Pour one out for the town hall, that venerated vehicle of retail politics in America. With Republicans loath to face angry voters, especially as they try to sell President Trump’s unpopular domestic policy law, many of them are simply choosing not to.
Representative Mike Flood of Nebraska got a reminder of why this week. He stood in front of more than 700 voters for over an hour on Monday and answered questions over a constant hum of jeers and chants. It was his third recent town hall, so he knew what he was in for.
But these kinds of exchanges can still produce damaging images and sound bites, even when lawmakers anticipate them and try to keep their cool. When Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia held a town hall in her district in April, protesters were subdued with stun guns. When an audience member in Iowa yelled that government cuts would endanger Americans, Senator Joni Ernst, growing frustrated, responded: “Well, we all are going to die.” (Raygun, a clothing store in Des Moines, began selling T-shirts with the gaffe hours later.) And when someone asked Flood on Monday why he voted for cuts to food assistance and health care research, his answer — “We do not have unlimited money in the United States” — drew boos.
The recent sessions have been especially difficult for Republican lawmakers because they are being asked to explain a vote for legislation that significantly cuts Medicaid, the health insurance system that working families and poor Americans increasingly rely on; food benefits; and other programs. Trump is providing them little air cover after demanding that they muscle his unpopular plans through Congress. He hasn’t toured the country to sell his own domestic agenda.
Member beware
Republican leaders understand the danger. They’ve advised members to write op-eds explaining their positions and find other ways to connect with voters that do not involve in-person town halls. One reason is that these sessions have brought forth a raft of aggrieved Democratic voters. If G.O.P. politicians must face their constituents, the National Republican Campaign Committee has counseled them to conduct telephone town halls so questions can be screened.
Many House Republicans have taken that advice. Of the 35 House Republicans who hold seats that Democrats are targeting in 2026, only one, Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, has held an in-person town hall this year. (He, too, was booed and jeered.)
The reception that Flood and other Republicans have received is a sign of their uphill battle ahead of next year’s midterm elections. There are no easy answers to the questions they are fielding. And it points to a potentially deep commitment among Democrats who want to vote out G.O.P. lawmakers who do not stand up to Trump.
The polarized mood is reminiscent of the one in 2009, when Republican voters angry over the Affordable Care Act flayed their Democratic lawmakers. In this case, it doesn’t help Republican officeholders that they feel the need to defend every one of Trump’s actions for fear of seeming disloyal. The president has threatened primary challenges to lawmakers who too often step out of line.
That means Republicans are scared to show any daylight between themselves and Trump. When an audience member asked Flood on Monday about Trump’s decision to fire the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he gave the president the benefit of the doubt. “There’s always two sides to every story,” Flood said. “If all the person did was get the data out there, I would not have fired them. But I don’t know; things are complicated.”
Flood told reporters afterward that being in the “town square” is a key part of the job, even if it’s unpleasant. And he’s not wrong: The format is centuries old. Lawmakers use it to hear what their constituents want and how passionate they are about those things — in a way that doesn’t translate in sterile polling data.
“If you feel strongly about what you’re doing in Congress,” Flood said after his raucous event, “then stand in the town square, tell them why you voted that way.”
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Thousands of Ukrainians are struggling with the trauma of severe facial injuries. The Times spent two years visiting those whose lives have been shattered.
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Wildfires
A single company, Perimeter Solutions, controls the entire U.S. supply of fire retardant, the reddish liquid that planes drop to slow the spread of wildfires. It has lobbied extensively to maintain that monopoly, a Times investigation found.
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Uber has tested tools to make rides safer, court records show. However, measures to prevent sexual assault have been set aside in favor of protecting the company’s business.
The gunman who killed four people in a Manhattan office building last week had a history of mental health problems, including at least one instance when the police had him committed.
REMEMBERING THE BOMB
Hiroshima is a handsome Japanese city of about 1.2 million, fanning around a bay of the Inland Sea. A long boulevard leads from the bay to Peace Memorial Park, a serene expanse built upon the ruins of a bustling commercial district. It was there that, 80 years ago today, a new kind of bomb detonated overhead. Jason Farago, a Times critic at large, writes about his recent visit to the city.
Even before I came to Hiroshima, I knew the park and its museum and memorials from films such as Alain Resnais’s “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and books like Kenzaburo Oe’s “Hiroshima Notes.” It wasn’t so long ago that musicians and writers and artists stood at the forefront of campaigns for nuclear disarmament. Hollywood movies like “Dr. Strangelove” and “WarGames” dramatized the folly of mutually assured destruction.
Today, though, we seem to be facing new nuclear perils with remarkably little outcry in our culture. The last remaining U.S.-Russian arms treaty expires in six months; China under Xi Jinping is nearly doubling its nuclear arsenal; politicians from countries such as South Korea and Turkey are voicing ambitions to join the nuclear club. Geopolitically, the bomb is back. Culturally, it remains a Cold War antique.
I visited Hiroshima to consider the duty of memory we owe to the past, and what we can learn from previous generations about our own atomic precariousness. I surveyed eight decades of Japanese and American artistic responses to Aug. 6, 1945 — and to the continued threat that nuclear weapons pose to our survival.
What Hiroshima convinced me of is this: As we blunder into a new nuclear age, we need our painters and poets, once again, to make the bomb imaginable.
Related: Eight decades on, Japan’s commitment to peace is wavering as a new generation confronts the nuclear powers around them.
OPINIONS
Nuclear deterrence is an intimidation strategy, not a defense strategy. Only the abolition of nuclear weapons will keep us safe, Terumi Tanaka, a survivor of the Nagasaki bombing, writes.
Here’s a column by Bret Stephens on Israel’s interest in aid for Gaza.
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Your pick: The most clicked article in The Morning yesterday offered an inside look at Jeffrey Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse. See the photos.
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“M” in real life: Stella Rimington battled a fiercely protective old boy’s network to become the first woman to lead MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence service. Her tenure as the country’s spymaster was widely seen as an inspiration for James Bond’s first female boss in the movie franchise. Rimington died at 90.
SPORTS
N.F.L.: Under a new deal, the league will get a 10 percent equity stake in ESPN. In exchange, ESPN gets rights to certain N.F.L. properties, including NFL Network and RedZone.
Soccer: L.A.F.C. finalized the transfer of Son Heung-min from Tottenham for an M.L.S.-record fee of around $26.5 million. The South Korean star will join Lionel Messi as one of the highest-profile players in the league.
DINING OUT, TESLA-STYLE
Stop by the Tesla Diner, a retro-futuristic eatery that opened in Los Angeles last month, and you’re certain to find people with strong opinions on Elon Musk — protesters denouncing him alongside superfans livestreaming their meals. In addition to the crowds, and the many electric cars parked outside, there’s food, including waffles embossed with Tesla’s lightning bolt logo and burgers in Cybertruck-shaped boxes.
The Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao was less than impressed, describing the venture as “a distraction for a brand in crisis.” Read about her visit to the diner.
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THE MORNING RECOMMENDS …
Roast artichoke hearts to put on top of lemony spaghetti.
Splurge on a slushy maker.
Recover from a workout with a massage gun.
GAMES
Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was bumpkin.
And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands.
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