Reach out to Trump voters, Rep. Adam Smith tells 900 at Seattle town hall

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., dean of Washington's congressional delegation. "We have to reach out to people who voted for Trump. The assumption that people were out of their minds is incorrect."

U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., dean of Washington's congressional delegation. "We have to reach out to people who voted for Trump. The assumption that people were out of their minds is incorrect." Photo: SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Reach out to Trump voters, Rep. Adam Smith tells 900 at Seattle town hall 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The biggest-ever town hall crowd for U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., during two decades in Congress, was 75 people -- until Saturday, when he was greeted by 900 at a multi-round discussion in the Rainier Valley.

Smith had a long-haul message for the impatient anti-Trump crowd: "Patience and persistence" are required.

"You have to build a movement -- slowly." As well, "do not undermine what you are trying to do."

He made one exception, namely the eviscerating cuts faced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"On this I would urge massive pressure," said Smith.

The big town hall was a serious, prolonged Q&A session, largely devoid of the posturing, feel-good symbolism of so many Seattle rallies. It featured just one screaming crazy, and one guy bearing a bad-penmanship banner calling for less investigation of Russian hacking and more probing of Clinton emails.

"It feels like we are circling the drain for my country; it feels like everything is ineffective," one constituent told Smith.

The congressman replied that critics of the 45th president cannot just sing to the choir.

"We have to reach out to people who voted for Trump," said Smith. "The assumption that people were out of their minds is incorrect."

How? Smith noted years of financial scandals and revelations about the libertine lifestyle of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: None of it stuck. The opposition finally switched to arguing that Berlusconi's policies were bad for Italy. Then, he lost.

"That's what we have to do with Trump; go after his policies," said Smith.

Despite the charged national climate, constituents hit on specific concerns: Understaffing of the Seattle VA hospital, the plight of people with disabilities if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, and security of Americans working abroad.

A man named Wendell Miller, with family members who have done U.S. embassy work abroad, raised the question of security budgets.

"We have people with no protection trying to carry on the duties of representing our country," he said.

"The Department of Defense does not handle security for the State Department," Smith said in reply. He explained that embassy security budgets are inadequate and have been cut by Congress, even as it has loaded up the Pentagon with new spending. The Trump administration is calling for a budget-busting Defense budget.

Smith is a legislator at heart, not a hell raiser. He has served on the House Intelligence Committee and is the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, panels that require bipartisan work.

He is appalled at the new presidency.

"I pride myself at being able to work with anybody," Smith added. "That said, I cannot work with this president."

Trump appealed to "hatred, bigotry and misogyny" in getting elected, Smith said. The president is out to "terrorize" immigrants. And attacking and seeking to browbeat the press is "one of the first steps toward a fascist society."

Smith is a veteran of talking calmly to blustering Fox News hosts, and locally has argued intelligently with KVI host John Carlson.

"God help me, I have even been on Dori Monson," he said Saturday.

But a blustery president threatens to create "big-time problems," Smith said.

He noted that White House "chief strategist" Steve Bannon has become a cover boy for al-Qaida, and argued that demonizing Muslims "plays right into the hands" of recruiters for the terrorist organization.

Russia has been intervening in elections, not only in the United States but pushing "right wing fascist candidates in France and Germany."

"What he (Vladimir Putin) wants to do," Smith argued, "is make the world safe for dictatorships."

"We need a special prosecutor to find out what happened," said Smith, who once chaired the House Subcommittee on Terrorism.

A pair of more radical questioners groused that Washington's congressional delegation is not doing enough to fight Trump, with one woman challenging Smith to take unspecified "extraordinary measures."

Been there, done that, Smith responded.

As chair of the terrorism subcommittee, Smith dealt with and came to know retired Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's since-fired national security director.

Smith came out with a statement that Flynn was "unhinged from reality" and "not qualified to be a security guard at the (U.S. Capitol) Mall."

The congressman's judgment was borne out in the early weeks of the Trump presidency.