Your latest addition to the ranks of spineless Republican lawmakers who have mysteriously declined to hold town halls during the legislative recess is Texas congressman Louie Gohmert, who had a doozy of an answer ready for constituents who had audacity to suggest that he, you know, actually listen to the people he represents. After reiterating his support for repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with Paul Ryan's Master Plan to Screw Over Poor People, Gohmert added...this:

Unfortunately, at this time there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety.Threats are nothing new to me and I have gotten my share as a felony judge. However, the House Sergeant at Arms advised us after former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot at a public appearance, that civilian attendees at Congressional public events stand the most chance of being harmed or killed—just as happened there. One Congressional friend had one of his district staff members knocked unconscious and hospitalized this past week after being overrun by a group intent on physical confrontation and disruption.

Gohmert's reliance on this "paid protestors" nonsense is embarrassing enough. But invoking the 2011 shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in which a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia murdered six people and left Giffords struggling to speak more than a few words at a time, is pretty bold—especially since Gohmert happens to be of that craven brand of lawmakers who blame mass shootings on inadequate mental healthcare, not guns, and then quietly vote no when given the opportunity to vote on mental healthcare reform bills, citing a general concern for "increased federal spending."

Although she resigned from her position in 2012 to focus on her recovery, Giffords has remained active in gun safety efforts since, and on Thursday, she responded to Gohmert's drivel with some devastating clapback:

Town halls and countless constituent meetings were a hallmark of my tenure in Congress. It’s how I was able to serve the people of southern Arizona. I believed that listening to my constituents was the most basic and core tenet of the job I was hired to do.

I was shot on a Saturday morning. By Monday morning my offices were open to the public. Ron Barber—at my side that Saturday, who was shot multiple times, then elected to Congress in my stead—held town halls. It’s what the people deserve in a representative.

Drag them, Gabby.

To the politicians who have abandoned their civic obligations, I say this: Have some courage. Face your constituents. Hold town halls.

It's easy to understand why Gohmert, after seeing the likes of Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley and friends get absolutely roasted in their town halls, would decide that he wants no part of that experience. But name-dropping a horrific tragedy to justify his refusal to face his constituents—people who are afraid that their representatives are about to take away healthcare they desperately need—is a previously-undiscovered level of cowardice, and no one is more qualified to call him out on it than Gabby Giffords.

Watch Now: President Trump Must Go