Frustrated constituents make their views known to representatives around the country, focusing anger on Trump’s immigration and healthcare plans

Congresspeople nationwide have been facing angry crowds, protests and tough questions during this week’s congressional recess, a time when senators and representatives often return to their home districts and hold “town hall” events.

Republican Congress members face tide of protest in home districts Read more

Organizers and activists upset with Donald Trump have been flooding into events, especially those hosted by Republican members of Congress, to overwhelm their representatives and exert pressure on a range of issues from Trump’s immigration ban to the looming possibility of the Affordable Care Act being repealed, in what has been dubbed “resistance recess” by some advocacy groups.

The president himself, the indirect target of most of the protesting, had his own take on the protester turnout.

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

Here are some of the most notable exchanges from across the US:

Iowa: ‘Who is going to save me?’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Senator Chuck Grassley speaks during a town hall meeting at the Hancock County courthouse in Garner, Iowa. Photograph: Steve Pope/Getty Images

The Republican senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley both faced contentious crowds at town hall events in Iowa. “Who is going to save me?” an Afghan US military veteran asked Grassley, referencing the president’s now suspended travel ban, reported KCCI.

“I am a person from a Muslim country and I am a Muslim. Who is going to save me here? Who is going to stand behind me?” Zalmay Niazy continued to applause.

Grassley later offered to meet with the man to see if he could assist him.

Florida: ‘No one has paid me to be here’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Representative Dennis Ross of Florida speaks at a town hall on Tuesday. Photograph: Screenshot from Guardian video

At the town hall with Representative Dennis Ross, several attendees took on Trump’s tweet.

“I’m gainfully employed, I’m a mother of four, and no one has paid me to be here tonight. I took unpaid time off so I could attend this meeting,” said one Florida resident.



She added, referring to Trump’s weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Springs, Florida: “I am asking you, Congressman Ross, what are you doing to protect the citizens of the United States, especially the citizens of 15th district, from the outrageous expenditure of taxpayer money spent all so he can enjoy what he has called the southern White House every weekend since taking office, at our expense?”

Ross replied that he would like to look into it. “You’re the first one that has brought this to my attention,” he said, adding that he would like to compare it to other presidents’ spending on trips to Hawaii and elsewhere.

Kentucky: ‘Sit down and shut up like Elizabeth Warren’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People protest at the venue where Mitch McConnell is to speak to his constituents in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. Photograph: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The most powerful member of the US Senate faced jeers from nearly 1,000 people as he arrived on Tuesday to address a group of local business leaders. In Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, they chanted as the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, entered the American Legion Post 34 Fairgrounds in a black limousine.

One woman, who said she “loves” McConnell, nonetheless pressed the senator on the loss of coal jobs.

“If you can answer any of that I’ll sit down and shut up like Elizabeth Warren,” she said, spurring laughs from the crowd.

McConnell said he was “proud” of the demonstrators for expressing their views but told the mostly friendly audience inside that the protesters had “had their shot”, adding: “Winners make policy and the losers go home.”

Virginia: hundreds line the streets

In Blackstone, Virginia, protesters and supporters crowded a restaurant conference room where the Republican congressman David Brat fielded questions for about an hour on Tuesday. Hundreds also lined the streets surrounding the venue, waiting to speak with him outside. He was loudly heckled and booed when he defended Trump and his policies on healthcare and immigration, with the occasional cheer from supporters of his positions on gun rights and fewer regulations.

Brat, a former economics professor who rode voter anger to a historic political upset nearly three years ago, said he enjoyed the feisty give and take.

“People are very nervous and anxious after the Trump win. So my goal tonight is to help allay some of those anxieties,” said Brat, who defeated the then House majority leader, Eric Cantor, in a 2014 GOP primary.

Pennsylvania and Tennessee: town hall but no members of Congress

In some cases, the anger was on display even when a member of Congress wasn’t. In Pennsylvania, a healthcare “town hall” organized by citizens addressed questions and concerns to an empty suit at the front of the assembly, intended to represent Senator Pat Toomey, who declined to attend. Several citizens talked about how their lives would be adversely affected by a repeal of Obamacare, including a pair of cancer survivors.

Some members avoid in-person meetings altogether

Many members of Congress have elected to not hold town halls amid all the discord, and instead hold phone events, citing “safety concerns”. About 18,000 callers participated in a telephone town hall with the suburban Chicago representative Peter Roskam, who has been criticized for canceling smaller in-person meetings and declining debates.



The far-right Texas congressman Louie Gohmert has also eschewed in-person events for phone town halls. The representative said in a statement that he was concerned that “groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology … who are preying on public town halls” would “wreak havoc and threaten public safety”.