This Jewish Republican Is Ducking Rowdy Town Hall Meetings
Image by wikimedia commons
By Nathan Guttman February 22, 2017
After hecklers shouted down Republicans in their home district town hall meetings this week, one New York representative says he’s found a way to avoid the embarrassment: don’t go. Instead, Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republicans in the House, says he is doing “tele-town hall” meetings by phone.
In an interview with CNN Zeldin said that congressional town hall meetings have turned into a “political theater” in which protesters “want to get their 19 seconds of fame” and behave in a “disrespectful” manner. He also complained that some participants show up at the town hall meetings “with no sense of decorum.”
Zeldin’s staff will control who is invited to participate.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
