Police tase hecklers at Marjorie Taylor Greene town hall, drawing cheers from crowd
Republican US congresswoman gives full-throated defense of Trump’s 2nd administration, doesn’t take any direct questions; in Iowa, constituents rage at GOP Senator Chuck Grassley
Police outside Atlanta, Georgia used stun guns against two protesters, when they each separately disrupted a town hall by Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, in which she took no direct questions from the audience.
The forcible removal of the protesters on Tuesday, who were both arrested, was just one incident amid a wave of raucous meetings between Trump allies and their constituents as anger mounts over White House policies on immigration, trade, and the US civil service.
The hecklers — identified by police as Andrew Russell Nelms and Johnny Keith Williams — each, at different points in the town hall, began jeering the congresswoman. Each man was grabbed by police officers and, when he did not immediately cooperate, struck with the stun guns, drawing applause from the town hall participants, as captured in videos widely shared on social media.
Acworth police said six people total were removed from the meeting, including a man who shouted “False!” when the conservative firebrand called Democrats “the party of violence.”
“This is a town hall. This is not a political rally. This is not a protest. If you stand up and want to protest, if you want to shout and chant, we will have you removed,” Greene said.
The US congresswoman praised law enforcement for their use of force, saying, “There was a place designated outside for the protesters, because we support their First Amendment rights,” and calling those who chose to heckle the meeting “out of line.”
Several hundred protesters picketed the event outside, according to The New York Times.
Greene took no direct questions from the audience throughout the town hall event. Instead, she read off pre-screened queries, including some that expressed concerns about possible adverse impacts from Trump’s tariffs and potential government funding cuts to Medicaid and Social Security.
“Well, Sara, unfortunately, you’re being brainwashed by the news that you’re watching,” the firebrand conservative replied to one questioner. “As far as Medicaid, Social Security, libraries and more, what we’re doing is, we’re removing waste, fraud and abuse.”
Greene, a leading advocate for people who were arrested during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, told her audience at the outset of the meeting that boisterous objections would not be tolerated.
Attendees were required to register for the event ahead of time and provide identification showing that they lived within Greene’s district.
Greene’s town hall ended soon after police escorted out a man shaking his fist in the air. “That’s an illegal alien!” the congresswoman exclaimed. Members of the audience chanted: “USA! USA! USA!”
Iowa senator’s constituents rage: ‘Do your job!’
Also Tuesday, an overflow crowd in Fort Madison, Iowa, confronted Senator Chuck Grassley with concerns about the impact of Trump’s tariffs on farmers, the potential effect of spending cuts on low-income Americans to pay for tax cuts and what some viewed as a need for Congress to check Trump’s disregard for federal courts.
“Why won’t you do your job, senator?” Grassley was asked by a man who complained that Trump’s deportation operation had sent people to prison overseas without due process.
Others alleged the Trump administration was defying court orders in refusing to work to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador mega-prison after admitting that the Maryland resident, who was living in the US illegally, had been deported to his native country in error, despite a judge ruling he could not be sent there as he sought asylum from persecution by local gangs.
Jeers ensued when Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Congress has no power to return Abrego Garcia and that El Salvador is not subject to the US Supreme Court.
Faced with questions about potential cuts to social safety-net programs, the 91-year-old Republican asked one audience member if she favored work requirements for a federal nutrition program that aids low-income families.
“No. That sounds like waste, fraud and abuse,” the woman replied, while another audience member suggested that administering work requirements could increase the cost of the program.
Grassley and Greene are among a relatively few Republican lawmakers to hold in-person town halls during their ongoing two-week spring recess, after several public meetings erupted into shouting matches earlier this year over the Trump agenda and efforts by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to fire federal workers and cut federal programs.
A similar wave of constituent anger erupted in former US president Barack Obama’s first term when conservative Tea Party activists disrupted public events, a signal of anger ahead of the 2010 midterm elections when the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives.
The Times of Israel Community.