'Where's my First Amendment rights?' Republican doesn't want unruly town halls

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Capitol Hill are laughing off — publicly, at least — the angry voters who keep storming their town hall meetings from coast to coast.

“I'm not worried about it,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Raw Story. “It helps that Democrats are showing their colors.”

While many Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to adapt to the anger they’re feeling from voters, Republicans are brushing aside the anger and barreling ahead as they work to enshrine President Donald Trump’s divisive, far-right MAGA agenda.

"I'm not dumb enough to take the bait"

While progressive organizers like the social welfare group Indivisible have revved up their members in recent weeks, Democrats are bracing for a backlash from their party’s base.

ALSO READ: 'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

“Clearly, Indivisible is doing some work, but clearly there's much more going on than that,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told Raw Story.

That’s in stark contrast to how their GOP counterparts are reacting.

“These are made-for-TV protests, I'm not dumb enough to take the bait,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who’s up for reelection next year, told Raw Story at the Capitol.

Today’s protestors may know how to make it on TV, but that doesn't mean they’re anger isn’t real.

From red North Carolina to Wyoming’s conservative ranges, protestors have come out in force at town hall meetings of late.

“It's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with the federal government. You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) told a large crowd, according to local WyoFile, at her town hall last week. “I’m sorry, you’re hysterical.”

Since that raucous affair, Hageman canceled in-person town hall meetings across the state, citing security concerns.

In Washington, Hageman’s been telling her GOP colleagues the frustrated voters were bussed in, but WyoFile — a local nonprofit newsroom — notes the congresswoman’s event was in one of the few blue areas in the sprawling western state.

“After the Laramie event, some conservative politicians and pundits, citing the raucous nature of the event in a conservative state, suggested that the protesters weren’t legitimate constituents,” WyoFile noted. “But Laramie, one of the few blue-leaning communities in deeply red Wyoming, has a history of civil disobedience for left-leaning causes.”

Still, the number two most powerful Senate Republican is also spreading unfounded claims of liberal activists being bussed in for the town hall.

“Sounds like a lot of it was brought in and intentional,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Wyoming’s senior Republican senator, told Raw Story. “The people I talk to in Wyoming are very, very happy with the direction the country's heading with President Trump.”

That’s now the GOP line.

“A lot of the protesters are paid activists,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) told Raw Story. “This is a redo of 2017. Been there, done that.”

In 2018, Democrats were swept back to power in the House of Representatives.

GOP leaders in the House have been coaching rank-and-file Republicans to avoid in-person town halls, and many Republicans are now laughing off the angry Americans who keep showing up and shouting lawmakers down.

“When you go to a town hall, where's my First Amendment rights?” Norman asked. “I don't mind adversaries, but you get in line and you ask a question — you don't shout 'em down.”

Norman says he knows what he signed up for in running for office, so he’s not worried by loud opponents. Rather, the conservative argues Republicans are being buoyed by the outbursts.

“They're demonstrating in front of my office now. They're fine,” Norman said. “I'm fine doing that, but when you start interrupting and their next step is stopping people from going in and stuff, I assume, but it helps us. People see it.”

“You think this is all the left?” Raw Story asked. “You don't think this is veterans, conservatives who are frustrated?”

“No. They’re paying them to come in. They come from other parts of the country,” Norman said. “They're organized. They got a website.”

It’s not just anti-Republican protests. Anger abounds.

“These are real people”

Even as they share much of the frustration they’re hearing yelled at them in their town halls, elected Democrats are feeling the heat.

Progressives have targeted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) since he helped pass a Republican government funding measure earlier this month. Even as hundreds of protesters picketed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) last month when he was in Oakland, California, for a Black History Month event.

While Democrats are trying to retool their message — or craft a new one — to meet protestors where they’re at, the GOP continues to shrug off critics of all stripes.

Sen. Booker of New Jersey said they do so at their own peril.

“Any casual observer can see that at town hall meetings, you're seeing people step up and say, ‘I'm a Republican,’ ‘I'm a veteran’ — these are real people being affected and hurt that are stepping forward and want to be heard,” Booker said.

House Republicans are now pushing cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax cuts, even as Musk and DOGE continue slashing tens of thousands of jobs at the Social Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Democrats like Booker said the eruptions of protests are because Americans dependent on those programs are feeling the firings of tens of thousands of people who distribute federal benefits.

“This is a very important moment where you're seeing a president who didn't win the majority of the votes — he won a plurality of the votes — that is now having people tell him that he does not have a mandate to cut Social Security, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, National Parks,” Booker told Raw Story. “The people that are stepping forward have important voices that we should be listening to.”

NOW READ: Dear GOP: America is not going to forget — and many Americans will never forgive