Town halls: post-Trump, Utah Rep. Mia Love doesn’t seem to like them
She used the baseball shooting tragedy, constituent group suggests, to offer why she hasn’t held in-person town halls (she’s done zero since the Trump election). And even audio of two of her apparent three online functions haven’t been able to be played
James T. Hodgkinson unleashed 60 shots with a rifle this month at a GOP practice for the Congressional Baseball Game. Bullets found four individuals, as one, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), was hospitalized. This was the response from Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah):
“It is unbelievable that someone would open fire on the GOP baseball practice today. My prayers go out to Whip Steve Scalise, those who were shot and those who were injured. Some people wonder why I get so concerned when people are stalking my home and taking pictures of me and my children. Or why some members of Congress refuse to put themselves in harm’s way, allowing hundreds of people to yell at them with no real dialogue taking place. The hatred is so bad, it only takes one person to take a mother or father away from their children. As Americans, we can not accept this behavior. It is unacceptable.”
Love’s district is Utah Congressional District 4. Utah’s CD4 Coalition, after first condemning Hodgkinson’s actions, suggested that Love’s remark about people’s questions about members of Congress was her offering why she hasn’t held an in-person town hall since it asked for one 137 days ago as of June 28. (The date also marked 158 days since the presidential election of Donald Trump.) The constituent group also suggested that Love’s comment was directed at it and proposed a handful of reasons why she shouldn’t worry that the grassroots organization would act that way.
It added that Rep. Gabby Giffords said: “To the politicians who have abandoned their civic obligations, I say this: Have some courage. Face your constituents. Hold town halls.”
Giffords made the statement about the meetings, in-person in American history, on Feb. 23. That’s when a Republican lawmaker who has refused to hold a town hall invoked an assassination attempt that left Giffords, a centrist in Congress as a “blue dog,” with a severe brain injury. Six others were killed and 13 injured in Giffords’ meeting with constituents.
Love has also failed to hold an in-person town hall since the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump. And as of June 27, there had been five full weeks of consecutive days of recess since the Jan. 20 inaugurations, aside from several other days off, according to the House Majority calendar.
Love apparently held three “tele town halls,” on March 1, 18 and 23, according to her official website. But as of June 28, audio could be played for only one of them. (I’ve checked each audio four times since March 30.) And Love’s audible one, on the 1st, was announced just hours before it occurred and saw Love host it with Rep. John Ratcliffe, a bill co-sponsor from Texas.
(For comparison, audio of town halls by Rep. Chris Stewart and Sen. Mike Lee, fellow members of Utah’s all-Republican delegation, worked fine. Love’s also didn’t have video as Stewart’s and Lee’s did.)
Love won two relatively narrow elections to kick off her career in Congress, by 5.1 and 11.5 percent, according to Ballotpedia.
