage for preexisting conditions, she will die. Watch what happened. pic.twitter.com/2scYP097Ef — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 23, 2017

Cotton’s attempt to move on from that emotional question was immediately interrupted by chants of “Do your job!”

The senator, who told the leaders of Iran in a 2015 letter that he could well serve for “perhaps decades,” even failed to give a straight answer to a seven-year-old boy who asked how he could support Trump’s plans to defund children’s programming on PBS — making good on a threat famously made by Mitt Romney in 2012 — just to pay for an unnecessary wall along the border with Mexico.

At town hall, 7-year-old asks Arkansas Sen. Cotton about defunding PBS and building the wall. "You can still have one and have the other." pic.twitter.com/LNFK1ybuUE — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 23, 2017

Cotton was praised, though, by some observers for how he handled a remark by one of his constituents, a woman who prefaced her question by referring to a conspiracy theory embraced by some Republicans to dismiss the anger at their town halls. “I’m Mary Story from Fayetteville,” the woman said, “and I am not a paid protester.”

Ark. woman to Tom Cotton: "First of all, I am Mary Story from Fayetteville and I am not a paid protester." pic.twitter.com/0ULnW6gWwI — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 23, 2017

“In response,” Cristiano Lima of Politico wrote, “Cotton, alone on stage, strove to strike a chord of unity.” “I don’t really care if anybody here is paid or not,” Cotton said. “You’re all Arkansans and I’m glad to hear from you.” But as the Washington Post digital opinions editor, James Downie, pointed out, Cotton’s formulation, for all its superficial politeness, was, in fact, an endorsement of the unsubstantiated myth, embraced by several Republican lawmakers, that the disgruntled Americans expressing their dismay at town halls in recent weeks must be part of an underhanded plot.

This is NOT Cotton trying to "strike a cord of unity." This is him perpetuating a lie while leaving enough room to pretend otherwise. pic.twitter.com/QUSjZJb6El — James Downie (@jamescdownie) February 23, 2017

Trump himself, and his spokesman, Sean Spicer, have been the leading proponents of the effort to dismiss the concerns of unhappy citizens as being somehow illegitimate.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2017

Spicer says angry town halls are partly “professional” protesters: “Just because they’re loud doesn’t necessarily mean there are many” pic.twitter.com/CxIQ0IIwh6 — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 22, 2017

One Texas Congressman, Louie Gohmert, claimed this week that he could not appear at town hall meetings because “there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety.” Gohmert even compared protesters upset at their health insurance being taken away to the deranged gunman who shot Gabrielle Giffords in the head in 2011, severely injuring the former Democratic Congresswoman, and killing six others, during a meeting with constituents in Arizona. “Threats are nothing new to me,” Gohmert wrote. “However, the House Sergeant at Arms advised us after former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot at a public appearance, that civilian attendees at Congressional public events stand the most chance of being harmed or killed — just as happened there.” The meme was spread so far, despite a complete lack of evidence, that crowds have come prepared to rebut it.

At a town hall in in Colorado, citizens hold up their state IDs to prove to GOP that they are 100% real constituents pic.twitter.com/t2ABatcfJ4 — Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) February 22, 2017

Chris Hamilton of Okahumpka has a response to charges of "paid protesters" at town halls pic.twitter.com/OdJZrjHerR — Steven Lemongello (@SteveLemongello) February 21, 2017