At Pittsboro town hall, US Rep. Valerie Foushee warns of 'constitutional crisis' facing America
North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (D-NC4) condemned the Trump administration at a Pittsboro town hall Tuesday evening for carrying out a 'campaign to undermine the very foundations of our democracy.'
Foushee was joined by fellow Democrats, Rep. Robert T. Reives II, the minority leader of the state House of Representatives, and Karen Howard, the chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, at a gathering that brought around 100 of their constituents to the historic Chatham County Courthouse for a little over an hour.
Unlike high profile town halls held by Republicans around the U.S., Foushee's event drew a largely friendly, if anxious, crowd. Questions focused on steps she and other Democrats were taking to resist the Trump administration's cuts to funding for education, scientific research, and social services.
Foushee spent most of the event taking aim at President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, condemning efforts to 'target our rights, gut governmental protections, defund public education, criminalize immigrants and asylum seekers, weaken worker protections, and slash social safety net programs.'
'What we are currently facing is truly unprecedented. The stakes are high, and the urgency is real. This is a moment where we all need to show up, speak out, and stand together,' Foushee said. 'The American people cannot afford this extreme agenda, and frankly, our democracy cannot afford this extreme agenda either. Our country is facing a constitutional crisis, one that demands urgent action.'
She added that she was particularly concerned by threats to the legitimacy of elections, telling the audience that 'nothing hurt more' in the first 100 days than the House passage of the SAVE Act — a measure to require proof of citizenship at polling places that voting rights advocacy groups warn could disenfranchise millions of legal voters. Foushee invoked the ongoing legal challenge by losing state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin as another attack on election integrity.
'We have to protect the right to vote because we know what is coming forward to some make sure that some folk are not given access to the ballot box,' Foushee said. 'We have to stand up against those types of legislation.'
Among the audience members who spoke was a teacher at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics who asked what he should tell the aspiring scientists in his classes amid the administration's broad cuts to research and education.
In response, Rep. Reives said these efforts are evidence that Republican officials and their donors are 'scared to death of an educated populace,' and that it's critical to stay focused on the importance of education amid attempts to distract from those issues in the coming years.
'There's one group of people in the entire country who are trying to stop everybody else from achieving an American dream, and that are the wealthy billionaires that have taken over your government,' Reives said. 'Somehow, they have convinced themselves that, God help us, if you get an education, if you're healthy and you get a chance to work, that somehow they're going to lose that billion dollars before they die.'
Howard, the county commission chair, said the most important thing attendees of the town hall could do is act as 'ambassadors' to their friends and neighbors so that they fully understand the consequences of the election. She invited the NCSSM teacher to bring her letters from his class about what education opportunities mean to them that she can deliver in an upcoming meeting with U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd.
'We need to broaden our tent, and we need to start reaching out to people that can hear us,' Howard said. 'Every single person in every single audience that you ever sit in has somebody that will listen to them, someone who believes them, someone who trusts them.'
Reives cited the ongoing tribulations surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as proof that just a few lawmakers willing to resist Trump could make a substantial difference, noting that Tillis cast the deciding vote that allowed him to be confirmed. 'Could you have gotten a better secretary?' he asked, drawing laughter from the town hall audience.
After the event, Durham resident Joe English said his respect for Reives was 'greatly improved' after hearing him speak so emphatically about democracy and the crises facing the U.S. 'To see the three of them interplay was phenomenal. This is what I needed,' English said.
He said while he would have liked to see more attendance, it was good to see Foushee holding an in-person discussion with constituents — adding that he was pleased when she did not attend Trump's inauguration as a show of defiance.
Gary Simpson and Connie McAdams, local activists and members of Pittsboro Presbyterian Church, said they had tried to meet with Tillis earlier in the day but could only speak to a staffer in his office. Though they didn't know about Foushee's town hall in advance, they were able to get in at the last minute.
'I just applaud Valerie Foushee for doing this and giving people a chance to interact with her, and I appreciate her listening and trying to answer those hard questions,' McAdams said. 'Everything is tough, and I appreciate her working as hard as she can in tough circumstances to make things better for all of us.'
Foushee's take-home message was that while she and other Democrats can vote against the Trump administration's agenda, it's up to engaged citizens to vote out officials supporting his initiatives and to convince the people in their lives to do the same — a call to action that drew applause throughout the historic courtroom.
'Don't be surprised when that person does exactly what he said he would do. Nothing should surprise you except how quickly he was able to do it,' Foushee said. 'What you can do is to change the faces of the folks in the spaces that determine the future of this generation and the next generation and generations to come.'
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