Travis Dorman, and Rachel Ohm

Knoxville News Sentinel

"I have never seen so many sore losers as there are today," said U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.

Knoxville residents plan demonstration to protest Duncan's refusal to hold a town hall meeting.

Duncan's son, John, said he's proud of his dad for standing up to members of a liberal group.

Knoxville residents are planning a demonstration after U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. rejected requests for a town hall with a letter denouncing the public meetings as "shouting opportunities for extremists, kooks and radicals."

Duncan, a Republican who has represented Tennessee's Knoxville-based 2nd Congressional District since 1988, began the letter by saying he has "often been described as one of the most accessible members of Congress in this Country" before touting his record of engaging with constituents.

Duncan wrote that he prefers one-on-one meetings because people talk more openly and are "more polite and civil." Due to the current "anger in politics," Duncan said he believes a town hall meeting "would very quickly turn into shouting opportunities for extremists, kooks and radicals."

"Also, I do not intend to give more publicity to those on the far left who have so much hatred, anger and frustration in them," he wrote. "I have never seen so many sore losers as there are today."

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The letter was a response to people contacting Duncan's office to request a town hall, according to Sarah Herron, the founder of Indivisible East Tennessee. Herron described the group as a grassroots organization based on the Indivisible Guide, a self-proclaimed "practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda."

Don Walker, deputy chief of staff for Duncan, confirmed Monday that Duncan wrote the letter himself and said it was sent to constituents via email and postal mail. In a statement, Walker said Duncan has held town meetings "from time to time" in the past when he felt they were productive, but that judging "by the bullying tone of most of these phone calls and emails, he can tell that a public meeting would not be productive."

Walker also cited a recent town meeting held by U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, a Republican from California, that grew raucous and ended with the congressman being escorted from the meeting by police.

"Congressman Duncan has been in the Congress for 29 years, and he has had a very strong tradition of meeting with constituents individually or in very small groups," Walker said. "He feels this is the best way to represent Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District in Washington, and he will continue to handle his meetings in this manner."

The recent requests began not as a coordinated political attack, but out of some constituents' concerns with Republicans' plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Herron said.

"We also haven't heard his (Duncan's) position on the immigration ban, and things like that, I've heard, are also a concern," she said. "In a public forum, we would just like to hear from him and hear him go on record on what his positions are."

Herron said she was "shocked" and "disheartened" when she received a copy of Duncan's letter in the mail. After the letter circulated on social media, she decided to organize a demonstration in front of Duncan's Knoxville office at 4 pm. Friday at 800 Market St.

"The intention is to say, 'Here's all the people who want to hear from you, and here's an opportunity to schedule appointments with all of us,' " she said. "... If he's saying, 'I'm accessible with one-on-one meetings,' we're going to demonstrate the feasibility of that."

The group's change.org petition calling for Duncan to hold a town hall had 718 signers as of Sunday night.

Renee Hoyos, executive director of the Tennessee Clean Water Network, said she requested a town hall to discuss a proposed bill that would abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. Hoyos called Duncan's letter "woefully inadequate" and "unconscionable."

"What he wants is one-on-one meetings with people so he can diffuse what they're asking from him," Hoyos said. "... We are his constituents, and he may not like that we disagree with him, but he needs to hear it, and he needs to respond to us."

"He doesn't want to do (town halls) because he knows he's going to get yelled at, and I think for him to ignore us, it's him not being a leader. It's cowardly."

This isn't the first time Duncan has employed the language used in the letter and picked up on by his critics, who have named Friday's gathering "Kookfest." In 2009, he put the label on contractors and environmental groups he said were looking to profit from the fallout of a coal-ash spill in Kingston.

"You can never satisfy the extremists or the kooks in any situation," Duncan said at the time. "There will be some people that we will never satisfy if we spent the entire federal budget on this problem. But we have to be reasonable, and we have to have a little balance and common sense in this situation."

On Saturday, Duncan's son, John Duncan, posted his father's letter in full on Facebook, saying he was proud of his dad for standing up to the "members of a local liberal organization" asking for the town hall.

"(My dad) would gladly meet with anybody in a one-on-one or small group setting to discuss anything they want to talk about," Duncan wrote. "However, he isn't going to provide a public forum for theatrical shouting, protests, and disrespect just so they can get some publicity."

DUNCAN'S LETTER

Here is the full text of the letter from U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.: