U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne wasn't surprised that a question about President Donald Trump's behavior would surface at one of his town hall meetings, and on Thursday, a retired military chaplain posed it to the congressman.

"What kind of character are we building or allowing when we do not say anything to the president? I never sat in a military staff meeting where commanders, four-star generals, belittled and talked about his staff in the same way our president does," said David McLean, a retired Methodist pastor who spent 30 years as a U.S. army chaplain, to a loud applause at the event in the Gulf Shores City Council Chambers.

Byrne, R-Fairhope, offered a response in which he said in his 20 years of public life, he's adhered to a personal standard of conduct. He said he wasn't willing to pass judgment on someone else, and encouraged attendees to "get over" the 2016 presidential election.

"Both of those candidates had imperfections," Byrne said, referring to Trump and Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. "(Voters) picked one over the other. That election is over. He's the president and he'll be the president the next 3-1/2 years. In the meantime, we have to run the country."

McLean interjected, "It has nothing to do with the election."

Said Byrne, "I think it does. I've been on the losing end of elections before. You know what, I got over it. America has to get over it."

Republicans in Congress have witnessed a tumultuous few weeks in the Trump administration. Among the controversies: Trump's politically tinged speech before thousands of Boy Scouts, his remarks supporting brutal tactics by police, and the short-lived but bombastic tenure of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director.

There are indications that White House turmoil is being tamped down following the hiring of retired Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly as Trump's new chief of staff. But McLean spoke about that, too, during Byrne's town hall.

"I thought, 'The irony. We need to bring in Marine to clean up the language of the White House,'" he said.

'Erratic behavior'

Some political observers believe that Trump's behavior could become a heavy burden on the GOP for the foreseeable future. For example, William Stewart, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, said, "I could see the president's erratic behavior as putting Republican officeholders at the national level in a difficult position. They are consistent conservatives, but the president doesn't seem to be consistent on anything."

In Alabama, a deep red state that overwhelmingly backed Trump in November's election, the reaction from Republican politicians is one of embrace toward Trump's "America First" platform. Any criticism of Trump on their part has been very muted, although Alabama Republicans, almost universally, sided with Jeff Sessions - the popular former senator - during Trump's Twitter attacks of his attorney general's decision to recuse himself of federal investigations into Russian tinkering with the election.

In the ongoing Senate race, GOP candidates have seemed to compete with one another to show their Trump bona-fides. Ads made on behalf of incumbent Luther Strange have even sought to attack U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks for perceived slights against the president.

"It's interesting that our upcoming senatorial primary seems to be devoted to supporting Trump most consistently when Trump himself is so inconsistent that it's hard to say where he stands on an issue when that changes from day-to-day," Stewart said.

Stewart believes that privately, most Alabama conservatives would have preferred another GOP president in the White House. "Someone like (Marco) Rubio, (Ted) Cruz or (Ben) Carson," said Stewart.

On the flip side, if Clinton had won in November "the Republicans wouldn't have it as good as they do, despite all the turmoil," Stewart said.

'Advance agenda'

Back at the Byrne town hall meeting, the congressman said that Trump's often unruly and unpredictable behavior is one of the reasons why voters backed the reality TV star and real estate mogul last year.

U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, answers questions during a town hall meeting held on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, at the Gulf Shores city council chambers. (John Sharp/jsharp@al.com).

"He's no different than the person people voted for," said Byrne. "I think if you go to the vast majority of the people who voted for him, they still strongly support him. My job is to work with the president and try and make sure we get his and our agenda through."

Byrne also said there is very little that he, as one of 535 members of Congress, can do to encourage a president to act one way or another. "It's not my role to do that and if I thought it was my role and I tried to exercise that role, it would come to nothing," said Byrne. "My job is to continue to work with him and continue to advance the agenda and not let things like that distract me."

But McLean, the retired military chaplain, said Congress has "great authority" in shaping the "character and image of Americans."

"I think there comes a time to when we have to say, 'This is not very presidential and this is not very professional,'" said McLean. "This is not, from my own experiences, how a soldier should act in a foreign country with other soldiers. It's good to disagree but it's not helpful to dehumanize people."