Rep. Tom Reed has been doing town hall meetings for his entire Congressional career and said Wednesday he plans to continue them, even though there have been ads popping up in his local newspapers in upstate New York seeking liberal protesters to come out to his next event.
"There has always been organized protest at times," said the New York Republican on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "I think this is just a higher level of that organization, and some of these folks are just very passionate on the hard left."
The ads are offering "political activist training," noted Fox correspondent Steve Doocy, and Reed said he hopes means it is "training to have a conversation," but it is more likely training to disrupt meetings like his.
"I trust the American people, and my hope is that disruption doesn't occur, and we get to real conversation when we do our town halls," Reed said.
The lawmaker said he is concerned about the disruption during the meeting disrupting people who want to be heard, and will affect his ability to listen.
"We represent 717,000 people," Reed said. "I know what I stand for and believe. I also want to listen. I care about these people individually and as a whole. We want to engage in the conversation, and you know they want to disrupt the town halls. It's an opportunity lost."
The disruptions occur because those on the left feel their agenda has been threatened with Trump's election.
"We did four town halls in the district and folks show up [who] didn't realize that President Trump had won," Reed said. "They expected Hillary Clinton in the office."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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