Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Friday said a group of people booing him at a town hall meeting last week was "more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate" than a reflection of the feelings of his constituents, the Deseret News reports.
"You could see it online a couple days before, a concerted effort in part to just cause chaos," Chaffetz said Friday. "Democrats are in disbelief that they have nothing but flailing and screaming to deal with this."
The Utah Republican held a town hall meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, last Thursday where he was heckled and booed by the crowd after he said the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would not be pursuing any conflict issues concerning President Donald Trump. About 1,000 were in attendance.
"You’re not going to like this part: the president, under the law, is exempt from conflict of interest laws," Chaffetz, the chairman of the committee, told the crowd.
He said the committee would not investigate conflict issues "until there's evidence he's somehow used that to ingratiate his family.”
Rep. Marie Poulson, a Democrat, said she believed most of the attendees were Chaffetz's constituents.
"I've heard some of my colleagues (at the Utah Legislature) say here today that they had shipped in liberals to give him a bad time," Poulson told the Deseret News. "I serve that area and I listen to their frustrations."
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