Republican Congressman Won’t Hold Town Halls Because He’s Afraid Liberals Will Shoot Him

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) cited violent strains of leftists who may shoot him like Gabby Giffords if he holds town hall meetings, as a reason for avoiding face to face meetings with his constituents.

In a letter to constituents, Rep. Gohmert wrote/, “Unfortunately, at this time there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety. Threats are nothing new to me and I have gotten my share as a felony judge. However, the House Sergeant at Arms advised us after former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot at a public appearance, that civilian attendees at Congressional public events stand the most chance of being harmed or killed—just as happened there. One Congressional friend had one of his district staff members knocked unconscious and hospitalized this past week after being overrun by a group intent on physical confrontation and disruption.”

The congressman from Texas went on to praise the virtues of holding a telephone town hall where he could control who called in and who gets to talk, “The telephone company assures us that all of the people participating on our telephone town halls live right here in east Texas and I will have likely have had over one hundred thousand people in our district participate by the time I finish this new round. Then, when the threat of violence at town hall meetings recedes, we can go back to having the civil town hall meetings I’ve had in the past to supplement the masses reached in our telephone town halls.”

Gohmert provided no evidence of current threats because no one is threatening him.

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What Gohmert is doing is trying to avoid having to deal with constituents who are going to lose their health care after Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act.

There are a lot of different excuses that Republicans are using to avoid town halls, but to hide behind the shooting of Gabby Giffords to avoid constituents is a new low. Liberals aren’t a violent to threat to America, but one has to give credit to Rep. Gohmert for knowing who his base is, and understanding that fear is always popular among endlessly paranoid red state Republicans.

Louie Gohmert demonstrates that there is no excuse that Republicans won’t use to avoid being held accountable for their unpopular policies.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association