Rep. Mike Flood confronted a barrage of criticism at a packed town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, Monday night as viewers members repeatedly confronted him over his assist for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” immigration coverage and what they described as threats to democracy.
It didn’t take lengthy for these gathered for the assembly at the University of Nebraska to erupt in chants of “tax the rich,” whereas the Republican congressman tried to defend his choice to vote for the the president’s large agenda.
“I truly believe that this bill will allow America to experience growth, that it will allow our communities to thrive, that it will spark our economy, that it will help farmers and ranchers, that it will take care of the vulnerable. And more than anything, I truly believe this bill protects Medicaid for the future,” Flood mentioned, talking over outbursts from the gang.
Flood, one in every of few members of his party to carry in-person occasions throughout spring’s congressional recess because the GOP regarded to keep away from blowback from the president’s DOGE initiative, heeded the National Republican Congressional Committee’s up to date steerage to focus this August district work interval on selling Trump’s agenda.
“With the One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law just a few weeks ago, this is a critical opportunity to continue to define how this legislation will help every voter and push back on Democrat fearmongering,” the memo from the NRCC, the House GOP’s marketing campaign arm, said.
But as he did earlier this 12 months, Flood met a largely hostile crowd. The congressman was pressed on all the pieces from the president’s sweeping tax and spending cuts laws to veterans’ points, Medicaid funding and the conflict in Gaza throughout a wide-ranging question-and-answer interval – all in opposition to a backdrop of near-constant heckling, chants and booing from the viewers.
Still, the he maintained his place on the president’s home agenda package deal. “Is every bill perfect? No, but I supported this bill,” he informed the gang.
In one tense back-and-forth in Nebraska, an viewers member confronted Flood about authorities spending and authoritarianism.
“My question is fiscal,” the attendee started, referencing studies that the makeshift immigration detention facility in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” is predicted to value $450 million to function for a single 12 months.
“How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?” the attendee requested, as the gang erupted in applause.
Flood responded, “Americans went to the polls in November, and they had a choice between a Democratic candidate that had an open border, no enforcement, fentanyl, drugs, human trafficking, and they had a choice between that and a candidate that said close the border, get illegal immigrants out of our country, stop the fentanyl, stop the human trafficking, stop the drugs, stop the crime, stop the violence. That’s what Americans voted for.”
“Americans voted for a border that is secure, and I support the president enforcing our immigration laws, which, by the way, were written by Congress.”
The viewers appeared to develop more and more agitated, with continued shouts hurled at the congressman.
Another member from the viewers accused Flood of staying silent within the face of what they known as a “fascist machine,” referring to the conservative blueprint Project 2025. “You said in Seward that you were not a fascist,” the individual mentioned. “But your complicity says otherwise.”
“Fascists don’t hold town halls with open question-and-answer series,” he responded. The viewers once more booed.
Despite his efforts to current the just lately handed finances invoice – which one constituent known as “the big, ugly bill” – as an answer for Medicaid funding and rural hospitals, viewers members attacked Flood over cuts to SNAP advantages, veterans’ packages and well being care entry.
Veterans within the viewers criticized him for backing a legislation they mentioned threatens advantages for individuals who served. “How can you stand a bill that erodes the very services that people like me, my family, and younger vets rely on?” one Marine Corps veteran requested.
Flood mentioned he had personally met with the VA secretary and promised enhancements to the system however provided no specifics.
The Nebraska lawmaker additionally fielded a query on the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata – a subject that has consumed Capitol Hill in current weeks however yielded limited exchanges so far within the early public town halls throughout lawmakers’ break from Washington.
Read aloud by an aide at the occasion, the written query posed: “Why are you covering up the Epstein files?” It was met with raucous applause from the viewers.
Flood responded: “Let’s be very clear – at the next pro forma session of the Congress, you will find my name as a sponsor on a resolution from the House Rules Committee to release the Epstein files to protect the victims and not re-victimize them again.”
He added that he helps Congress’ subpoena of Epstein’s former affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition, and declard: “I am for the release of those records.”
The matter additionally arose at a Democrat’s town hall Monday night time in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the place Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin made a case in opposition to presidential pardon energy.
Asked by an viewers member if she thinks the presidential pardon energy ought to be restricted, Slotkin known as it “a quirk of history that does not make sense in America for either party, for any reason.”
“To me, it is just a strange thing that the president of the United States has a few extra chits in their pocket to give away,” she continued, including that she doesn’t suppose people who find themselves wrongly imprisoned ought to be in jail.
As stress grows on the Trump administration to launch extra data associated to the Epstein case, the president hasn’t dominated out a pardon for Maxwell, who met just lately with a high Justice Department official and in addition was transferred to a decrease safety jail camp from the place she was beforehand being held.
Asked final week if clemency was on the desk in change for Maxwell’s testimony, Trump mentioned, “I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it.”
Slotkin expressed wariness that Trump is speaking about pardon for Maxwell “in year one of his presidency, not the end of his presidency, which is what you typically see.”
“Look, I thought it was controversial with President Biden, too. It was controversial with everyone that Obama or Clinton or Bush did. So to me, it’s just this weird kind of literally get out of jail free card that I just think muddies the waters,” she mentioned.
“When you have a president who has a deep, deep problem with corruption, it just can be taken to such a dangerous degree that he’s letting out pedophiles and criminals, violent people because he’s paying back favors to others. I just can’t support that,” she continued.
The Michigan senator, who delivered what she known as her “economic war plan for America” and argued in opposition to the huge home coverage invoice that Trump signed into legislation July 4, addressed one other situation that looms giant for lawmakers once they return to DC in a matter of weeks: authorities funding.
As Democrats weigh the right way to strategy negotiations with Republicans to maintain the federal government funded previous the September 30 deadline, Slotkin, who didn’t vote for the GOP-led invoice to avert a shutdown earlier this 12 months, mentioned she wouldn’t be open to any proposal and not using a dedication by Republicans to revive a few of the well being care-related funding they’ve voted to slash.
“For me, for my vote, for my willingness to join in that negotiation, you’re going to have to restore something of Americans’ health care in order to get me back on that team,” she mentioned.
In Washington state, Democratic Rep. Adam Smith’s town hall was abruptly canceled Monday night amid protests, with native police saying they arrested three folks and charged them with trespassing.
Before Smith took the stage, TVW – Washington state’s public affairs community, which was broadcasting the town hall – introduced on its web site, “Town hall cancelled mid-meeting due to protests.”
“Today’s town hall was intentionally disrupted to attempt to silence a democratic conversation between a Representative and his constituents. This behavior is unacceptable,” Smith later posted on social media. “One of my staff members was physically assaulted during the chaos – an act that crosses every line of civil discourse.”
A Renton Police Department spokesperson mentioned three protesters had been arrested and charged with trespassing on the Renton Technical College in Renton, Washington, the place the assembly was being held.
The police spokesperson, Meeghan Black, mentioned she was not conscious of any assault on a member of the congressman’s workers and nobody was charged with assault.
Black informed NCS that 9 protestors initially entered the venue and began loudly protesting, three of whom walked on stage and had been subsequently arrested.
This story has been up to date with extra developments.