Republican members of Congress have been met with hordes of angry constituents as they host town halls across the country, and President Donald Trump is claiming that the “boos” are coming from paid actors.
“Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings,” Trump claimed on Truth Social. “It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!” Trump’s 2024 election wasn’t a landslide: He won only 49.78% of the popular vote and beat his opponent by roughly 2.2 million votes, the smallest margin of victory for any president since Richard Nixon’s 1968 election.
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Perhaps they didn’t read the resolution that they voted for?
Despite this, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) echoed Trump’s claim about hired actors on CNN last week, claiming the videos going viral on social media depicted “paid protestors.”
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“These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats,” he said, dismissing the interviewer, Kaitlan Collins, when she told him that one of the lawmakers acknowledged the anger came from his own constituents. “This is an old playbook that they pulled out and ran, and it made it look like that what is happening in Washington is unpopular. But I’m going to tell you, the American people are behind what’s happening.”
Johnson did, however, admit he didn’t actually know if what he was saying were true when Collins pressed him on the fact that surely not everyone was a paid protestor. “Many of them were,” he responded. “I don’t know.”
Collins pointed out to viewers, however, that even if the anger was coming from Democratic attendees, it doesn’t mean they were paid. “Those lawmakers do also represent Democrats,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they were paid to show up if they’re upset about this.”
According to Truth Out, GOP leaders have been encouraging Republicans to skip Town Hall events for a while to stop the viral videos. In one, a GOP congressman was met with a chorus of screams and boos from constituents after telling laid-off federal workers being fired by Elon Musk is part of God’s plan for them.
Similar videos from across the country show furious constituents of all parties tearing into Republicans for their support of Donald Trump’s actions.
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