GOP Rep. Mike Lawler's Town Hall Devolves Into Chants Of 'Shame! Shame! Shame!'

Yahoo

05-05-2025

Frustrated voters turned out Sunday to voice their complaints against President Donald Trump's administration during Republican Congressman Mike Lawler's town hall meeting in his swing district just north of New York City.
At one point, as uniformed security carried the limp body of a middle-age woman out of the venue, the crowd turned to chanting, 'Shame! Shame! Shame!'
The woman dragged away was identified by The Journal News as Emily Feiner of Nyack, New York, whose Bluesky profile describes her as a Jewish retired social worker and mother of two.
'I was certainly no threat,' Feiner wrote on Bluesky. 'I asked my congressperson what his red line was to finally, vocally oppose the lawless administration and he didn't answer the question, so I called out for him to answer it and he had me removed. This is what the [U]SA has come to. The constitution is in shreds.'
Other attendees were removed as the event wore on.
The Journal News, a Gannett newspaper serving the Hudson River Valley, reported that the congressman covered his positions on topics ranging from Trump's war on immigration to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Around 600 people turned out for the event, the paper noted.
Republican representatives in other districts around the country have shied from such public interactions with constituents since Trump's second term began, wary of seeing voters' angry outbursts go viral.
Lawler, pitched as a moderate Republican, has been representing the suburban district along New York's Hudson River since 2023. He has other constituent events planned for the coming weeks.
🚨NY-17 social worker forcibly dragged out of Rep. Mike Lawler's town hall. Afterwards, Lawler told the crowd to "behave."Elected officials are supposed to listen to their constituents—not silence and remove them. This is not democracy. pic.twitter.com/dXYkoPivsX
— NY Working Families Party (@NYWFP) May 5, 2025
The congressman's staff had asked attendees who gathered in a local Catholic school auditorium on Sunday to refrain from shouting or standing and not record the event, according to The Associated Press.
But the event started going off the rails almost immediately, the AP said, when a comment from Lawler at the start — 'This is what democracy looks like' — sparked laughter.
Lawler reportedly drew jeers with a line defending Trump's health secretary, the conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Feiner's removal came as the congressman talked about Trump's tariffs and the trade war that threatens to plunge the U.S. economy into a recession.
Video from the event showed security personnel trying to convince her to leave on her own, but Feiner can be seen shaking her head and saying, 'I'm not leaving.'
'Let her stay! Let her stay!' the crowd chants at one point, before a pack of armed New York State Police troopers hoist Feiner by the arms and carry her down the aisle toward the exit. She does not resist or help them in any way.
'Everybody has been shouting!' one woman can be heard telling the security officials, in apparent response to their reason for ejecting Feiner.
The crowd loudly booed. Other video showed at least one man, wearing a red 'Make America Great Again' hat, calling for Feiner to be jailed.
A 74-year-old attendee, Jeanette Spoor, told the AP that she wanted to ask Lawler about Social Security and Medicaid but wasn't called on, even though the event lasted for nearly two hours.
'I have no hopes for this guy,' Spoor told the AP.
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