Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., had his attempt at a town hall on Thursday descend into a shouting match as angry constituents berated the congressman over the Trump administrations’ economic policies and massive federal employee layoffs.
While most Republican representatives have heeded the advice of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who advised not to hold in person events, Edwards is one of the few that embraced the challenge. Yet many of his own voters vocally pushed back on what they see as the beginnings of a “destructive and disastrous trade war.”
Johnson had argued the ones sewing chaos were paid professional protestors, a charge that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries openly mocked. “We don’t need paid protestors bro. The American people are with us,” Jeffries posted in response to Johnson’s charge.
Following a firmly worded question about Trump’s economic policies that has not yet delivered on its promise, Edwards responded, “Would you give me a chance to answer this question, and you can start yelling after?”
Edwards recognized that he was going against the “advice from Washington, D.C. from different folks saying Republicans shouldn’t be out there doing town halls.” Yet he remained firm that being willing to answer tough questions in front of a live audience is “one of the things I’m most proud of.”
“How do you justify cuts to the staff of the V.A., affecting veterans especially those with long term care needs?,” one person asked. After waiting for the shouts and claps to subside, Edwards responded, “So first of all there have been no cuts to the staff at the V.A,” yet his answer was met with only boos.
When Edwards addressed the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, the crowd became even more agitated. “Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought some very smart people to DOGE,” to which the crowd merely booed. One person became so irate he needed to be escorted out of the venue by three officers as he shouted, “You don’t get to do this to us!”
“I am accountable to the people in western North Carolina,” Edwards said in a post townhall call. “Folks want to be involved. They want to voice their opinions about some things. – We’re not proceeding at the speed of government. It makes things a little uncomfortable sometimes, but we’re actually doing the work in Washington D.C. that the American people sent us there to do. And we should take every opportunity to inform Americans what that work is.”
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