At congressional town halls across the nation, Republicans have faced vitriol from their own voters regarding multibillionaire Elon Musk’s drastic cuts to the federal workforce and GOP support for a spending bill that includes severe cuts to Medicaid and nutrition programs.
The scenes—filled with raucous jeers and tangible anger—have unfolded in red states like Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, and now Nebraska.
According to The Associated Press, more than 200 people gathered in a high school auditorium Tuesday evening to confront Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska. It only took a few minutes for the gathering to turn into what many of his GOP colleagues have experienced: a lot of yelling and demands for answers.
Things worsened for Flood after he expressed support for Musk, who wields undue influence in the White House despite his numerous conflicts of interest. Through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, Musk is also responsible for gutting several crucial federal agencies and pushing for the firing of even more workers.
“Why is Elon Musk a better person to audit our government for waste, fraud, and abuse than the inspectors general that Donald Trump fired? Elon Musk has conflicts of interest out of the wazoo. He gets $40 billion a year in funding from the federal government. What makes you think that he has no conflict of interest?” one constituent challenged Flood. “Do you think [Musk] would cut that before he would cut our Medicare, or our Social Security, or our jobs?”
Flood offered a weak defense in response, which provoked a cacophony of boos.
“I support Elon Musk and DOGE,” he said.
According to Mediaite, another attendee confronted Flood about Musk—who, by the way, is not an elected official—and his vast power in the Trump administration.
“You talk about national security, yet you have done nothing to stop Elon Musk and his little band of tech geeks. This talk of ‘I support Trump, I support Elon Musk’—that’s not enough,” they said.
A third constituent, who identified herself as the “daughter” and “sister” of veterans—many of whom claim they’ve been personally affected by DOGE’s cuts—scolded Flood for the GOP’s reversal on Ukraine.
“First of all, I do wanna say: Shame! Shame for your comment … that you said ‘[Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s approach today was disrespectful to President Trump and undermines the goal of bringing peace.’ So shame on that,” she said as the crowd cheered in support.
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Woman to Rep. Mike Flood at his town hall: "Shame. I want to say shame for your comment that you said, 'President Zelenskyy's approach today was disrespectful to President Trump.' Shame on that."
Flood then gets booed when he claims "Zelenskyy should have signed that agreement."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-18T23:01:44.126Z
And at one point, Flood was drowned out by the crowd’s chants of “tax the rich.”
Republicans have faced such harsh backlash at town halls that congressional leadership and other top Republicans have advised them against holding them.
Flood, at least, bravely attended one and is reportedly planning a second town hall in Lincoln, Nebraska, this summer. But the same cannot be said for other GOP congressional cowards, like Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who declined an invitation to a town hall due to “threatening” attendees.
“I know that some of you in this room are angry, I know that some of you in this room are emotional. But I need an opportunity to tell you or give you an answer, and then you can ultimately decide if you’re pleased with that or not,” Flood said on Tuesday.
But Flood doesn’t gain any credit beyond that. After all, he’s a member of a party that has demonstrated its desire to cut domestic spending and increase prices for U.S. consumers.
As Republicans heed advice to skip town halls, Democrats have seized the opportunity.
Around the same time as Flood’s event on Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz hosted a town hall in a GOP-held House district in Wisconsin, which attracted a crowd of about 900 people. This meeting was part of Walz’s larger initiative to tour red districts across the country, including in Iowa and Nebraska.
It remains unclear whether the incident with Flood will lead more Republicans to evade town halls altogether.
But in any case, it is their duty to confront voters and answer for allowing an unelected billionaire to undermine the federal government. As GOP voters rightly point out, their actions directly harm the people who put them in office.
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