Walz targets Bacon in Omaha stop of national town hall tour
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz listens to State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha speak during his town hall event at Metropolitan Community College in North Omaha. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Should the Omaha area replace Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon with a Democrat and help curb the worst impulses of the Trump administration?
You betcha, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said during the second stop of his national tour criticizing House Republicans for avoiding in-person town halls.
Walz, a Nebraska native, made Bacon a focus of his mid-morning Saturday speech at Metropolitan Community College's Fort Omaha campus to more than 400 people.
He said he was 'not here to personally attack the representative' or call him names. But he said Bacon needs to face his voters and their questions.
'Do the damn job and answer the questions,' Walz said.
The former running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Bacon for following national GOP advice and skipping an in-person town hall this year.
Bacon, who has hosted in-person and telephone town halls in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, is hosting a tele-town hall on March 25.
Bacon told the Examiner recently that he did not like the tone and tenor of recent town halls he had seen and that some people are afraid to attend.
'I've been at some of the in-person town halls,' Bacon said. 'When you got moms and dads saying we can't bring our kids to a town hall, there's a problem.'
He also spent at least two nights this week responding to critics on Elon Musk's X by saying he would be able to reach more voters on his tele-town hall.
Gov. Tim Walz says at Iowa town hall he is 'soul-searching' after 2024
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said Bacon is 'terrified,' one of the 'gutless Republicans who are afraid to see their voters.'
She told the standing-room crowd that Nebraska Democrats would create a book of comments from Saturday attendees and deliver it to Bacon.
'All they care about is that government is cut down to the bone,' Kleeb said of Republicans. 'Democrats believe government is here to serve the people.
Walz's tour is aimed at reviving Democratic voter engagement in competitive House districts served by Republicans not hosting in-person town halls.
He spoke to more than 1,000 people in Des Moines on Friday, where he acknowledged how many Democrats and nonpartisans feel lost under President Donald Trump.
Walz said he understood the feeling of wanting Democratic and independent and non-Trump Republican leaders to 'do something.'
He asked the standing room-only crowd to take the time to tell their elected leaders what they need to see them doing. He said Democrats would respond.
Several questioners asked Walz about how to fight feeling unsafe or threatened, from immigrants with legal status to workers worried about the ability to organize and to people with friends and relatives who are LGBTQ. Others expressed concerns about federal programs and grants becoming unpredictable.
'There's a tendency … to check out,' Walz said. 'You didn't do that … because you love the country, and you know you need to do something about it.'
Maurice Jones, a Democratic candidate for Omaha City Council in North Omaha's District 2, said Americans are learning with Trump's 'mass firings' that the federal government isn't going to protect them.
Both Democrats running for mayor, Jasmine Harris and John Ewing, also addressed the crowd, saying cities would need to lead the way back.
State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha said during the Walz appearance that state leaders need help from people to tell state and federal leaders things are not OK.
She said leaders need to know people are not happy with how things are going, including in Nebraska, where she said the governor does Trump's bidding.
'Our executive branch mirrors and does everything that the Trump administration says,' she said.
Walz credited western Nebraskans for showing up to Gov. Jim Pillen's town hall in Scottsbluff for pushing back on his effort to end the 'blue dot.'
Video of the appearance circulating online show that many in the crowd booed and said they don't want to switch to winner-take-all.
'Maybe don't ask a question if you don't know the answer,' Walz said.
Nebraska Democrats go on offense with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's townhall
Walz said he was proud of Harris winning the 2nd District's 'blue dot.' Nebraska awards some of its Electoral College votes by congressional district.
He said he pushes back on people who say he and Harris failed to win any swing states, because they won a stray electoral vote from Nebraska's 2nd District.
'We did not,' he said. 'We won Omaha. Not by luck. Not by chance. By organizing.'
Walz said people are paying attention to the chaos in Washington.
Veterans services workers being cut matter, he said. Federal grants for cancer research matter, he said. And access to reproductive care matters, too.
He said he believes Bacon, a retired Air Force brigadier general, cares about veterans. But his voting record and fealty to Trump show something else.
'I believe Representative Bacon,' Walz said. 'I'm not questioning his character. I'm questioning his judgment and decisions on the job.'
Bacon, in a statement during the Walz rally, called Walz the 'most liberal governor in America' and said he didn't watch or monitor his town hall.
He said recent House GOP town halls where representatives faced vocal opposition reflected political manufactured anger, not real.
And he criticized Walz for inaccurately describing his own service in the Nebraska and Minnesota National Guard. Bacon invited him to call the tele-town hall.
Said Bacon: 'Whether it's high taxes, broken borders, abortion … or biological men playing in female sports, Governor Walz is wrong on every major issue.'
Walz, during his speech, said GOP attacks on the handful of trans athletes participating nationally is an attack on every person's rights, and Democrats need to call out the people peddling it.
Then, he said, they need to get away from social issues and pivot back to the assaults Republicans are making on core governing.
Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, wrapping up the event, said the work did not stop because Harris and her husband lost. It got harder and needs more help, she said.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Reporter Gets Hit By Rubber Bullet At L.A. Protest, Sparking Shock Allegation
A journalist covering the protests in Los Angeles was blasted by a rubber bullet during her report, prompting allegations that she was purposely targeted by an LAPD officer. (Watch the video below.) As demonstrations against the Trump administration's ICE raids and deployment of the National Guard intensified, 9 News Australia reporter Lauren Tomasi said, 'This situation has now rapidly deteriorated. The LAPD moving in on horseback firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of L.A.' She is then hit by an apparent rubber bullet in the leg, screaming 'whaa!' as he jumps in pain. Video showed an officer taking aim in her direction, and Australian politicians alleged the attack was deliberate. 'The first thing he [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] must tell [President Donald Trump] is to stop shooting at our journalists,' Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said, per the Guardian. 'Freedom of the press is a fundamental pillar of a strong, functioning democracy.' Senator Matt Canavan told the outlet 'it looks like there was a targeting there' but didn't want to jump to conclusions. U.S. Correspondent Lauren Tomasi has been caught in the crossfire as the LAPD fired rubber bullets at protesters in the heart of Los Angeles. #9NewsLATEST: — 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 9, 2025 Reporting that Tomasi was indeed struck by a rubber bullet, News 9 said in a statement to the Daily Beast: 'Lauren and her camera operator are safe and will continue their essential work covering these events. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests, underscoring the importance of their role in providing vital information.' The LAPD told the Daily Beast it was not aware of the incident. The BBC reported that British photographer Nick Stern sustained a leg wound from a rubber bullet amid the protests. He required emergency surgery to remove the projectile. Protests Intensify In Los Angeles After Trump Deploys Hundreds Of National Guard Troops Republicans Offer Cowardly Lack Of Pushback To Hegseth Suggesting Marines Could Quell Protests National Guard Troops Ordered To Los Angeles By Trump Find Quiet Streets And Few Protests

Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: A timely courtroom rebuke for dirty campaigning
Unflattering attacks are common in politics — but a court just ruled that one campaign went too far. Cook County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle's 4th Ward Democratic Organization and Lamont Robinson's aldermanic campaign have been ordered to pay $1.475 million in punitive damages over a series of attack ads sent during Robinson's 2023 race against Ebony Lucas for the City Council. (In a statement, the 4th Ward Democratic Organization and the Lamont Robinson for Alderman Corp called the verdict an 'unprecedented misapplication of the law' and said they are confident it will be reversed on appeal.) Among other smears, the mailers labeled Lucas a 'bad landlord' who 'can't manage her own business' — a collection of accusations a jury deemed defamatory. The mailers also claimed Lucas 'doesn't care about doing the right thing,' a particularly broad and insulting claim. Preckwinkle previously defended the mailers, saying, 'They were carefully footnoted, so lots of luck to her.' In campaign mailers, the bold print does the damage — not the fine print. Any political operative knows that. Voters see the headlines, not the citations. We empathize with Lucas and all candidates who face baseless, harmful personal attacks as a consequence of running for office. As Lucas told the Tribune, she is a wife and mom of three. Her kids saw these mailers. Their friends and neighbors and teachers saw these mailers. Perhaps this can be a turning point, because our political culture certainly needs one. Political ads that spread hateful, demeaning rhetoric attack people's humanity and do nothing but fuel people's worst impulses when it comes to how they view anyone with whom they disagree. You can have a different point of view from someone on public policy and still treat them with respect. It's unfortunate we even need to point that out. Partisanship has become so toxic that people are cutting off family members, shunning neighbors, and labeling political opponents as either stupid or evil. We've seen that ugliness on the national level — and it's infecting local elections, too. We all felt it leading up to November 2024's presidential election. During that cycle, mailers for the Chicago school board races went negative, with candidates not backed by the Chicago Teachers Union hit with ads calling them 'right wing' and 'MAGA,' inaccurately tying many candidates to political beliefs and causes they in no way espouse. Board member Ellen Rosenfeld was one of the candidates who dealt with those ads. She's a Democrat and her husband is the 47th Ward Democratic committeeman. But this animosity and culture of distrust and disrespect lingered into 2025. We wrote about this phenomenon during endorsement season for local elections, as exemplified in a bitter mayoral race in Orland Park between two former neighbors. Because of the personal nature of local politics, it usually breeds a healthy dose of decorum and respect. Not so in this race, during which former Mayor Keith Pekau was attacked with ads calling him and his wife racist. 'Dirty politics makes bad policy,' Lucas wrote in a Facebook post after the ruling. 'When voters are inundated with false information about candidates, we lose out on electing the best and most qualified.' We agree. In addition to spreading falsehoods and increasing vitriol, hateful campaigning is one of the reasons people check out of politics altogether, a problem that weakens our political system. We hope the Lucas decision has a chilling effect on the kind of nasty, ad hominem attack ads that all too often end up in our mailboxes and on our TVs, finding their way into our kids' hands and ruining our enthusiasm for our representative democracy. Voters deserve campaigns that respect truth and dignity, not ones that poison the well of public trust. Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Defying debt warnings, Republicans push forward on Trump tax agenda
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are determined to enact his tax-cut agenda in a political push that has largely abandoned longtime party claims of fiscal discipline, by simply denying warnings that the measure will balloon the federal debt. The drive has drawn the ire of Elon Musk, a once-close Trump ally and the biggest donor to Republicans in the 2024 election, who gave a boost to a handful of party deficit hawks opposed to the bill by publicly denigrating it as a "disgusting abomination," opening a public feud with Trump. But top congressional Republicans remain determined to squeeze Trump's campaign promises through their narrow majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives by July 4, while shrugging off warnings from the official Congressional Budget Office and a host of outside economists and budget experts. "All the talk about how this bill is going to generate an increase in our deficit is absolutely wrong," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo told reporters after a meeting with Trump last week. Outside Washington, financial markets have raised red flags about the nation's rising debt, most notably when Moody's cut its pristine "Aaa" U.S. credit rating. The bill also aims to raise the government's self-imposed debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion, a step Congress must take by summer or risk a devastating default on $36.2 trillion in debt. "Debt and deficits don't seem to matter for the current Republican leadership, including the president of the United States," said Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Republican aide who worked on fiscal bills including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. The few remaining Senate Republican fiscal hawks could be enough to block the bill's passage in a chamber the party controls 53-47. But some have appeared to be warming to the legislation, saying the spending cuts they seek may need to wait for future bills. "We need a couple bites of the apple here," said Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a prominent fiscal hardliner. Republicans who pledged fiscal responsibility in the 1990s secured a few years of budget surpluses under Democratic former President Bill Clinton. Deficits returned after Republican President George W. Bush's tax cuts and the debt has pushed higher since under Democratic and Republican administrations. "Thirty years have shown that it's a lot easier to talk about these things when you're out of power than to actually do something about them when you're in," said Jonathan Burks, who was a top aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan when Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted into law in 2017. "Both parties have really pushed us in the wrong direction on the debt problem," he said. Burks and Hoagland are now on the staff of the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank. DEBT SET TO DOUBLE Crapo's denial of the cost of the Trump bill came hours after CBO reported that the legislation the House passed by a single vote last month would add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Interest costs would bring the full price tag to $3 trillion, it said. The cost will rise even higher - reaching $5 trillion over a decade - if Senate Republicans can persuade Trump to make the bill's temporary business tax breaks permanent, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The CRFB projects that if Senate Republicans get their way, Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act could drive the federal debt to $46.9 trillion in 2029, the end of Trump's term. That is more than double the $20.2 trillion debt level of Trump's first year at the White House in 2017. Majorities of Americans of both parties -- 72% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats -- said they were concerned about the growing government debt in a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month. Analysts say voters worry less about debt than about retaining benefits such as Medicaid healthcare coverage for working Americans, who helped elect Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress. "Their concern is inflation," Hoagland said. "Their concern is affordability of healthcare." The two problems are linked: As investors worry about the nation's growing debt burden, they demand higher returns on government bonds, which likely means households will pay more for their home mortgages, auto loans and credit card balances. Republican denial of the deficit forecasts rests largely on two arguments about the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that independent analysts say are misleading. One insists that CBO projections are not to be trusted because researchers predicted in 2018 that the TCJA would lose $1.8 trillion in revenue by 2024, while actual revenue for that year came in $1.5 trillion higher. "CBO scores, when we're dealing with taxes, have lost credibility," Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin told reporters last week. But independent analysts say the unexpected revenue gains resulted from a post-COVID inflation surge that pushed households into higher tax brackets and other factors unrelated to the tax legislation. Top Republicans also claim that extending the 2017 tax cuts and adding new breaks included in the House bill will stimulate economic growth, raising tax revenues and paying for the bill. Despite similar arguments in 2017, CBO estimates the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects. Economists say the impact of the current bill will be more muted, because most of the tax provisions extend current tax rates rather lowering rates. "We find the package as it currently exists does boost the economy, but relatively modestly ... it does not pay for itself," said William McBride, chief economist at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. The legislation has also raised concerns among budget experts about a potential debt spiral. Maurice Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the danger of fiscal crisis has been heightened by a potential rise in global interest rates. "This greatly increases the cost of having a high debt and of running high deficits and would accelerate the point at which we really got into trouble," said Obstfeld, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data