In Oregon’s 2nd district Rep. Cliff Bentz (R) got a rude awakening in four town halls he held in the district this past week. At one point in his town hall in La Grande he chided the audience, saying a lot of representatives had refused to even hold town halls. So they should be grateful he decided to show up.
Note that this is an R+15 district, basically the eastern two-thirds of the state.
From the La Grande Observer …
Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz tried to make it through his usual routine Wednesday, Feb. 19, at his town hall in La Grande. But the crowd was not having it.
Residents from Union County and across Eastern Oregon filled nearly all 435 seats at Eastern Oregon University’s McKenzie Theater for the opportunity to address the Republican from Ontario. Even more people packed themselves into the side aisles and stood right outside the theater doors to listen in.
A vocal majority of the audience expressed frustration and anger with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, the firing of thousands of federal workers and the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
And then this …
[M]embers of the crowd started booing and jeering the congressman. People shouted “Move on,” “We can read” in reference to the slides projected with the information, and told the congressman to get to the Q&A section.
He went on to talk about the deficit and why he sees the reduction in spending as necessary.
The crowd again started shouting “tax Elon,” “tax the wealthy,” “tax the rich” and “tax the billionaires.”
This was all at the La Grande meeting on Wednesday the 19th. The one the next night at the Pendleton Convention Center sounds like it was even wilder.
Bentz was heckled, argued with constituents and at one point told a recently fired forest management worker that she was welcome to join a class action lawsuit.
Fired Forest Service employee Bailey Langley told Bentz …
This was a blanket butchering of employees who will one day carry on and sustain the agencies. Instead of contributing to our communities in a productive manner, I am now being forced to file for unemployment and other government services … Especially in our rural communities this is your opportunity as a public servant to stand up for American values, to not follow a king, but serve the people.
Bentz suggested resorted to some cope after the 90 minute session ended, according to the write-up: “Bentz said after the town hall that people are frustrated. He said he believes many attendees work for the federal government — or did, until the recent layoffs — so he isn’t sure how representative the attendees are of the broader public’s feeling about the reduction in federal workforce.”
To his credit, Bentz held four town halls during the break. Here’s a write-up of the one he held in Baker City, in a county that went 73% for Trump. It seems to have gone about as well as the other two.
Today he went on CNN saying he was willing to offer up some of his own staff on the DOGE altar.
Source link