House Speaker Mike Johnson baselessly claimed that the angry constituents raging at GOP lawmakers in town halls over DOGE’s drastic cuts and layoffs were “paid protesters,” only to backtrack when CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins pressed him for evidence.
With “first buddy” Elon Musk overseeing the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle federal agencies and fire thousands of government workers, House Republicans have been getting an earful from hometown voters. While some constituents have complained about Musk and his “chainsaw” approach to “government efficiency” or Trump’s radical attempts to seize more power from Congress, others have expressed anxiety over potential spending cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.
With the town hall confrontations going viral and creating a rash of negative headlines for the GOP, party leaders have since urged lawmakers to just skip the meetings altogether. “Obviously we’re very aware of those headlines,” a Republican National Committee official told NBC News.
Meanwhile, amid the growing blowback from their constituents, the House narrowly passed a budget resolution this week along party lines that would slash $2 trillion in spending but still add to the national debt due to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The resolution calls for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to come up with $880 billion in savings, which has raised alarm bells that Republicans will take a carving knife to the social safety net.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was pressed by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on his claim that “paid protesters” are disrupting GOP town halls (CNN)
“The House Republican budget resolution will set in motion the largest Medicaid cut in American history,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said after this week’s vote.
Appearing on CNN’s The Source on Wednesday night, Johnson was pressed about his budget’s potential cuts to Medicaid — which provides health care coverage to low-income Americans — and the backlash Republicans were receiving back home over these concerns.
“As you know, in your home state of Louisiana, about 80 percent of the Medicaid spending there is covered by the federal government,” Collins noted. “And we‘ve seen the blowback that some Republicans in your caucus are getting when they go back home to their districts, worried about these cuts or worried about what DOGE is doing. Do you have concerns that that‘s anything that Democrats will be able to use to run against those Republicans?”
Not only was Johnson unconcerned, but he claimed that the town hall confrontations were essentially fake.
“No, no, I don’t because the videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places. These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats,” the speaker declared.
“You can’t argue they were all paid protestors, though, Mr. Speaker,” the CNN anchor interjected.
“Many of them were,” Johnson demurred, only to add: “I don’t know.”
Collins, meanwhile, pointed out that one House Republican had acknowledged that the angry town hall attendees “were his constituents,” prompting Johnson to dismiss the claim as irrelevant.
“Uh, one Republican acknowledged they were constituents. That’s fantastic,” he snarked. “Ok, but they had Democrats come and fill the seats early, all right?”
Johnson continued: “This is an old playbook that they pulled out and ran, and it made it look like that what is happening in Washington is unpopular. But I’m gonna tell you, Kaitlan, the American people are behind what’s happening.”
The Source host concluded by reminding her guests that just because someone is a Democrat doesn’t mean they are a “paid protester” and that Democrats are also voters who have a right to attend their representative’s town hall meeting.
“Those lawmakers do also represent Democrats,” she flatly stated. “That doesn’t mean they were paid to show up if they’re upset about this.”
