It did not go well at all:
During a raucous town hall meeting in Reno, Nevada, Monday, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) appeared to bow to pressure from angry constituents voicing their disapproval over his record supporting legislation that has targeted Planned Parenthood.
"I have no problems with federal funding for Planned Parenthood," Heller said at a joint event with Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), adding that he would protect the women's health organization.
But when pressed if he would commit to actively protect funding for the health care provider, the Nevada senator hesitated, asking, "At the federal level?" Heller then retreated, assuring voters he would "continue to look at this issue" and the question of whether federal funds should be allowed to cover all of Planned Parenthood's "activities."
Heller stopped short of mentioning the word abortion.
Attendees also slammed Heller for his vote last month in favor of allowing states to withhold public Title X funds from health care groups that also perform abortions, even though no taxpayer money can be used to fund abortions. (President Donald Trump quietly signed the legislation in a private ceremony on Thursday, officially reversing the Obama rule to protect federal family planning funds.) In January, a spokesman for the senator said that Heller did not support any federal funding for the organization.
And when it came to his support for Trump, he also got an earful:
While answering questions, Heller put some distance between himself and Trump’s administration.
“When I think Trump is right I’ll support him,” Heller said. “When I don’t, I won’t and I will certainly try to change his mind.”
Nevertheless, one attendee called Heller a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s policy positions.
Another audience member told Heller, to applause: “Grow up, open your mouth and talk.”
After the Town Hall, Heller tried to make himself look like Trump’s biggest opponent:
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., vowed to work against any proposal from the Trump administration that would hurt Nevada.
Speaking to the Nevada Legislature Monday evening, Heller said he would support President Donald Trump’s administration when he agrees, and “try to change their minds” on other topics.
The senator pointed to the Yucca Mountain project, which Trump is trying to revive by calling for $120 million in his proposed budget to restart the project as a nuclear waste dumping site. Heller called that a “reckless proposal.”
“Yucca Mountain is dead,” Heller said. “I’m standing between this administration and Yucca. And I will lead this fight.”
Heller went on to call the administration’s budget proposal “anti-Nevada.”
Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups used Heller’s address to the Legislature as another opportunity to criticize him for supporting Trump’s cabinet picks and to urge him to not vote for any bill that would defund Planned Parenthood.
State Senate Co-Majority Whip Pat Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, and Assembly Assistant Majority Floor Leader Nelson Araujo, D-Las Vegas, blasted Heller for voting to confirm Betsy DeVos as education secretary and Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Funny, he was singing a different tune a week ago:
GOP Sen. Dean Heller told a conservative group Wednesday that the Trump administration “is pretty incredible.”
During a meeting of the conservative and usually staid Keystone Corporation in Las Vegas, interrupted several times by protesters who had paid to be at the luncheon, Heller also talked about having to do a town hall next week because it is “one of those boxes you gotta check.”
Heller’s office instructed Keystone to bar the media. But a self-described progressive activist group recorded part of the event, which was provided to The Nevada Independent.
After remarking that the GOP is controlling all levers of DC power and complementing the “pretty incredible” administration, Heller acknowledged he “was not a big supporter” of Donald Trump during the campaign. But he said every one of Trump’s Cabinet nominees (he later boasted about supporting them all) “have come into my office and do you know what every one of these nominees is talking about? For the first time in 10 years, I’ve heard these two words….and that’s ‘economic growth.’”
Yes, this is a familiar, if risible, Heller talking point — that there was no economic growth in the last eight years.
It remains to be seen which Democrats will step up to the plate to take on Heller but it’s clear he’s a top target next year. Stay tuned.