House Republicans are being encouraged to stop holding in-person town halls as protests continue to erupt across the country over federal worker layoffs, possible Medicaid cuts, and President Donald Trump‘s executive orders.
During the GOP’s weekly conference, National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC) told members that they should cease holding in-person town halls because they should no longer give activists and Democratic operatives a platform, multiple sources in the room confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Republicans have said Democrats are paying protesters and organizing attendance at Republican town halls to blast GOP lawmakers on a series of matters, with Hudson noting in the press conference that this is similar to protests eight years ago during the first Trump administration.
“Same critics, with a lot of the same clowns,” said one seasoned GOP lawmaker, who switched to tele-halls during Trump’s first term.
Indivisible, the anti-Trump resistance group, orchestrated several demonstrations at Republican town halls. The group said in a memo to congressional offices that it would organize “empty chair town halls” for every member of Congress who does not schedule one during the March recess period.
A source familiar with Hudson’s thinking told the Washington Examiner that the NRCC chairman is not discouraging members from ceasing all town halls, just in-person ones. Instead, the chairman pushed for tele-halls and Facebook live events.
Trump accused Democrats of paying professional “troublemakers” to attend the town halls held by many House Republicans, as a slew of them have been booed and chastised by attendees upset with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and budget reconciliation talks.
Democrats have pushed the narrative that under the GOP’s reconciliation, which allows them to bypass Senate procedures and quickly enact legislation, millions of Americans could suffer cuts to Medicaid. Some Republicans also expressed concerns that the $880 billion in projected Energy and Commerce Committee cuts would run right through Medicaid, but GOP leadership has pointed to the lack of the word “Medicaid” in the budget resolutions and brushed off worries as Democratic “hysteria.”
Hudson’s remarks are already gaining severe backlash from Democrats, who have called the decision cowardly.
“If you’re going to have the audacity to raise prices and rip away health care from millions of Americans, you should at least have the courage to face your constituents,” House Majority PAC national press secretary Katarina Flicker said in a statement. “House Republicans are cowards.”
“So House Republicans’ political strategy is ‘see no families nor workers,’ ‘hear no protesters,’ ‘speak to no one’ and hope everyone gets less angry at them when they rip away Americans’ health care? Got it,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton said in a statement.
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Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who is speculated to be considering a possible run for president in 2028, called Hudson’s suggestion a “shame” and said he’d host an event to help flip a GOP seat.
“If your Republican representative won’t meet with you because their agenda is so unpopular, maybe a Democrat will,” Walz said in a post to X. “Hell, maybe I will. If your congressman refuses to meet, I’ll come host an event in their district to help local Democrats beat ’em.”