© Provided by The Hill, by Scott Wong and Cristina Marcos – House Republicans, on guard after passing an unpopular ObamaCare repeal bill, are seeing their town hall meetings go viral.
In Lewiston, Idaho, conservative Rep. Raul Labrador told a rowdy crowd that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care,” setting off a frenzy in the room and on social media. Fact-checker Politifact promptly ruled that Labrador’s statement was a “pants on fire” lie.
Vulnerable two-term Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) went viral even before setting foot in his town hall. At a Dubuque youth center, he ripped off his microphone and stormed out of a local TV interview after a reporter asked why he was pre-screening non-constituents from his town hall if he’s willing to take donations from those people.
“I’m done here. This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous,” Blum said as he stood up and walked out of the room as a half-dozen children from the center looked on. “He’s going to sit here and just badger me.”
Hours later, Blum appeared at his pre-screened town hall at a packed high school gym, and still was treated to loud boos, jeers and yelling – much of it aimed at his vote last week to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
Constituents attending Blum’s town hall were prescreened and prevented from carrying handheld signs. Local Democrats circumvented the restriction by handing out green and red sheets of paper people could hold up if they agreed or disagreed with Blum, according to The Washington Post.
Click here and continue reading. . .