Donald Trump and maga Republicans hide from Town Halls because they are political cowards

Idaho lawmakers should hold ton halls❗ Here’s what we’d ask them | Opinion published in the Idaho Statesman newspaper:

Idaho’s congressional delegation, from left to right: Representtaive. Russ Fulcher, Representative. Mike Simpson, Senator Mike Crapo and Senator Jim Risch. All are members of the Republican Party. 

The U.S. House of Representatives is on summer vacation — sorry, “August recess” — having skipped town quickly to avoid a vote on whether to demand release of the so-called Epstein Files, which may show whether Donald Trump was somehow connected with Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors. Whatever the reason, Idaho’s U.S. Republican Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher should be back home in Idaho. The Senate is still in session.

What a wonderful opportunity to meet with constituents and hear their concerns. Wouldn’t it be great if lawmakers held town halls once again to meet face to face with Idahoans❓ 

By the way, we’re not talking about telephone town halls with screened phone calls and preapproved questions or private events with selected attendees. We’re talking about a town hall that’s open to anyone and everyone to ask questions or express their concerns about an issue.

Town halls with Washington politicians are becoming more and more rare. Senatir Mike Crapo last held an in-person town hall in Sandpoint in 2022, according to Boise State Public Radio. 

We could not find any recent evidence Senator Jim Risch held a public town hall, but he chastised a reporter in 2020, for daring to ask him a question at a public event. 

Congressman Simpson has not held an in-person town hall in over 13 years, according to the Idaho Democratic Party. 

Fulcher used to hold them all the time, with great success and attendance back when he was a state senator representing Meridian and Kuna. Fulcher last did an in-person town hall in 2024, at which protesters shouted him down, which the Statesman opinion editor condemned. 

Remember when then-U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador was roundly booed at a town hall in 2017, when he said “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care?”

Maybe that’s why Republican lawmakers don’t want to do town halls any more. It’s a shame.😔😒😞 

Among the issues and questions we’d like to see Idaho’s delegation address and answer: Why did you eliminate funding for public broadcasting❓ We would especially like to see lawmakers visit more rural areas of Idaho, where people are most at risk for losing services and explain how those cuts the Republicans 🐘voted for  are going to be good for them. 😳😔

Someone should ask them if they support cuts to the National Endowment to the Arts and the Humanities❓ If so, why❓ We’d like to see them go to Malad, Idaho and explain why organizers of the Malad Valley Welsh Festival might not be able to bring speakers in for next year’s event. Or Hagerman, Idaho about why a project documenting 435 local military service members shouldn’t get federal aid. Even though the Senate is still in session, we would still encourage our senators to meet with their constituents — all their constituents, not just the voters who support them — the next time they’re in town.

We’d love to see Risch answer the question: Do you agree with cutting funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development❓ You previously spoke highly of USAID and the importance of its work. What changed❓

We’d like to see an Idaho resident ask Crapo about the One Big Beautiful (aka "ugly"❗) Bill. Republican Senator Crapo touts what he says are the many positives of the bill: extension of tax cuts for the middle class, tax credits for nuclear and semiconductor manufacturing, no tax on tips and overtime for tipped/hourly workers, an increase in the child tax credit and standard deduction, money for farmers and small businesses, and a 💲50 billion fund for rural hospitals. 

But someone should ask him how all those goodies, increased spending and tax cuts will affect the budget deficit and national debt. Crapo likes to cherry-pick one “report” from the White House Council of Economic Advisers — a committee stuffed with Trump yes-men — that says the One Big Beautiful Bill will cut the deficit. Are you at all concerned that perhaps, maybe — just maybe — Trump ordered the Council of Yes-Men Economic Advisers to fudge their numbers to come up with the conclusion he wanted? Why ignore all the other myriad studies❓ Why ignore the Tax Foundation, the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Budget, which have all said the bill will add trillions to the debt❓ We would also urge all of Idaho’s lawmakers to hold town hall meetings in small rural towns and field questions from people currently on Medicaid and reassure them that somehow cutting 💲900 billion from Medicaid over the next 10 years won’t affect them. Simpson should explain, with a straight face to a group of farmers and ranchers in Aberdeen who probably are losing workers, his reasoning behind why he believes Melania Trump🤢 😕deserves to have an opera house  at the Kennedy Center named after her. Or did Trump ask him to do that as a favor? While he’s at it, perhaps Simpson, a trained dentist by trade, could explain his support for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who wants to ban fluoride from drinking water, calling it a “dangerous neurotoxin” that he thinks is linked to arthritis, thyroid problems, bone fractures and cancer and is related to IQ loss or reduced intelligence in children. Finally, since this was the whole reason House lawmakers fled D.C. early, they should answer the question, “If President Trump had ties to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking in minors, shouldn’t the public be made aware of that❓” Statesman editorials are the opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board.