'It's like a trap': Republicans urge 'rookie' members to stop doing town halls

28 February

FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., February 7, 2025.

WASHINGTON — Senior Republicans in Congress have a surefire plan to avoid angry town halls: Stop doing them already.

That’s the message being conveyed on Capitol Hill this week after a handful of Republicans — in ruby-red districts from Georgia to Oregon — were booed, mocked and jeered at local town halls last week.

“No. This wouldn’t be a good time. We need to let some things calm down a little bit,” a veteran California Republican told Raw Story.

Publicly Republicans may deny the problem is the sweeping and unpopular cuts coming from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency — or DOGE — but privately many in the GOP admit Trump and Musk’s policies have spooked everyday Americans, including conservative voters.

Raw Story granted anonymity to three senior Republican members of Congress with a combined 60+ years in Washington so they could speak candidly about the internal GOP debate over how to handle pushback from voters.

While the White House claims everything’s going according to plan, Republicans on Capitol Hill paint a picture of a party that’s knowingly walking the proverbial plank.

‘Watch what you say. Watch your messaging’

Americans are worried, confused and angry, according to videos of town halls recently hosted by first-term Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), second-term Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO), and third-term Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) and Cliff Bentz (R-OR), to name a few.

And Veteran Republicans don't expect calm constituents in the near future.

“Do you think it's getting better?” Raw Story asked. “Or do you think it's just going to be a few months where if your party does town halls there's going to be anger and angst?”

“I wouldn't advise one for a couple of months,” the California Republican said. “I wouldn't recommend it for a little while, because, I mean, the end of the day — I actually like town halls; I like getting out there with folks, whatever the format — but it's got to have productivity too.”

In closed-door Republican conference meetings in the House this week, GOP leaders were careful not to coach their members to avoid voters altogether, but they encouraged members to be extremely careful.

“They just said, ‘watch what you say. Watch your messaging, including tearing down the institution,’” the California Republican said.

Elected Republicans are still behind this new White House, but they’re all but begging Trump and Musk to coordinate with Congress, instead of tweeting chaos on X that elected officials — namely themselves — then have to explain to their constituents in real-time.

“As long as our side doesn't blow it, you know, I mean, I like a lot of what's happening here, but you know, there could be a little more — what’s the right word? — just a little more discretion on how some of these things are coming down would be very helpful,” the Californian continued.

Even in conservative country voters are starting to freak out, and Republicans are feeling the blowback.

“A lot of those federal jobs are folks who do real things”

Musk, Trump and company continue to claim they’re targeting "waste, fraud and abuse," but Republicans in Congress disagree.

They complain the cuts are already hurting their constituents, from farmers to firefighters.

“It looks a little too meat-ax to an average Joe, including my constituents who are missing out on USDA stuff, Forest Service stuff and some of those people are out there doing the grunt work in the field in these rural areas,” the California Republican said. “When you lose the guys and gals that are doing that stuff, then you're kind of frozen.”

While Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) may claim federal workers don’t have “real jobs,” other Republicans are feeling the heat back home as Washington budget cuts hit their hometowns.

“When you start to go after the basic services and you start to go after the employment of real working people back home — because a lot of those federal jobs are folks who do real things — you're going to get pushback,” a Republican committee chair told Raw Story. “And we're in a time where the public doesn't hold anything back.”

It’s more than just the policy — or the lack thereof — coming out of Trump’s White House, senior Republicans are coaching newer members to lay low, in part, because they complain they can’t keep up with the Trump show.

“How the hell do you do town halls when you’re dealing with an administration you never know what's coming out of their mouth?” the chair vented.

It’s not just Musk and his chainsaw.

While Republicans on Capitol Hill are publicly singing Kumbaya, behind the scenes many bemoan the stark differences between the clean-cut political persona they’ve cultivated over the years and the liberal lifestyles of Musk and Trump.

“And to be called upon to rationalize what Elon does? A guy who is now a part of this family-friendly, Christian Republican Party — a guy who has 13 kids by how many different women?” the House committee chair told Raw Story. “Who's working for a guy who has how many kids by how many different women?”

“Rookie error”

The trick, according to another powerful Republican, is to just avoid town halls altogether.

“Rookie error,” a veteran Texas Republican told Raw Story after being asked about the rowdy town hall meetings members hosted last week. “I haven’t done a town hall in 15 years. The last time I did it I got sabotaged. It's like a trap. They just show up and they ambush it.”

That doesn't mean they avoid their voters altogether. They say tele-town halls are easier to manage, but only if they’re focused from the outset.

“What I started to do, I make it more, like, issue-focused,” the Republican congressman told Raw Story. “Rather than just a free-for-all ambush event, and it's more controlled because you never know who’s gonna walk in and just be a lunatic.”

As for the Trump White House, it may be choreographed but it’s never controlled, and that has Republicans already feeling their newfound power slipping away.

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