President Trump and Speaker Johnson call town hall attendees “paid troublemakers” without evidence

Just a week after threatening to gut Medicaid, Rep. Buddy Carter’s NRCC bosses in Washington just gave him permission to hide from his constituents. The announcement to avoid town halls came after voters packed the house at fellow Georgia Republican Rich McCormick’s town hall demanding answers about mass layoffs at the CDC and cuts to essential services.

“Buddy Carter mindlessly does whatever his party leadership tells him to do, as evidenced by his vote to slash Medicare and Medicaid,” said DPG spokesperson Alex Yerkey. “We’re sure it’ll be a long time before Buddy Carter has the courage to show his face in any real public forum.” 

The NRCC prohibition on in-person town hall events comes in the wake of Rep. Rich McCormick’s February 20th town hall disaster in Roswell, where he faced a hostile reception from constituents upset about mass firings of federal workers and Republican plans to drastically cut programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Not content merely to ignore their constituents, national Republican leaders have taken the extra step of lying about them. President Trump and Speaker Johnson referred to constituents at these town halls as “paid troublemakers” and “paid protesters” respectively, despite not having a shred of evidence to support the claim.

It remains an open question whether Carter will follow the NRCC directive. In his response to a recent AJC survey of the state’s Congressional delegation, Carter was unspecific about his plans, saying he’d hold events “in a variety of formats and settings.”