Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) said late last week that holding town halls is not “productive” and compared it to “the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them.”

“You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That’s not what we need,” Bost said Friday in a meeting with the editorial board of The Southern. “The amount of time that I have at home is minimal, I need to make sure that it’s productive.”

Bost said that in-person town halls “are out of control” and that instead of holding public events he is “busy trying to work on the issue.”

“If all you want to do is stand and yell at me,” he said, “we’re not going back and forth.”

Bost’s office did not immediately respond to TPM’s requests for comment.