A Republican congressman from New Jersey said Friday that the attendees at a town hall he held Wednesday were concerned constituents, not paid protesters.

“Not to my knowledge. This is the 41st in-person town hall meeting I’ve held, and I’ve never experienced paid protesters, and I don’t think that was true the other night,” Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) told Fox News’ Shepard Smith, after Smith asked him if he thought attendees protesting him and President Trump at the town hall were paid.

“It’s important to reach out to constituents, to hear from them, and I think it’s important for my constituents to hear from me,” Lance said. “Perhaps a majority in the audience were not those who had voted for me previously. But I try to represent everybody, Shep. Not only Republicans and independents but Democrats as well.”

WNYC reported Thursday that Lance was the only Republican in New Jersey to hold a town hall this week.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in early February that “protesting has become a profession now.” Responding Wednesday morning to rowdy town hall events around the country, Spicer blamed the commotion on a “professional protester manufactured base.”

President Trump has said angry constituents are organized by “liberal activists.”

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

And Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator and current president of the Heritage Foundation, said Tuesday that protesters were being “bused around” by “well-financed” interests.