Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego held a joint town hall in Arizona on Monday focusing on Republican cuts to Medicaid where several constituents demanded they get more aggressive in pushing back against President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
“It seems like we’re not willing to get in the mud with them. Maybe it’s time we start getting a little bit dirtier with our messaging,” one man who identified himself as Markos told the senators at the event, which was held at a community health center in Scottsdale.
Another constituent urged the senators to “stand up” for them by ousting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is facing intraparty backlash after he refused to block Republican legislation funding the government last week. Schumer postponed a planned book tour on Monday amid the outcry.
Neither Arizona senator addressed the topic, and Gallego steered the conversation back to fighting the GOP legislative agenda.
“We can do better, and we should do better. We owe it to every Arizonan,” Gallego told the audience before urging them to speak out and put pressure on Republican lawmakers instead.
“We are going to make the moves, but leaders need to have people that are there with them,” he added. “And you guys are the actual leaders. We’re here to facilitate. We’re going to continue to put pressure where we can on the people that are really going to have to end up making this decision.”
The senators spent the vast majority of the event talking up the threat of hundreds of billions of dollars in Republican cuts to Medicaid, which Republicans are expected to raid to help pay for a $5 trillion tax cut package. The program covers medical bills for more than 70 million Americans, pays for more than 40% of all births, and is the single-largest financier of nursing home care.
“Make no mistake, they’re coming after you,” Kelly warned at the town hall.
“All of this stuff you’re hearing every single day is so they can give a big giant tax cut to people who don’t need a tax cut,” he said of Trump and the Republicans. “We could raise the taxes of billionaires and they will still be billionaires. And that’s what we should be doing.”
Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego hold a town hall in Scottsdale, Arizona. Igor Bobic / HuffPost
A woman named Tiana told the senators she was concerned about health coverage for her special needs child, adding that merely the threat of cuts to Medicaid is already having a big impact on her family.
“We feel incredibly powerless trying to plan for our family, we can’t wait,” the woman said. “We need to know how to prepare [for] what may come down the hatch. Would you mind telling your colleagues in Washington they’re burning down the house while my kid is inside?”
Other attendees expressed dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party and its handling of the moment.
“I would ask the senators to be more straight with us,” a woman who identified herself as Jeffrey said at the event. “When you say we need to try to convince the GOP leaders… they’ve shown us over and over and over again [that] they don’t care if people die. They don’t care if people suffer. We want you to be straight with us. How do we go to the next level to fight this, if that’s the case?”
Kelly said it was important for people to make their voices heard, including by calling their members of Congress and showing up in Republican districts to protest Trump administration policies.
“They really matter,” Kelly said. “When the phone system shuts down in the U.S. Senate office buildings because so many people in the country are pissed off, everybody knows that.”
“Show up in front of their office, tell them how pissed off you are and how bad this is for our country,” he added.
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